ISDS Case Map
indigenous peoples
On August 22nd, the Peruvian Congress repealed two legislative decrees at the root of the indigenous demonstrations that paralyzed various roads and energy installations from August 9th through 20th. The indigenous movement of the Amazon, home to 65 different indigenous nations, declared victory.
Indigenous groups in Peru ended more than a week of militant protests Aug. 20 at key energy sites after lawmakers agreed to overturn a new land law issued by President Alan García, which sought to ease corporate access to communal territories. García had issued the law by decree earlier under special powers Congress granted him to bring Peruvian law into compliance with a new free-trade deal with the US. A congressional commission voted to revoke the law Aug. 19, and floor vote is expected later this week.
Since Aug. 9, indigenous demonstrators have been demanding the repeal of two decree laws that promote private investment in their territory, and the reestablishment of a clause from the 1979 constitution -- which was replaced by the new constitution in 1993 -- which stated that communally owned land in indigenous territory could not be sold or embargoed. The decree laws were approved by the executive branch under special powers granted by the legislature for the implementation of the free trade agreement signed with the United States.
Chevron is being accused of promoting geopolitical blackmail in its efforts to stave off a lawsuit accusing it of contaminating the Ecuadorian rain forest. Nearly 30,000 Amazon residents are seeking $12 billion from Chevron for dumping billions of gallons of toxic oil waste. According to Newsweek, the oil giant is urging the Bush administration to yank special trade preferences for Ecuador if the country's government doesn't force the Amazon residents to drop the case.
This may include setting up a regional office to focus on issues of traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights.
New street protests were called for Thursday in some Amazon regions, in response to decrees issued by President Alan García, making it easier for private investors to enter the territories of native communities. The decrees were set in motion thanks to the powers granted by the legislative branch to the executive under the free trade agreement (FTA) signed with the United States. Political analysts say the government has exceeded its legal powers.
Many Canadians may never know the difficulties of people resisting the military imposition of an economic model that is ultimately intended for the entire planet, or for 'our Mother Earth' as the indigenous peoples in Cauca call it. Many Canadians may not know the extent to which they are kept in the dark through the entrenched telling and retelling of the "Canada the good" mythology. It's time to wake up, eh?
Ngai Tahu Seafood, the lucrative fisheries arm of one of the largest Maori tribes, says the Government's controversial free-trade pact with China is a good deal and will earn the iwi millions of dollars.
Hundreds of Costa Rican indigenous people began a protest against the Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States. They accused the FTA of imposing the use of patented seeds that prevent traditional crops and warned that the use of transgenic seeds from the United States would affect ancestral crops closely linked to the people's view of the world and spirituality.
Con un recurso de amparo ante la Sala Constitucional, los pueblos indígenas reclaman nuevamente su derecho a ser consultados debidamente sobre el Convenio de la Unión para la Protección de Obtenciones Vegetales (UPOV 91).
