UN Briefing – ‘Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Meets from May 9-20; Indigenous Peoples: Conflict, Peace and Resolution’

“Indigenous peoples account for 5 percent of the world’s population, while representing 15 percent of those living in poverty. As many as 33 percent of all people living in extreme rural poverty globally are from indigenous communities. Those figures are particularly alarming given the fact that so much of the world’s natural resource base is located on lands within indigenous territories. This is where both governments and corporations wreak havoc on the lives of people, destroying their communities and their cultures, as they destroy water sources, forests and ecosystems at the same time.” Read article by Margaret Mayce, O.P.