Peru’s national indigenous peoples’ organization has made an urgent appeal to
Latin America’s top human rights body, out of concern for some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.
The tribes, including the Nanti and Machiguenga, are at huge risk from gas exploration taking place on their land, said a statement from the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP). This has ‘led to forced contact between the gas company workers and the uncontacted tribes.’
The tribes are particularly vulnerable to any form of contact because of their lack of immunity to outsiders’ diseases. After being contacted for the first time in the 1980s following oil exploration on their land, more than 50% of the Nahua tribe died.
AIDESEP is urging the IACHR to request the Peruvian government to take specific ‘precautionary measures’ to protect the uncontacted tribes’ ‘rights to life, personal integrity, property, good health and well-being.’
clipped from: www.survival-international.org