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	Protect at least 80% of the Amazon forest for humanity's future by International Union for Conservation of Nature   Sep. 2021 (IUCN)   IUCN’s Indigenous Peoples Member Organisations today called for the recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights and governance over their lands and resources. The call is part of a global agenda of Indigenous priorities for conservation action that was presented during the IUCN World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature, held at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France.   “Our global goals to protect the earth and conserve biodiversity cannot succeed without the leadership, support and partnership of Indigenous Peoples,” said Dr Bruno Oberle, IUCN Director General.   “The landmark Global Indigenous Agenda presented today breaks ground on Indigenous self-determined nature conservation and natural resource governance. It was made possible by IUCN’s unique convening power as a union of Indigenous peoples, governments and civil society.”   The Global Indigenous Agenda for the Governance of Indigenous Lands, Territories, Waters, Coastal Seas and Natural Resources was developed by IUCN’s Indigenous Peoples Organisation Members spanning six continents and presented at the IUCN World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature – a first-ever event of its kind set within the context of the IUCN World Conservation Congress.   The Global Indigenous Agenda calls for the secure recognition and respect for collective indigenous rights and governance of lands, territories, waters, costal seas and natural resources.   It also calls upon the global community – from states to the private sector, NGO conservation community, conservation finance and academia – to engage in specific joint efforts to support the realisation of the Agenda, such as co-designing initiatives and collaborating on investment opportunities.   In total, the Global Indigenous Agenda lays out 10 high-level proposals and outcomes relating to five themes: Indigenous governance; biodiversity conservation; climate action; post-COVID 19 recovery efforts and food security; and global policy setting.   “Today, IUCN’s Indigenous Peoples Organization Members have taken an important step in developing a Global Indigenous Agenda,” says Ramiro Batzin, IUCN Councillor. “This Agenda becomes a strategic instrument that will allow Indigenous Peoples and international organisations, including IUCN, to direct their actions from the ground up to advance the rights, needs and realities of Indigenous Peoples.”   The Summit and Global Indigenous Agenda is a milestone on a five-year journey. In 2016, IUCN Members made the landmark decision to alter its membership structure for the first time in 60 years by creating an Indigenous Peoples Organisation category – making IUCN the first intergovernmental organisation to recognise and include Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations as a distinct membership constituency.   Indigenous leaders have also participated in IUCN’s governing Council, and IUCN works in conjunction with its Indigenous Members and partners to promote and establish Indigenous-led conservation programming.   “IUCN provides a unique opportunity for Indigenous Peoples. It is a space where we can engage and influence the global conservation agenda as we have a decision-making status that does not exist in other spaces,” says John Cheechoo, a representative from the Inuit Circumpolar Council.   This Congress also marks the first time in IUCN’s history where Indigenous Peoples Organisations have put forward or sponsored motions to help set IUCN’s international conservation agenda specifically as Indigenous Peoples’ Organisation Members.   In the coming years, IUCN expects the Global Indigenous Agenda to inform inclusive conservation initiatives, continue to contribute to advancing Indigenous Peoples rights and to grow and strengthen the platform of its Indigenous Membership.   * The Global Indigenous Agenda for the Governance of Indigenous Lands, Territories, Waters, Coastal Seas and Natural Resources can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/3Ai2mAj   http://www.iucncongress2020.org/newsroom/all-news/indigenous-peoples-launch-self-determined-agenda-iucn-world-conservation-congress http://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/09/03/conservation-summit-opens-amid-debate-role-indigenous-people/ http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Environment/SREnvironment/policy-briefing-1.pdf   Aug. 2021   Protect at least 80% of the Amazon forest for humanity's future - Indigenous Peoples from 9 Amazon Basin States. (Reuters)   Tribes from the Amazon have called for urgent action to protect the world's largest rainforest in a formal motion to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to be considered at its global congress in France next month.   The Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), an IUCN member, wants the forum to vote in favour of protecting 80% of the Amazon by 2025, to stem rising deforestation and help keep their lands and communities safe.   COICA General Coordinator Jose Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, who submitted the emergency motion to the IUCN, said the ability to participate "represents an important space for us".   "We need to be at the place where supposed solutions are being discussed to the planetary crisis," said Diaz, who will attend the Sept. congress in Marseille.   Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, urged IUCN members to pass COICA's motion "because of the grave environmental crisis the planet is in" and to discuss concrete plans to implement its recommendations.   The IUCN congress, is billed as the world's largest conservation event held every four years. At the gathering, more than 1,300 IUCN member groups from government, civil society and indigenous peoples will vote on a range of issues including how to tackle climate change, boost nature protection and promote a green COVID-19 recovery.   The aim is to inform policy makers and negotiators ahead of November's U.N. COP26 climate summit in Scotland.   Indigenous peoples from the Amazon Basin's nine countries often struggle to be heard on the global stage where decisions are taken that affect their lands and get little international funding, said Diaz.   "The call we will make is that finance should go to the indigenous people who conserve and protect the territory," he said.   The Amazon plays a vital role in regulating the Earth's climate by absorbing and storing planet-heating carbon dioxide.   Deforestation there is largely fuelled by illegal logging and gold mining, as well as soy and beef farming in Brazil, and forest clearance to plant coca crops in Colombia and Peru.   COICA's motion also calls on Amazon-nation governments to ban industrial activities - such as mining and oil extraction - in primary forests until conservation initiatives and new agreements are put in place with indigenous peoples.   "There's still time to change the model of development and consumption that's destroying the Amazon. It's time to start the transition," Diaz said.   http://coicamazonia.org/ http://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/indigenous-solution-deforestation-amazon http://amazonia80x2025.earth/declaration/ http://www.wwf.org.br/nossosconteudos/notas_e_releases/english/?86600/Amazon-Summit-must-result-in-a-coordinated-and-effective-commitment-of-the-countries-for-the-conservation-of-the-biome-and-sustainable-development http://www.greenpeace.org/brasil/blog/justica-e-demarcacao-ja-violencia-contra-indigenas-cresce-156/ http://globalalliance.me/iucn-approves-global-call-by-indigenous-peoples-to-protect-80-of-the-amazon-by-2025-to-avoid-point-of-no-return/ http://globalalliance.me/news/ http://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/09/10/conservationists-back-indigenous-peoples-call-protect-80-amazon-2025/ Visit the related web page
	First Nations people have much shorter lives than other Australians by HRLC, Aboriginal Legal Service, SBS, agencies   Jan. 25 2022   Aboriginal Legal Service: Australia Day marked on January 26th:   Tomorrow, we mourn the dispossession and attempted genocide of our peoples and take pride in our survival.   Tomorrow is a difficult day for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people. It’s the anniversary of invasion.   The tall sails of the First Fleet must have been a bewildering and terrifying sight for the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the millennia-long custodians of the waters and lands where the ships dropped anchor.   Aboriginal resistance to colonisation began that day, on 26 January 1788. It’s continued ever since.   In 1938, the date was marked by a Day of Mourning, held at The Australian Hall in the Sydney CBD. (The building is still there on Elizabeth Street and owned by the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.) The protest called out settler Australia for its “theft and genocide”.   And on 26 January 1972, a group of young Aboriginal men headed out from Redfern (Gadigal) to Canberra (Ngunnawal - Ngambri) to set up the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Despite multiple attempts by police and government to destroy the embassy, it’s now celebrating its 50th anniversary.   Many of the embassy founders were the same fearless activists who set up the Aboriginal Legal Service two years earlier.   Tomorrow, we mourn the dispossession and attempted genocide of our peoples and take pride in our survival.   http://www.alsnswact.org.au/media_releases http://bit.ly/3FYDuiU http://bit.ly/3rMK4En http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2022/01/20/opinion-every-january-26-im-reminded-were-still-here http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/always-will-be http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2022/06/03/gail-mabo-urges-nation-come-together-path-started-her-father http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/explainer/native-title-what-does-it-mean-and-why-do-we-have-it http://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/eddie-koiki-mabo http://aiatsis.gov.au/whats-new/podcasts/voices-power/episode-1 http://ulurustatement.org/our-story/ http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/uluru-statement-from-the-heart http://www.naccho.org.au/aboriginal-led-initiatives-and-locally-led-solutions-is-the-answer-naccho-on-the-close-the-gap-campaign-report/   Sep. 2021   First Nations people have much shorter lives than other Australians, by Meena Singh. (HRLC)   Legal challenge launched to secure fair access to the Age Pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people   A Federal Court case has been launched against the Australian Government, seeking fair and equal access to the Age Pension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.   Proud Wakka Wakka man Dennis is bringing a case that will require the Federal Government to face court for the first time in connection with its failure to close the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people in Australia.   Dennis is bringing this case with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Human Rights Law Centre.   The standard pension age, which will increase to 67 years of age by 2023, does not account for the stark differences in life expectancy and health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.   As a consequence of the ongoing impacts of colonisation and racial discrimination, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men have an average life expectancy 8.6 years lower than non-Indigenous men, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s lives are on average 7.8 years shorter than non-Indigenous women.   The gap in life expectancy means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not have the same opportunity to retire and receive support through the Age Pension as other Australians. They are less likely to live to pension age and have fewer years to benefit from it. Less than 1% of people currently receiving the Age Pension are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.   The case will argue that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be able to access the pension earlier, to account for the gap in life expectancy, until that gap is closed.   Proud Wakka Wakka man Dennis said:   “As an Aboriginal man, I’ve seen too many of my people dying at a very early age. We are lucky to get to 50 years old.   “White people are living longer because they haven’t lost what we have lost. So many things that Aboriginal people are suffering from today, are because of how we have been treated since colonisation.   “It’s only fair for the pension age to be lowered. The pension is an important part of caring for and looking after our people when they can’t work anymore.   “But this isn’t just about money. Things will never get better unless we acknowledge something is wrong. Truth and accountability are important. This case is about telling the truth, and asking the Government to work together with us, to give our people the same chance in life as everyone else.”   Lee-Anne Carter, Statewide Community Justice Programs Leader at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service said:   “The current rules relating to the Age Pension do not reflect the fact that Aboriginal people have much shorter lives than other Australians.   “Closing the Gap data shows that Australia is not on track to close the life expectancy gap. Australia is also failing to meet Close the Gap targets for employment and appropriate housing. The failure of Governments to implement strategies that will close the gap in these target areas means that Aboriginal people are far more likely to face financial insecurity.   “Financial insecurity is a significant determining factor in the overincarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – it is self-evident that lifting Aboriginal people out of poverty will support achieving the other Closing the Gap targets, such as incarceration rates.   “It has been almost 15 years since Australian Governments agreed to the original Closing the Gap targets. They have failed so far, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are still dying younger than non-Indigenous people because of that failure. Ensuring equitable access to the Age Pension is an important step, that would demonstrate that Australia is serious about Closing the Gap.   “For Governments and Australians, this small change will have no impact on their lives. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, fairer access to the Age Pension is an important step towards attaining financial security and wellbeing.”   Jill Gallagher AO, CEO, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Inc CEO said:   “The Royal Commission into Aged Care laid bare the serious disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders. Sadly, the Royal Commission highlighted the extent to which our Elders have been let down and, in the process, diminished the critical role Elders play in sustaining the world’s oldest living culture.   “In 2008 we signed the first Close the Gap Agreement – the agreement sat on the shelf with very little changing. As a consequence, unequal access to the age pension is still a disadvantage for our Elders today – many of whom have experienced discrimination, marginalisation, disadvantage, and racism throughout their lives.   “Given the significant gap in life expectancy experienced by our people, lowering the pension age is an important step towards addressing the disadvantages experienced by our people.”   Meena Singh, Senior Advisor to the Human Rights Law Centre said:   “We should all look forward to a future in which we can age and retire with dignity. But because of the gap in life expectancy, our people are being denied equal access to this opportunity.   “It is a national shame that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are still dying too young. While the new Closing the Gap agreement provides hope, change takes time and it is clear that equality in life expectancy is still a way off. People who are at the end of their working lives don’t have time to wait another decade – they need proper support now.   “Aboriginal men and women of Dennis’ age have lived in the shadow of the Stolen Generation, experienced stolen wages and have been excluded from full participation in society on their own stolen lands. This case is a chance to address the long term hardship and disadvantage that comes from years of racist policies and laws.   “Until we have equality in life expectancy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be able to access the pension earlier. This is just one way the Australian Government can recognise the health impacts of generations of systemic discrimination and be accountable for the lack of progress towards closing the gap.   “Aboriginal men and women must have equal rights to age with dignity. Changing the pension age is about helping our people to lead a good life as they age.”   The Productivity Commission recently confirmed that the target of equal life expectancy is not on track to be met by 2031. The gap in life expectancy can only be closed if the Federal Government honours its commitment under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap to partner and share decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.   This case aims to support the vital work of the Coalition of Peaks by holding the Federal Government accountable for these commitments and encouraging the Government to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to implement self-determined solutions to close the gap.   As well as rectifying the existing inequality of access to the pension, lowering the pension age would in itself support a number of closing the gap targets by helping to improve the economic participation, financial security and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who can no longer work.   http://bit.ly/3zqwjk2 http://bit.ly/3aFDDy1 http://indigenousx.com.au/if-indigenous-people-die-younger-should-we-retire-younger-too/ http://coalitionofpeaks.org.au/ http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/17/australias-history-of-massacres-should-be-no-surprise-but-many-have-to-be-dragged-to-the-truth http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/the-killing-times http://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/
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