Indigenous groups claimed a victory at the UN climate talks in Bonn as governments acknowledged for the first time that they can play a leadership role in protecting forests and keeping global temperatures within safe levels. But some critics point out that the adopted text stops short of actually acknowledging indigenous rights over land and territory.
Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido seems, unfortunately, poised to jump into the headlines as East Asia's next flashpoint for Great Power confrontation. When North Korea fired a missile over the island last month, it was during unprecedented joint US-Japan military exercises on Hokkaido. Now Russia is conducting its own exercises in the Kuril Islands immediately to the north—including territory that Japan has claimed since the end of World War II.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously in favor of the Inuit community of Clyde River, Nunavut, which has for the past three years fought to stop seismic testing in their Arctic waters. The Court found that the Inuit were not properly consulted on the oil exploration project off Baffin Island. The decision nullified a seismic testing permit issued by the National Energy Board.
UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz called for the US to adopt a legally consistent approach to indigenous land rights in pipeline projects.
On Indigenous People's Day, President Tsai Ing-wen issued a formal apology to Taiwan's aboriginal peoples for centuries of oppression, and outlined her policies on reconciliation.
Canada's Federal Court of Appeal overturned approval of Enbridge energy company's Northern Gateway pipeline that would link Alberta's oil sands to British Columbia's coast.
Colombia’s constitutional court overturned a 2012 government decree that allowed mining in nine areas of the country, together making up 20% of the national territory.
Peru's president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has unveiled a platform that calls for privatizing and "individualizing" communal lands to facilitate mineral and agribusiness development.
Thirteen Maya villagers are to stand trial in Belize over their expulsion of a settler they said had illegally encroached upon the grounds of an archeological site.
Kingi Taurua, a prominent elder of New Zealand's Maori people, sent a formal "notice of veto" of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the governments of signatory nations.
Nahua-Pipil indigenous communities in El Salvador gathered to recall the 1932 genocide that marked the start of generations of suppression of their language and culture.
Is the Paris climate agreement an historic step toward limiting global warming or a corporate scam based on technocratic pseudo-solutions?
