A new report has implicated the United Nations (UN) in the violent eviction of Indigenous people from six World Heritage Sites in Africa and Asia. These sites, often ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples, have been forcibly taken from them through intimidation and violence. Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, an organization that released the report, has called for UNESCO to revoke World Heritage Status from any sites where such abuses are occurring.
One example highlighted in the report is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania, where the Maasai population has faced arrests, torture, and theft of their cattle. The Maasai have also reported that the government has cut off health services in an attempt to force them off the land. Despite UNESCO’s 2010 decision that the Maasai population should remain within the capacity of the property, the Indigenous community continues to be subjected to human rights abuses.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, UNESCO urged officials to remove illegal occupants from Kahuzi-Beiga National Park, resulting in the forced eviction of Indigenous Batwa people. A subsequent report revealed allegations of rape, murder, and brutal treatment of the Batwa by Congolese soldiers. The Indigenous community has expressed their determination to remain in their ancestral forest despite the violence and threats they face.
The report also investigates similar evictions of Indigenous people from Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo, Kaziranga National Park in India