AwaĄŚs plight reaches top human rights watchdog

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the AmericasĄŚ leading human rights body, has received an urgent petition from Survival International and Brazilian indigenous rights organization CIMI to save EarthĄŚs most threatened tribe.

The official submission calls on the IACHR to hold BrazilĄŚs government to account for failing to remove hundreds of illegal invaders from the AwaĄŚs land.

It says, ĄĽThe Awa will not survive without their lands, which the State of Brazil has failed to take timely and effective measures to protect against the loggers, ranchers and settlers who continue to encroach upon them.ĄŚ

The Awa are one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in Brazil and live in a rapidly disappearing island of rainforest ĄV over 30% of one of the AwaĄŚs territories has already been cut down, and loggers are closing in on their communities.

The 450-strong tribe depends on the forest for survival. But the Awa report that hunting has become increasingly difficult as the game is disappearing, and they fear attacks by the armed loggers.

Concern for the approximately 100 uncontacted Awa has also been growing. The uncontacted Awa are constantly on the run from the illegal invaders and face extinction if their forest disappears.

Tatu, an Awa man, told Survival, ĄĽThere are uncontacted Indians nearby. My brother saw their abandoned huts. Might the loggers kill the uncontacted Indians? Let the uncontacted Indians stay there!

More than 50,000 letters have been sent to BrazilĄŚs Justice Minister since Survival launched its campaign to save the Awa one year ago. The government has since announced the Awa are a priority, but has taken little action.

Survival InternationalĄŚs Director Stephen Corry said today, ĄĽBrazilĄŚs government must show that it really can protect its most vulnerable citizens, the Awa, from the crooks who are destroying the rainforest. If South AmericaĄŚs largest nation, one of the worldĄŚs fastest growing economies, hasnĄŚt the strength to do this, then all minorities there should be worried. The Awa are threatened with extinction, the time for action is now.

(2013-05-08/survivalinternational)