Rome, Feb. 14, 2008 - This morning Indigenous Peoples’ representatives formally withdrew from meeting of the Working Group on Protected Areas of the International Convention on Biological Diversity to protest their suppression of their effective participation at the meeting, being held at FAO headquarters in the Italian capital.

Human rights defenders in Indonesia’s province of West Papua continue to face torture, arbitrary detention and harassment from the country’s police, military and security forces, an independent United Nations expert said today after wrapping up a week-long visit to the Asian archipelago, which she said had also taken some positive steps in the legal realm. Hina Jilani, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on the situation of human rights defenders, said she had received “credible reports” of such activities, as well as attempts to interfere with defenders’ freedom of movement.

Sat, 06/09/2007 - 08:51 — Jayapura , Hundreds of Papuans rallied Friday in Papua and West Papua provinces during a one-day visit by special representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders Hina Jilani. In both provinces, Jilani was greeted with rallies.
In Papua, the protesters, from the Coalition of Community Concern on Papua and the United Front of West Papua People's Fight, welcomed Jilani, while others called on her to "stop the genocide of the Papuans" and "stop the killing in West Papua".

A report on Sixth Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

A U. N. body committed to defending the rights of the world's over 370 million indigenous peoples meets later this month (May 14-25) in New York. Among the topics of discussion will be ways to increase international recognition of indigenous rights and to improve the participation of native peoples in their own development. From Washington, VOA reporter William Eagle looks at the upcoming Sixth UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.