Native populations surviving on borrowed time

4 March / 18:00 / Alhambra / Co-presented with the RTS and the OMCT

For years now, indigenous peoples' rights have been implicitly flouted in the name of economic development. And yet these rights are explicitly set out in such international instruments as the 1989 International Labor Organization's (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention and the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The construction of hydraulic dams in Brazil, mining in Guatemala, the development of road systems in Bolivia - such undertakings often come along with violent practices carried out against the population they affect.

Construction sites overlap into protected zones, pollute rivers and contaminate the surrounding environment. Lacking the power to oppose such development, indigenous populations are forced to leave their ancestral lands. And when they try to defend their rights, they are harassed, intimidated or even simply killed. The activities of their defendants are often criminalized and their legal appeals rarely succeed: too often, the authorities fail to fulfill their duty to protect them against threats coming from private actors.

What measures must States take to ensure respect for the rights of indigenous peoples? Will they be able to reconcile economic development and international obligations?

Indiens en sursis will be screened in presence of the film-maker, Daniel Schweizer and of actress Noemie Kocher, and will be introduced by Gilles Marchand and Gerald Staberock.