Latest news with #U.N.DeclarationontheRightsofIndigenousPeoples
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Build, baby, build:' Canada's new prime minister wants to make the country into an ‘energy superpower'
Canada's newly elected prime minister wants to turn the country into an 'energy superpower,' while promising to respect Indigenous rights, prompting both cautious optimism and skepticism from Indigenous leaders and advocates in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney won Canada's election this week in what many observers are calling an embrace of Canadian nationalism and rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump. Carney is a former central banker who became prime minister in March after Justin Trudeau stepped down. He is largely expected to continue the policies adopted by his centrist Liberal predecessor, who supported aligning Canadian law with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the cornerstone of international rights for Indigenous peoples, but also faced criticism for his support for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline. Carney's Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre embraced a major expansion of domestic oil and gas development and voted against the 2021 bill to ensure Canadian laws are consistent with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 'I am very proud to say that I oppose this bill,' Poilievre said at the time. One study found that if Poilievre won, Canada's emissions would increase, whereas Carney's win means the country's emissions will continue to fall — albeit not low enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Indigenous Climate Action, an advocacy group for Indigenous peoples and climate justice in Canada, said in a statement that Carney was considered the 'lesser of two evils' compared to his Conservative opponent but that the organization is concerned that both Carney and Poilievre promised to speed up extractive energy projects in the name of Canadian sovereignty. 'So-called Canadian sovereignty shouldn't come at the expense of Indigenous sovereignty, nor should it be an excuse to violate our inherent rights,' the organization said. 'True climate justice can only be achieved when Indigenous Peoples are given the rightful power to determine the fate of our lands and territories.' Prior to his election, Carney had a track record of climate advocacy: In 2019, he became the United Nations' special envoy for climate action and finance, with the goal of drumming up private financing to help countries prevent the earth from warning more than 1.5 degrees. A decade ago, he said the 'vast majority of reserves are unburnable' if the world is to avoid the worst-case scenarios of climate change. Carney's rhetoric has since shifted. One of his first decisions after replacing Trudeau was to remove the federal carbon tax on fossil fuel usage that was widely criticized for increasing the cost of living, despite data indicating rebates reached more than 80 percent of Canadians. The issue had become a political liability for the Liberal party and scrapping the tax ahead of the election undercut what had become a rallying cry for his opponent. Carney has also promised to fast-track resource development projects to decrease Canada's reliance on energy imports. 'Build, baby, build,' Carney said in his victory speech this week, a play on Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' motto that refers to ramping up oil production. For Carney, 'build, baby, build' expresses his commitment to shoring up Canadian infrastructure, including building half a million affordable housing units and expanding domestic energy production. Read Next In Canada, Indigenous advocates argue that mining companies violate the rights of nature Taylar Dawn Stagner & Joseph Winters 'It's time to build new trade and energy corridors working in partnership with the provinces, territories, and Indigenous peoples,' he said in the same speech. 'It's time to build Canada into an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy.' Both Carney and Poilievre embraced constructing energy corridors, but it's not clear what pipelines or other projects would comprise the corridor Carney has championed. Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, an advocacy organization for Canada's First Nations, said she is optimistic Carney's administration will involve Indigenous communities with planning and decision-making as he pursues his aggressive energy development goal. 'They're going to have to make sure that they work with First Peoples on whose land Canada is made,' Nepinak said. 'First Nations aren't anti-development but they do want to do things in a balanced and sustainable way because we don't have another planet to send our children to. We always try to think to the generations ahead: Are we ruining what we have?' Carney's campaign has been full of promises to that effect. 'A Mark Carney-led government will: work in full partnership with First Nation, Inuit, and Métis to advance and realize the rights of Indigenous peoples through a distinctions-based approach,' according to his website. A Mark Carney-led government will 'support Indigenous-led processes for advancing self-determination,' it continued, and 'implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.' The website frequently described Indigenous peoples as partners and promised to expand funding and services for them. In March, Carney doubled federal infrastructure financing for Indigenous communities from $5 billion to $10 billion. Read Next Canada to phase out single-use plastic Joseph Winters Carney has also promised to support Indigenous-led conservation efforts, and 'enshrine First Nations' right to water into law.' He pledged to add at least 10 new national parks or marine conservation areas and 15 new urban parks, and make national park access free this summer. He's also promised to create new programs to support Arctic Indigenous guardianship over ecosystems and Indigenous climate adaptation. Carney's ability to enact his agenda might be hampered by the fact that, unlike with his predecessor Trudeau, the Liberal party did not win a majority of seats in Parliament this week, which will require the party to work with others to pass legislation. 'When the Liberals won a majority under Justin Trudeau in 2015, the government was able to implement major climate policy, like the carbon pollution pricing system and regulations restricting methane,' the Canadian nonprofit news site The Narwhal reported. Carney's climate goals include making Canada 'a world leader in carbon removal and sequestration,' and compared to Trudeau, his platform has been described as 'more carrot, less stick.' The newly-elected Carney is now facing pressure from energy developers to be friendlier to the oil and gas industry than Trudeau was, as well as calls from environmentalists to take a hard stance against burning more fossil fuels. 'We stopped a far-right government from taking power,' said Amara Possian, Canada team lead at 'But the real work lies ahead as we build a future where our climate is protected and our communities thrive.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline 'Build, baby, build:' Canada's new prime minister wants to make the country into an 'energy superpower' on May 2, 2025.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indigenous delegates at the UN raise alarm on voluntary isolated Indigenous peoples
This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance, which ICT is part of. Aimee GabayMongabay Indigenous delegates at the 24th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called attention to the threats faced by Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, or PIACI. Isolated peoples are affected by the exploitation of natural resources in their territories, drug trafficking, logging, and other illegal economies. Indigenous peoples and organizations at the forum urged states to adopt a territorial corridors initiative and to implement policies, standards and cross-border mechanisms to secure their territories and rights. There are 188 records of isolated Indigenous peoples in South America, however national governments officially recognize 60. At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues — the world's largest convening of Indigenous peoples — Indigenous leaders from South America are taking the chance to spotlight threats facing isolated peoples (also known as uncontacted people).Deforestation is closing in on some communities in the Amazon and many lack official recognition of records of their existence, say representatives at the 10-day gathering in the United Nations headquarters in New York City. They are holding multiple events in the city, including launching a book with strategies to recognize their presence and sharing solutions to protect the lands they depend on.'There needs to be greater respect, protection and land demarcation for these peoples,' said Bushe Matis, general coordinator of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA). 'It's important for us Indigenous peoples who came to New York to raise our voices for them.'The rights of isolated Indigenous peoples are guaranteed in international legislation and some national laws, such as the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO Convention 169). However, these are at times violated by states, companies, and invaders searching for land. In some cases, they are unprotected because states, including Venezuela and Paraguay, don't recognize peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, also known as PIACI, are threatened by the exploitation of natural resources, drug trafficking, illegal logging, and mining in their lands, say researchers. Contact with outsiders can be deadly because isolated peoples lack immunity to illnesses that are common outside. These threats can also lead to their displacement and the disappearance of the game they depend on to survive.'The issue is of utmost importance because these peoples are the ones who also help protect Indigenous territories with their ancestral knowledge,' said Eligio Dacosta, the president of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Amazonas (ORPIA) in Venezuela. 'These peoples have a higher level of spirituality than other Indigenous peoples normally have.'The main proposals Indigenous leaders and organizations have raised at the forum are the recognition of lands vital for isolated peoples and the implementation of protective measures, such as public policies to safeguard their of protectionJamer López, the president of ORAU, a regional organization part of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), said the primary concern of Indigenous leaders and organizations at the forum is to secure the territories their isolated brothers and sisters have ancestrally there has been past progress in Peru, he said the state, rather than guarantee the protection of these communities, has promoted policies of land possession, such as laws that obstruct and prevent the creation of Indigenous reserves for isolated peoples. The government is favoring the interests of big business which want to expand forestry concessions and oil fields in these areas to boost economic growth, López more than 20 years, Indigenous organizations in Peru have petitioned the government to create Yavarí Mirim, a one million-hectare (2.5 million-acre) Indigenous reserve on the Amazon border with Brazil and Colombia that would protect hundreds of isolated and initially contacted peoples in the region. But in February this year, the country's Multi-Sector Commission postponed a meeting to determine the reserve boundaries Ministry for Culture did not respond to our requests for comment by the time of Silva Cubeo, a delegate of the Amazon Regional Roundtable for the Amazonas department of Colombia, told Mongabay a 'very serious concern' in Colombia is that despite having a decree to protect isolated peoples (Decree 1232), to date, there has been little implementation and there is no public policy on the matter, such as a contingency plan in case of Colombia and many other countries in South America, many people in isolation are threatened by organized groups, such as illegal miners and drug traffickers, who encroach on their homes and cause violence and displacement. 'They are being besieged precisely by the chains of crime,' Lena Estrada Añokazi, Colombia's minister of environment and sustainable development, and the first Indigenous person to ever hold the position, said at the forum.'That's why it's urgent to continue to invest more in investigations to find out who these criminals are.'ProposalsAcross South America, states only recognize and guarantee the rights of peoples in isolation whose presence has been officially recorded. In Venezuela, for example, although NGOs have confirmed four records of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, the state has not recognized any of them.'[Venezuela] does not appear on the map of isolated peoples in Latin America,' said Dacosta. 'There are already mining hotspots in each [Indigenous territory] and mining is almost reaching these peoples who do not have this initial contact, who are in isolation.'Dacosta said people in isolation have already been affected in some regions as mining gradually pushes their displacement. At the forum, ORPIA raised the issue with the national government and called for constitutional reform in Venezuela to establish rights for peoples in isolation and initial contact. Currently, they are not included in its constitution, and the country has no established protocols to recognize them in laws and supreme Ministry for Indigenous Peoples did not respond to our requests for comment by the time of International Working Group for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (GTI-PIACI) launched a report at the forum that lays out a series of principles and guidelines to help governments, Indigenous organizations, and NGOs prove the existence of Indigenous peoples in to the report, there are 188 records of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation in South America but only 60 are officially recognized by the state. 'This means that, for the state, 128 records don't exist,' states the report, adding that this lack of recognition denies the rights of these communities. Of these records, Indigenous organizations recognize 31, but they are not included in the official lists. Delegates have also requested that states adopt a territorial corridors initiative, which aims to protect the PIACI and the well-being of neighbouring Indigenous peoples. They have called on governments to coordinate with the Indigenous organizations to implement policy actions, with a cross-border approach, to guarantee isolated peoples' rights and territories. Last month, Colombia created an over 1-million-hectare (2.7-million-acre) territory to protect the Yuri-Passé Indigenous peoples living in isolation between the Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers in the Amazon.'In order to protect them, we must protect the territories they inhabit,' Estrada said. 'We must also protect the Indigenous peoples surrounding the territories they inhabit. If we strengthen the governance of these Indigenous peoples whose territories surround the territories of isolated peoples, we will obviously protect them as well.'Julio Cusurichi, a Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous leader and President of the Native Federation of the River Madre de Dios and Tributaries (FENAMAD) in Peru, wrote over WhatsApp voice messages they want to see the implementation of a control and surveillance system in Peru to protect the PIACI which involves the participation of the communities surrounding these reserves.
