The world’s indigenous peoples are making themselves heard in international arenas, and at the national level, where their growing mobilisation is translating into political muscle. But many challenges remain in the fight for recognition of all their rights.

BRAZIL: Landmark Ruling Confirms Indian Reservation
By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) – Chanting “Anna Pata, Ana Yan” (Our Land, Our Mother), members of indigenous organisations and activists celebrated a Brazilian Supreme Court ruling Thursday that confirmed the borders of a huge indigenous reservation in the Amazon jungle and set an important precedent for future land disputes.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46202

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RIGHTS-BURMA: Junta Lets UN Continue Helping Muslim Rohingyas
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK (IPS) – For now, the United Nations? refugee agency has been given breathing room to operate in a western corner of military-ruled Burma, where humanitarian programmes offer some comfort to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46203

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MEXICO: Indigenous Woman on the Offensive
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY (IPS) – Two years ago, Eufrosina Cruz was kept from running for mayor of her home village by the “traditions and customs” of her indigenous community in southern Mexico, just because she is a woman.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46355

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COLOMBIA: Growing International Support for Peace
By Mario Osava
BOGOTA (IPS) – The Nasa indigenous people who live in southwestern Colombia risked their very lives when they took it upon themselves to blow up munitions and weapons they discovered on their lands.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46257

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NICARAGUA: Caribbean Women Face Double Discrimination
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA (IPS) – The first criminal prosecution for racial discrimination in Nicaragua, in response to a complaint brought by a woman lawmaker in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), has focused attention on the segregationist treatment of indigenous and Afro-Caribbean women in the Caribbean coastal regions.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46211

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PARAGUAY: The Lot of Domestics – Unceasing Work that Goes Unnoticed
By Natalia Ruiz Díaz
ASUNCIÓN (IPS) – Olga is 39 and María is just 14, but both of them are looking for the same thing while they stay at a centre run by missionary sisters in the Paraguayan capital: a position as a live-in domestic.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46197

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ARGENTINA-BRAZIL: Planned Dam Above Famous Falls Draws Fire
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES (IPS) – While a dispute between Argentina and Uruguay over a pulp mill simmers on, a new environmental conflict over a border river is taking shape, this time involving a hydroelectric dam between Argentina and Brazil.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46326

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ENVIRONMENT: Can Ecotourism Be More Than an Illusion?
By Stephen Leahy*
QUEBEC CITY (Tierramérica) – More than ever before, global tourism must play its part in sustainable development and poverty alleviation, stated experts at an international symposium in this Canadian city.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46255

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DEVELOPMENT: Troubled Waters Hard to Bridge
By Hilmi Toros
ISTANBUL (IPS) – The fifth World Water Forum (WWF) held in Istanbul ended Sunday with wide- ranging differences among governments and groups with an interest in water.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46227

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ZIMBABWE: Researchers Developing New Ways to Purify Water
By Busani Bafana and Zahira Kharsany
BULAWAYO (IPS) – Scientists at Bulawayo’s National University of Science and Technology (NUST) have embarked on research to develop simple and affordable water purification methods, as more than a billion people live without safe drinking water in developing countries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46259

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MEXICO: Hints of Sustainability at Cancún Resorts
By Verónica Díaz Favela*
CANCÚN, Mexico (IPS/IFEJ) – Antonio Moreno is the banquet manager of a four star hotel in the south-eastern Mexican resort city of Cancún, but for more than a year his duties have included digging through the trash.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46318

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DON’T MISS IPS SPECIAL COVERAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.

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You’ll find more IPS indigenous news and links at: ipsnews.net/new_focus/indigenous_peoples/

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