EMBARGOED UNTIL 9AM ON APRIL 18
A brand new report by Survival Worldwide to mark World Heritage Day (April 18) has accused UNESCO of complicity within the unlawful eviction and abuse of Indigenous individuals. It factors to the numerous UNESCO World Heritage Websites which might be the scene of great and persevering with conservation-related rights abuses.
On-the-ground investigations by Survival researchers, in Indigenous communities throughout Africa and Asia, have uncovered repeated instances of torture, rape, and killings of Indigenous individuals in and round World Heritage Websites.
The report lists six World Heritage Websites that occupy stolen Indigenous land, together with:
- Ngorongoro Conservation Space, Tanzania. This world-famous vacationer hotspot is now the scene of intimidating safety operations and the denial of primary companies, as the federal government presses forward with plans to evict hundreds of Maasai individuals from lands the place they’ve lived for generations. UNESCO has explicitly backed eradicating the Maasai. One Maasai chief quoted by Survival has stated: “UNESCO’s help is getting used to evict us. We’re very sick and confused, we don’t know after we will die.”
- Kahuzi-Biega Nationwide Park, Dem. Republic of Congo. This Park turned a World Heritage Website in 1980. In 2019, park authorities, with the help of the Congolese military, began a marketing campaign to purge the forest of Indigenous Batwa individuals who had returned to their ancestral lands within the Park. They carried out a number of extraordinarily violent assaults in opposition to Batwa villages, involving many well-documented atrocities. UNESCO had promoted an method based mostly on power and militarization, and had urged the federal government to “enhance the scope and frequency of the patrols” and to “evacuate the unlawful occupants”. The Batwa had been hit arduous by the ensuing violence, however stated: “We reside within the forest. Once they confront us, they rape us. These of us who will die will die, however the forest is the place we’ll keep.”
Odzala-Kokoua Nationwide Park within the Republic of Congo, which was given World Heritage Website standing by UNESCO in 2023, regardless of well-documented abuses going down there, together with rape and torture.
Survival is looking on UNESCO to:
- Cease backing the abuse of Indigenous peoples’ rights within the identify of conservation
- Take away World Heritage standing from any website the place human rights atrocities are occuring, and
- Promote a mannequin of conservation based mostly on full recognition of Indigenous land rights.
Survival is launching a day of on-line activism to coincide with the publication of the report, asking individuals to share a brand new video and tag #DecolonizeUNESCO. The video will likely be reside on Survival’s Instagram web page from 0900 GMT on April 18.
Survival’s Director Caroline Pearce stated at this time: “UNESCO has performed a key position in giving legitimacy to most of the most infamous Protected Areas in Africa and Asia, and it’s largely ignored the well-documented atrocities being dedicated on its watch. What it calls “Pure World Heritage Websites” are fairly often the stolen ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples, who’re being stored out by power, intimidation and terror. Its complicity has gone past silence to embody the lively help of governments, and actions, that violate Indigenous rights. It should take away World Heritage Standing from any such website the place abuses are going down.”
