Paraguay: Government Ordered to Protect Uncontacted Tribe

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by Survival International / February 13th, 2016

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has ordered Paraguay’s government to protect an uncontacted tribe from being wiped out.

In a highly unusual decision, the Commission, part of the OAS, has demanded that the authorities intervene to stop cattle ranchers illegally destroying the Paraguayan Chaco, a uniquely biodiverse area that is home to the last uncontacted Indigenous people outside the Amazon.

The area suffers the highest rate of deforestation in the world. It is estimated that over 14 million trees are being cut down there every month.

The tribe, known as the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, are under severe threat from ranchers, who have rapidly destroyed their land and forced many of them out of their forest, where they are dying from a mysterious TB-like illness.

Deforestation in Paraguayan Chaco, 1990 – 2013 © Survival International

Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. Whole populations are being wiped out by violence from outsiders who steal their land and resources, and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance.

All uncontacted tribal peoples face catastrophe unless their land is protected. Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, will continue to pressure the Paraguayan government to protect the land which is rightfully theirs. Only then will they have the chance to determine their own futures.

Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/02/paraguay-government-ordered-to-protect-uncontacted-tribe/