DTP is 30 years old in 2020 - 30 years since DTP’s first program at the Faculty of Law UNSW, Sydney. With over 3000 DTP alumni in human rights networks and movements across the Pacific, Asia and Middle-East, DTP will highlight how its alumni and partners are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and other key human rights challenges. 

For updated news, advice and human rights related action on COVID-19 pandemic please see the dedicated DTP web page. Please follow DTP’s socials and visit our website.

Issue 102 of DTP’s E-News - a new format for the e-News with each issue focusing on a thematic priority area for DTP. This issue has a focus on Indigenous peoples.

DTP ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RIGHTS

For information on our alumni, click here

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CAMPAIGNS AND RESPONSES TO COVID-19

ASIA - DTP partner Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) has compiled a list of lessons learnt on Covid-19 from the Indigenous communities in Asia. The document covers the use and misuse of information, the means to community solidarity and preventive and protective measures. READ MORE

NEPAL - Indigenous communities affected by the Tanahu Hydropower Project in Nepal file complaints with the Asian Development Bank and European Investment Bank. “The project has and will cause direct and material harm to our ancestral land, our livelihoods, and traditional practices … and we will be displaced once the farming land is full of water.”

MYANMAR - The Rawang ethnic minority in north-east Myanmar is prepared to enter into negotiations with the government but only on the basis of community collaboration. READ MORE

BANGLADESH - Almost 1000 Jumma workers who were trying to return to the Chittagong Hills Tracts were assaulted by the police who prevented them from passing. Unable to work and now homeless, these people are at even greater risk from the coronavirus. READ MORE

INDIA - Thousands of Indigenous migrant workers have been stranded without home and food in the metropolis while there are reports of starvation among Indigenous communities in the rural areas. READ MORE

PHILIPPINES - Covid-19 must not be used to suppress freedom of assembly of Indigenous communities say UN Special Rapporteurs. READ MORE

CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY

Pranab Doley and Soneshwar Narah are leaders of Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha (JKSS), a farmers’ rights organisation in Assam, India acting on behalf of peasants and Indigenous communities. Arrested and subsequently released under conditional bail, they require international solidarity for their protection. WRITE NOW

The secretary and president of Youth’s Forum for Protection of Human Rights working on the rights of Indigenous peoples, women and children in North India, were arrested and now out on bail. Pressure is needed for the charges to be dropped. WRITE NOW

Akhil Gogoi works with Indigenous communities in Assam against the construction of mega-dams and land-grabbing. His bail was revoked in early April and as he suffers from serious medical conditions, he is thus at great risk from Covid-19. WRITE NOW

EVENTS

28 May 2020: Business and Human Rights in Times of Covid-19: A virtual Asia-Pacific civil society dialogue with Prof Surya Deva, Member, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. Thursday, 28 May 2020, 2-4pm (Hong Kong time). Registration will be on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis (max 200 participants). REGISTER HERE

JOB OPENINGS

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) is looking for a Programme Officer – Organizational Strengthening and Movement Building, deadline May 25. APPLY HERE

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