Towards an Afro-descendant Peoples’ Declaration of Rights: An Exercise of Autonomy and Self-Determination

Written on 30 November 2023.

BY JHON ANTÓN SÁNCHEZ FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

Born in the heat of the conquest and the slave trade, Black communities in the Americas have developed their own cultural practices that differentiate them from the rest of the population. Their music, their religiosity and their joy are the most representative characteristics of 170 million people who make up a transnational native community. After the advances in national jurisprudence, it is now the turn of international law to recognize the advancement of the collective rights of Afro-descendant peoples. The Black peoples of the world demand a declaration of rights on the recognition, justice and ethno-development of our Afro-descendant peoples.

Continue Reading

Geographies of maroonage in the Americas

Written on 24 November 2023.

BY DAVI PEREIRA JUNIOR FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

The history of the Americas was forever shaped by the massive introduction of Africans as slaves, who were smuggled across the Atlantic trade routes. However, these ships brought more than “just black bodies" reduced to commodities. These bodies carried with them a rich ancestral heritage and diverse epistemologies that, when reinterpreted in the context of the diaspora, allowed Black people to establish communities and institutions based on their own territorial principles and specific ways of relating to nature.

Continue Reading

The emergence of Indigenous youth in the climate negotiations: from disappointment to climate leadership

Written on 27 November 2023.

During climate talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bonn (UNFCCC), Germany, in June 2023, IWGIA met and talked with seven Indigenous youth leaders from Latin America. These youth had travelled to Bonn to make their voices heard, promoting transformative change and supporting the historic and multiple causes for which their Indigenous Peoples are fighting.

Continue Reading

Atopo W+p+ village’s fight against a power plant in French Guiana

Written on 16 November 2023.

BY PIERRE AUZERAU Y MELISSA SJABERE FOR DEBATES INDÍGENAS

On the edge of French territory, in north-western Guiana, the Indigenous Kali’na village of Atopo W+p+ is resisting to safeguard its territory against a power plant. In violation of Indigenous rights, the French state ceded part of their lands to HDF Energy company and mobilised a large number of armed gendarmes to carry out the project. The Kali’nas warriors maintain a strong opposition and are urging for the plant to be relocated.

Continue Reading