Headlines: E-LAW in the News, Autumn 2002

Victory for Indigenous Rights

October 2, 2002 -- KLCC Radio (Eugene) interviewed E-LAW advocate Lottie Cunningham Wren about her work with the Mayagna Indians of Awas Tingni, Nicaragua. Lottie won an Inter-American Court of Human Rights victory blocking the Nicaraguan government from selling logging rights in the community`s forests to a foreign logging company.

That evening, Lottie addressed a standing-room only crowd as the first speaker in the "Human Rights for ALL" program at the University of Oregon. This program, co-sponsored by E-LAW U.S., included an exclusive showing of a new film, "Children of the Sun," that documents the struggle of the Awas Tingni and their victory at the Inter-American Court. Svitlana Kravchenko, President of Ecopravo Lviv (home of E-LAW Ukraine), designed the Human Rights for ALL program. Svitlana is the University of Oregon 2002-2004 Carlton & Wilberta Savage Visiting Professor in International Relations and Peace.

PNG Advocates Urge World Bank to Keep Logging Reviews

September 27, 2002 -- The Environment News Service reports that E-LAW advocate Brian Brunton, a Greenpeace forest campaigner in Papua New Guinea, is concerned that the World Bank will not keep its promise to protect PNG landowners and the country`s rainforests. In December, 2001, the PNG government and the World Bank agreed on a $39 million forest and conservation project that included commitments to review all new logging permit applications and review 15 current logging projects by June, 2003. Brunton said: "Whether or not they will stand firm or give up will depend on the amount of pressure that is applied to them... But if no pressure is applied to them I think they will repeat the mistakes they have made in the past with the Papua New Guinea government." E-LAW U.S. has worked with Brian Brunton since 1994 to protect the environment through law in PNG and around the world.

E-LAW Advocates Speak Out at World Summit

September 2 - 11, 2002 -- E-LAW advocates from Australia, Cameroon, Kenya, Moldova, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine all traveled to Johannesburg in August to attend events leading up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Svitlana Kravchenko from Ukraine was a keynote speaker with the Ukrainian Minister at an August 26 roundtable "Participatory Democracy and Good Governance as a Tool for Human Rights Approach and Sustainable Development," organized by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe, UNEP, and the Regional Environmental Centre. Read Svitlana`s observations on the World Summit in "Travel Notes" at E-LAW`s web site: http://www.elaw.org.

On August 30, the Environment News Service reported that E-LAW advocate and Goldman Prize winner Samuel Nguiffo of Cameroon joined Jane Goodall and other forestry experts for a panel discussion on forests, and indigenous and other forest-dependent peoples.

Reporting on that panel, ENS writes: "Nguiffo described how countries` burdens of debt increase, leading to crushing poverty when they are given loans to finance projects that create "protected" areas off-limits to forest-dwelling peoples who depend on forest resources to survive. At the same time, these projects liberalize access to these same resources by corporations for profit."

Samuel is the director of the Centre pour l`Environnement et le Developpement, the home of E-LAW Cameroon.