Indigenous Women: key actors in poverty and hunger eradication (UN CSW RESOLUTION E/CN.6/2012/L.6)

On 9 March 2012, the draft resolution entitled:  “Indigenous Women: key actors in poverty and hunger  eradication” (E/CN.6/2012/L.6) was adopted at the Commission on the Status of Women at its Fifty-sixth Session. To download the resolution, please click here.

Commission on the Status of Women

Fifty-sixth session

27 February-9 March 2012

Agenda item 3 (c)

 

Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”: gender mainstreaming, situations and programmatic matters

Australia,* Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of),* Ecuador,* El Salvador, Guatemala,* Mexico* and Nicaragua: draft resolution

 

Indigenous women: key actors in poverty and hunger eradication

BANGLADESH: Open-pit coal mine project in Bangladesh threatens human rights – UN experts

Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

28 February 2012 –

The construction of an open-pit coal mine in Bangladeshcould displace hundreds of thousands of people and jeopardize their access to basic needs, a group of United Nations independent human rights experts warned today.“The Government of Bangladesh must ensure that any policy concerning open-pit coal mining includes robust safeguards to protect human rights. In the interim, the Phulbari coal mine should not be allowed to proceed because of the massive disruptions it is expected to cause,” the experts said in a statement.The group noted that if opened, the proposed mine would immediately displace an estimated 50,000 to 130,000 people, with up to 220,000 potentially being affected over time as irrigation channels and wells dry up.In addition, the project would reportedly extract 572 million tons of coal over the next 36 years from a site covering nearly 6,000 hectares, and destroy some 12,000 hectares of productive agricultural land.

PHILIPPINES: ILO and Finnish embassy ink deal helping indigenous peoples

By Jovan Cerda (philstar.com) Updated February 29, 2012 02:12 PM

MANILA, Philippines – The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Embassy of Finland in Manila signed an agreement last Monday to increase support to indigenous peoples in the Philippines, a statement released Wednesday noted.

The deal between Finnish Ambassador Heikki Hannikainen and Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director of the ILO country office for the Philippines, aims at responding to the needs of the T’boli and Ubo tribes in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, ILO said.

Starting in 2000, ILO said the partnership built a community-based micro-enterprise in Palawan that processes wild honey, cashew nuts, rice and corn. Indigenous people involved in the enterprise also identified and implemented projects like water systems, agricultural development and food production.

“In Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, the T’boli tribe learned about their rights as indigenous peoples. Tribal houses were built to display and sell their products and to host traditional ceremonies, meetings and even as a place to settle conflicts and disputes,” ILO said.