Attorneys and activists supporting protections for the Tagaeri and Taromenane at a hearing conducted in Brazil in connection with the case. (Photo courtesy of Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Conaie)
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has ruled the Ecuadorian government responsible for human rights violations experienced by two of the country’s last Indigenous groups known to be living in deliberate isolation from the outside world. The decision, made public on March 13, focused on the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. But according to experts, it could bolster the case for legal protections of Indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation elsewhere in Latin America, including the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon and the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay. It could also provide legal support for litigation and policy aimed at ensuring protection of lands and ecosystems crucial to these Indigenous people’s survival. Citing violence that has claimed the lives of the Tagaeri and Taromenane in recent decades as oil production and other extractive activity in the Ecuadorian Amazon has increased, the court ordered Ecuador to... [Log in to read more]
