Ecuador approves controversial law on protected areas, sparking legal threats
The piece of legislation, passed on Thursday by a vote of 80-23 in the 151-seat chamber, permit private entities – including foreign companies – to participate in the management of conservation zones.
Government officials claim the measure will bolster oversight of protect lands, enhance park security, support ecotourism and curb illegal mining, while maintaining a ban on extractive activities.
However, critics warn the law could facilitate land grabs, weaken constitutional safeguards and lead to greater environmental degradation. They also accused lawmakers of pushing the bill through without consulting affected communities.
'This is constitutional vandalism,' said Oscar Soria, co-CEO of the international policy group The Common Initiative. 'Ecuador has shattered its international credibility and invited isolation from the global community.'
Opponents also say the law violates at least 15 international agreements – including the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.'The legislators of Ecuador reopened a historic wound,' said Justino Piaguaje, leader of the Siekopai peoples and head of the NASIEPAI Indigenous organization.Piaguaje slammed the law as 'dangerous and unconstitutional" and said it not only reinforces systemic violations of Indigenous rights but 'actively perpetuates a legacy of dispossession and violence that stretches back to the colonial era.'"It threatens our survival and desecrates the dignity of the Ecuadorian people,' he said.Valentina Centeno, president of the parliament's Economic Development Commission, insisted the law does not open the door to extractive industries and that here is a provision 'that explicitly prohibits' them.Still, Indigenous leaders say the process lacked transparency and bypassed meaningful dialogue with their communities. Legal challenges are already underway, with Indigenous organizations vowing to take the case to Ecuador's Constitutional Court and international forums. — Euronews
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Saudi Gazette
11-07-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Ecuador approves controversial law on protected areas, sparking legal threats
QUITO — Ecuador's government passed a new law governing protected areas, triggering strong criticism from indigenous leaders, legal experts and environmental advocates who argue it violates national and international protection. The piece of legislation, passed on Thursday by a vote of 80-23 in the 151-seat chamber, permit private entities – including foreign companies – to participate in the management of conservation zones. Government officials claim the measure will bolster oversight of protect lands, enhance park security, support ecotourism and curb illegal mining, while maintaining a ban on extractive activities. However, critics warn the law could facilitate land grabs, weaken constitutional safeguards and lead to greater environmental degradation. They also accused lawmakers of pushing the bill through without consulting affected communities. 'This is constitutional vandalism,' said Oscar Soria, co-CEO of the international policy group The Common Initiative. 'Ecuador has shattered its international credibility and invited isolation from the global community.' Opponents also say the law violates at least 15 international agreements – including the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.'The legislators of Ecuador reopened a historic wound,' said Justino Piaguaje, leader of the Siekopai peoples and head of the NASIEPAI Indigenous slammed the law as 'dangerous and unconstitutional" and said it not only reinforces systemic violations of Indigenous rights but 'actively perpetuates a legacy of dispossession and violence that stretches back to the colonial era.'"It threatens our survival and desecrates the dignity of the Ecuadorian people,' he Centeno, president of the parliament's Economic Development Commission, insisted the law does not open the door to extractive industries and that here is a provision 'that explicitly prohibits' Indigenous leaders say the process lacked transparency and bypassed meaningful dialogue with their communities. Legal challenges are already underway, with Indigenous organizations vowing to take the case to Ecuador's Constitutional Court and international forums. — Euronews
Saudi Gazette
02-07-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Inquiry finds British committed genocide on Indigenous Australians
SYDNEY — British colonists committed genocide against Australia's Indigenous population in Victoria, a landmark Aboriginal-led inquiry has found. The Yoorrook Justice Commission found violence and disease reduced the local Indigenous population by three quarters in the 20 years after the state was colonised, in the early 1830s. Its report included 100 recommendations to "redress" harm caused by "invasion and occupation" - though several of the authors disagreed with unspecified "key findings". The Commission was set up in 2021 as Australia's first formal "truth-telling" inquiry, and tasked with examining past and ongoing "systemic injustices" suffered by the Indigenous people in the state. It is part of a wider national push for Australia to engage in a reconciliation process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which community leaders say should include inquiries into the nation's history, treaty-making, and granting First Nations people greater political say. Held over four years, The Yoorrook Justice Commission gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to formally share their stories and experiences. The commission's brief covered a wide gamut of issues including land and water rights, cultural violations, killing and genocide, health, education and housing. The report found that from 1834, "mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal" as well as assimilation contributed to the "near-complete physical destruction" of Victoria's Indigenous community. The population dropped from 60,000 to 15,000 by 1851. "This was genocide," the report said. The report, which drew from more than two months of public hearings and over 1,300 submissions, called for "redress" to acknowledge a range of human rights violations, which could include reparations. Among it's other recommendations were a significant overhaul of the education system to include greater input from Indigenous people, and a government apology for Aboriginal soldiers who served during the world wars and were excluded from a scheme gifting diggers land when they returned from the battlefields. On the state's health system, the report found that racism was "endemic" and called for more funding for Indigenous health services and policies to get more Aboriginal staff in the system. Three of the five commissioners - Sue-Anne Hunter, Maggie Walter and Anthony North - "did not approve of the inclusion of the key findings in the final report", however no further detail was provided. In response to the report, Victoria's Labor government said it would "carefully consider" the findings, with Premier Jacinta Allan saying they "shine a light on hard truths". Jill Gallagher, head of Victoria's peak body for Aboriginal health and wellbeing, said the genocide finding was "indisputable". "We don't blame anyone alive today for these atrocities," she told the ABC, "but it is the responsibility of those of us alive today to accept that truth - and all Victorians today must accept, recognise and reconcile with these factual findings." The commission's report is the first of its kind in Australia, though similar inquiries are happening in other states and territories with varying degrees of progress, depending on which party is in government. For example, in Queensland, a truth-telling inquiry was cancelled after the Labor government was replaced by a new Liberal-National government. In recent years, the national dialogue on how to recognise the traditional owners of Australia at all levels of governments has prompted heated debate. Australians voted against a historic referendum in October 2023, rejecting a change to the constitution that would have created an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a national body for Indigenous people to give advice on laws. — BBC
Arab News
20-05-2025
- Arab News
New Zealand defers vote on rare suspension of Indigenous lawmakers
SYDNEY: The New Zealand government on Tuesday deferred a vote over the rare suspension of three Indigenous lawmakers from parliament for performing a haka, the Maori ceremonial dance, during the reading of a contentious bill last year.A parliamentary privileges committee last week recommended temporarily suspending three Te Pati Maori parliamentarians for acting in 'a manner that could have the effect of intimidating a member of the house.'The Te Pati Maori members performed the haka last November ahead of a vote on a controversial bill that would have reinterpreted a 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Maori that still guides policy and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi should be suspended for 21 days and representative Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke for seven days, the committee Bishop, the leader of the house, said delaying the vote would allow the suspended members to participate in the federal budget on Thursday. The vote will take place following the budget, he said.'Deferring consideration of the debate means all members will have the opportunity to debate and vote on the budget,' Bishop protesters gathered outside the parliament in Wellington for the vote over the suspensions, and New Zealand media reported they might perform a haka in support of the Maori Collins, who heads the privileges committee and serves as attorney-general, told parliament that the haka forced the speaker to suspend proceedings for 30 minutes and that no permission had been sought to perform it.'It's not about the haka ... it is about following the rules of parliament that we are all obliged to follow and that we all pledged to follow,' Collins lawmakers is rare in New Zealand's parliament, with the last occasion in 1987, according to media opposition Labour party called for a compromise and proposed censure instead of committee's proposal is 'totally out of line with existing parliamentary practice and is disproportionate to the allegations,' opposition leader Chris Hipkins said.'We have never seen a sanction of this nature in New Zealand's history before ... it is disproportionate. A sanction is appropriate, this level of sanction simply is not.'The haka was traditionally a way for Maori to welcome visiting tribes or to invigorate warriors ahead of battle. It is now performed at important events as well as ahead of matches by New Zealand's rugby teams.
