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	Recognising the right of Indigenous people to have control over decisions that affect their lives by Coalition of Peaks, agencies Australia   Feb. 2024   Major review finds Australian governments failing to help close the gap between improvements in the life outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. (Coalition of Peaks)   The life outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will not change unless there is a fundamental shift in how federal, state and territory governments view the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, according to a major Productivity Commission review.   The review found governments were failing in their commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, did not fully grasp the nature and scale of the changes required, and urgently needed to “close the gap between words and action”.   The Coalition of Peaks, which is a partner to the National Agreement and represents more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations, said governments must take the findings seriously.   “As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we know what is best for our communities, but governments across the board are still not meaningfully giving us a voice in the decisions that affect our lives,” said Coalition of Peaks’ acting Lead Convenor Catherine Liddle.   The Coalition of Peaks is calling for all governments to fulfil the commitments they have already made.   “The National Agreement sets a road map, informed by our communities across the country, on what is needed by governments to help close the gap. This includes making sure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives are at the table with governments to share and lead in the decisions that impact on our communities’ lives.” Said Ms Liddle.   The Productivity Commission review noted the persistence of “government knows best” thinking when designing and implementing services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.   “This review involved extensive community consultation, and it confirms what our own countless conversations have told us – that governments still don’t understand that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people know what is best for our communities,” Ms Liddle said.   “When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are given ownership over the decisions that affect their lives, the resources they need, and the opportunity to partner with government, we see better outcomes.”   Ms Liddle said more funding was needed to deliver the reforms, noting there had been no significant injection of funding since 2008.   “We are calling for a dedicated Closing the Gap fund, enshrined in legislation, and directed to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and our organisations to support our self-determination,” Ms Liddle said.   “Next week the Prime Minister will address Parliament on the anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations, and we hope his words will be matched with action.”   “We are calling for tangible commitments to fully fund the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, to make a meaningful difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”   * The Coalition of Peaks is made up of more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled peak and member organisations across Australia, that represent some 800 organisations.   Feb. 2024   The Australian Productivity Commission's first review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap has found it's unclear how much funding states and territories have allocated to Aboriginal-controlled organisations.   The report said most state and territory governments have not undertaken or published expenditure reviews and it has heard funding is going to non-government organisations when it could be going to Aboriginal-run programs.   Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown said the final report of the first three-year review found state and federal governments' engagement with Indigenous communities was "tokenistic".   "If governments continue to put money towards programs that don't align with what the community is saying will work, or whether these programs are measured in terms of what the community value as markers of change, then governments will continue to allocate public money ineffectively.   "For example, governments would come up with their own policy or program or services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that in some instances were actually harmful to those communities.   "The government would only engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the 11th hour right before something was about to go to cabinet."   Closing the gap targets have been around for 15 years, but data continuously shows strategies aren't working. In 2020 governments signed up for a radical overhaul and a new national agreement was formed.   The review found that state and federal governments are "failing" to implement what has been promised, and have provided recommendations:   Power needs to be shared, recognising the right that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have control over the decisions that affect their lives. Recognise and support Indigenous data sovereignty. Fundamentally rethink mainstream government systems and culture. Implement stronger accountability.   Ms Siegel-Brown says the government must undertake these changes.   "The task facing governments under the agreement, what they have promised, is to make structural and cultural changes that embed shared decision making, building the Aboriginal community-controlled sector and to achieve that by being completely transparent.   "To ensure governments actually make progress towards the agreement and things don't look the same when we review again in three years."   Sharing power with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make decisions about their communities lies at the heart of what governments committed to. But the Commission found evidence of a failure to relinquish power and the persistence of ‘government knows best’ thinking.   To address this, the report’s first recommendation proposes five actions, including amending the agreement to better emphasise power sharing, and having governments recognise the expertise of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in what works for their communities.   “Efforts to improve outcomes are far more likely to succeed when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lead their design and implementation. Nothing will change until this model of partnership, based on genuine power sharing, becomes the rule and not the exception,” said Commissioner Romlie Mokak.   The report finds that progress is unlikely unless government organisations fundamentally rethink their systems, culture and ways of working.   “The lack of progress we have seen reflects a disregard for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s knowledges and solutions throughout government. Breaking down these entrenched attitudes and ways of working will require a focused and deliberate effort from every department and organisation,” said Commissioner Siegel-Brown.   http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/closing-the-gap-review/report#media http://www.coalitionofpeaks.org.au/media/major-review-finds-governments-failing-to-meet-closing-the-gap-commitments-as-peak-body-calls-for-renewed-efforts-to-existing-commitments-and-a-dedicated-self-determination-fund http://www.coalitionofpeaks.org.au/outcomes-and-targets http://www.lowitja.org.au/news/lowitja-institute-calls-on-governments-to-hasten-action-to-close-the-gap/ http://closethegap.org.au/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-equity-and-justice-still-needs-to-be-progressed-closethegapday2024-report-launch/ Visit the related web page
	Peru: Changes to forestry law will threaten survival of indigenous peoples by Francisco Cali Tzay Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples   Feb. 2024   Indigenous group calls on Ecuador to respect referendum to stop oil drilling in Amazon. (EFE)   The Waorani Indigenous people have called for Ecuadorians to stand together to pressure the government to respect last year’s referendum that called for an end to oil exploration in the Yasuní National Park, a highly biodiverse area of the Amazon.   In a press conference from the Amazon, the Waorani recalled that the majority of Ecuadorians voted in favor of stopping oil exploitation from Block 43-ITT (Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini) in 2023.   “We call for the unity of the people, that the consultation of Aug. 20 be respected, that the state, and newly elected President Daniel Noboa, comply with the result”.   The withdrawal of all oil extraction operations was supposed to take place within a year of the referendum, but in January Noboa proposed extending the exploitation of Block 43-ITT oil fields operated by the state-owned Petroecuador for another year.   Ecuadorians voted in favor of indefinitely leaving underground the country's oil reserves.   During the recent election campaign, Noboa supported the abandonment of Block 43-ITT and the dismantling of its facilities, arguing that its profitability would decline over the years as international crude oil prices fell.   In an assembly, the Waoranis declared a “Waorani Territorial Emergency”. They said Noboa’s proposal was an attack on democracy and a violation of “the sovereign decision of the Ecuadorian people” to stop oil drilling in the Yasuni National Park, part of the Waorani’s ancestral territory, and have decided to promote legal action against the Ecuadorian state in national and international courts “so that the will of the people to protect Yasuní is respected.”   http://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/hundreds-of-oil-spill-sites-threaten-amazon-indigenous-lands-protected-areas/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/10082023/amazon-nations-debate-ending-oil-exploration/ http://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/the-amazon-will-reach-tipping-point-if-current-trend-of-deforestation-continues/ http://news.mongabay.com/list/amazon/   Jan. 2024   Peru: Changes to forestry law will threaten survival of indigenous peoples   Amendments to Peru’s Forestry and Wildlife Law could legalise and encourage the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples from their lands and threaten their physical and cultural survival, a UN expert warned today.   “This legislation will affect the ancestral territories of the Amazonian peoples of Peru,” said Francisco Cali Tzay, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.   “This happens at a time when the State still has pending obligations to fulfill to legally recognise and secure Indigenous Peoples’ territories,” the Special Rapporteur said. “Approximately a third of the Indigenous Peoples in the Peruvian Amazon have not been titled, leaving them without legal security and vulnerable against third parties,” he said.   The expert said the law explicitly mentions native and peasant communities and Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation but has not gone through a consultation process with a view to obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of these Peoples.   “Indigenous Peoples in situations of isolation and initial contact would be particularly vulnerable to regulatory change, which could threaten their physical and cultural survival,” Cali Tzay said.   The UN expert recalled that Peru had obligations under international law with regard to enacting laws that affect Indigenous Peoples, including article 19 of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.   Cali Tzay warned that provisions of the law classifying land and rules about agricultural activities would ensure that areas possessed by Indigenous Peoples and were once forests, where agriculture is currently conducted, would automatically become “agricultural exclusion areas.”   “Given strong pressures on unprotected indigenous territories, these exclusion areas could generate impunity for crimes of logging and usurpation, and imply weakening the fight against deforestation and aggravating the current climate crisis,” the expert warned.   “Under the new regulatory framework, activities such as illegal logging and deforestation would be legalised,” he warned. “These activities constitute crimes under the Penal Code, further encouraging deforestation of the Amazon which is especially worrying given the high levels of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon in recent years,” he said.   “This situation could encourage greater pressure towards indigenous territories and their biological, cultural, environmental and spiritual integrity,” the expert warned.   The expert was gravely concerned that this setback in the country’s forest governance turns its back on threats, attacks and murders of indigenous and environmental defenders, who oppose illicit activities in the forests of their territories.   “In recent years, 33 indigenous leaders have been murdered, including the leader of the Kichwa people, Quinto Inuma. These reforms seem to ignore that territorial dispossession is the driving force of violence against indigenous leaders and implies a withdrawal of the State in rural areas,” Cali Tzay warned.   “This void is filled by criminal groups dedicated to illegal logging, informal mining, coca cultivation and drug and land trafficking, promoting illegal economies that destroy the social fabric and undermine public institutions,” the expert said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/peru-changes-forestry-law-will-threaten-survival-indigenous-peoples-un http://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/critics-decry-controversial-bill-that-loosens-deforestation-restrictions-in-peru/ Visit the related web page
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