We help tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures.
Urgent action: take a stand against harmful 'development'
A leading tribal rights lawyer has recently published an article criticising UK and US development agencies' failure to investigate human rights abuses in Ethiopia.
Gordon Bennett argues that the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and USAID could and should have done more to protect Ethiopia's vulnerable Omo Valley tribespeople.
In January 2012, during a trip to the region, government officials were told about: arbitrary arrests and beatings; the deliberate destruction of grain stores; denied access to the Omo River; the widespread use of the military to intimidate people into giving up their land; and rape.
Over a year later, DFID has still not carried out a full investigation of the allegations.
We need to let USAID and DFID know that many people are strongly opposed to taxpayers' money being used to bankroll the forced and violent displacement of self-sufficient tribal peoples.