WORLD WATER DAY - March 22 - Sanitation for All

from IPS:
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AUSTRALIA: Concerns Over New Indigenous People's Body
    Stephen de Tarczynski
MELBOURNE - Indigenous Australians have largely welcomed the government’s scrapping of the controversial National Indigenous Council to make way for a new representative body. "I thought (the NIC) were an absolute waste of time," says aboriginal activist Michael Mansell, legal director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. "They were devoid of ideas. The body itself and the opinions it projected lacked any character on representation capacity’’.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41611

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Most Vulnerable Left to Sink or Swim
    Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The world's minorities and indigenous groups are the "silent victims" of the potentially disastrous effects of climate change, says a new study by Minority Rights Group International.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41570

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NICARAGUA: Indigenous Groups Sound Forest Fire Alarm
    José Adán Silva
MANAGUA - Indigenous community leaders have sent a letter to the Nicaraguan authorities requesting protection against the risk of a potentially huge forest fire that would endanger about 60,000 families.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41569

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MEXICO: Indigenous Candidate Disqualified Because 'Not a Man'
    Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY - Eufrosina Cruz was unable to exercise her constitutional right to stand for election as mayor of a small municipality in the southern state of Oaxaca because, according to the "uses and customs" of her indigenous community, women can neither vote nor be elected.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41567

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U.N. Panel Finds Two-Tier Society in U.S.
    Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS - The United States government is drawing fire from international legal experts for its treatment of American Indians, Blacks, Latinos and other racial minorities.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41556

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CHILE: Emerging Party Seeks Self-Government for Mapuche People
    Interview with Gustavo Quilaqueo
SANTIAGO - Wallmapuwen, which means "people of the Mapuche land" in the language of that indigenous group, aims to formally become a political party in July this year in the southern Chilean regions of Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos. One of its main goals is to achieve self-government for the Mapuche people.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41533

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Go Green, Save the Indigenous
    Tarjei Kidd Olsen
OSLO - African indigenous peoples are important custodians of their natural environments with valuable local knowledge and skills, but are struggling to survive, according to a report.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41523

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PERU: US Judge Awards Millions in Damages to Massacre Survivors
    Angel Páez
LIMA - A U.S. federal judge ordered retired Peruvian army major Telmo Hurtado to pay 37 million dollars to two survivors of a 1985 massacre in which 69 indigenous peasants, mainly women and children, were killed in the highlands village of Accomarca.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41473

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CANADA: Native Leader Serving Six Months for Opposing Mine
    Chris Arsenault
HALIFAX - Algonquin community leader Robert Lovelace had never been charged with an offence, but when a uranium company began prospecting for radioactive ore on unceded native land without engaging in consultation, he decided to take action, organising a non-violent blockade.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41469