Chile's indigenous population has for centuries suffered systematic violations of its rights. Now, although cautiously, it is speaking out to the international community.

The Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a first step towards the defence of such rights but the situation of Chile's indigenous groups remains precarious.

• Round table discussion

• Cinema Forum

• Publication

• Resources on the Nepal conflict

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

Forgotten Conflicts: the Mapuche

International protection of the rights of indigenous peoples
David Bondia, director del IDHC y profesor de derecho internacional público de la Universitat de Barcelona

The Mapuche: from forced assimilation to exclusion
Victor Tokichen, investigator of indigenous themes

Human rights: the Mapuche, the debt of democracy in Chile
Reading of a paper by Pedro Cayuqueo, journalist and director of Mapuche newspaper Azkintuwe

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Date: Tuesday 27th of November 2007, 19.00
Place: Headquaters of the Federació Catalana d'ONG pels Drets Humans,
Carrer de les Tàpies, 1-3 - Barcelona

FURTHER INFORMATION

Programme (PDF 341Kb)

CINEMA FORUM

Showing of the documentary Apaga y Vámonos
Manel Mayol, director

Documentary (87 min)
The Bíobio is one of Chile's longest rivers, rising in the Andes it flows towards its mouth in the Pacific Ocean. The river is of great importance historically and politically as well as ecologically given that it formed the natural border that separated the colonised territory and unconquered lands of the Pehuenche Mapuche during the Spanish occupation.

The film documents the expropriation of land from the Mapuche by the multinational company Endesa. In 1997 Endesa began the construction of a dam in the Upper Bíobio which the Mapuche opposed on the basis of indigenous law. Despite this, the Ralco valley was flooded, with 70 families being evicted from their land. The Mapuche spokespeople who denounce this situation are persecuted and tried in Chilean courts under anti-terrorism laws.

Debate moderated by
Salvador Martí i Puig, Professor of Political Science at the University of Salamanca and member of the Institute of Iberoamerican Studies

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Date: Thursday 29th of November 2007,19.00
Place: Headquarters of the Federació Catalana d'ONG pels Drets Humans
Carrer de les Tàpies, 1-3 - Barcelona

PUBLICATION

Forgotten conflicts series : the Mapuche Compiles the reports written by the participants of the round table discussion, as well as the research on the international regulation of indigenous rights done by the IHRC. Download in PDF (in Spanish)

RESOURCES ON THE MAPUCHE

Selection of links to documents, web pages and other bibliographic references on the Mapuche, organised by

BASICS FACTS

POLITICAL SYSTEM / SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

• Political organisation

• External relations

ABOUT THE CONFLICT

• Web references

• Analysis

• Bibliography

• Documentaries

LEGISLATION ON INDIGENOUS MATTERS

• Chile

• ONU

• OEA

• OIT

HUMAN RIGHTS

• ONU

• Reports

• Human Rights Watch (HRW)

• Recommended links

THE MEDIA

CIVIL SOCIETY