Indigenous peoples face rise in rights abuses during pandemic, report finds
Patrick Greenfield
Indigenous communities in some of the world’s most forested tropical countries have faced a wave of human rights abuses during the Covid-19 pandemic as governments prioritise extractive industries in economic recovery plans, according to a new report.
New mines, infrastructure projects and agricultural plantations in Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Indonesia and Peru are driving land grabs and violence against indigenous peoples as governments seek to revive economies hit by the pandemic, research by the NGO Forest Peoples Programme has found.
Social and environmental protections for indigenous communities have been set aside in the five countries in favour of new projects, leading to a rise in violence and deforestation on and around indigenous lands, according to the report produced by the NGO, Yale Law School researchers and the School of Law at Middlesex University London.