pdf Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries

We, Indigenous Peoples, are rightsholders, with an inextricable link to their lands, territories and resources, which we have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired...We have a right to self-determination of our political condition and to freely choose our economic, social and cultural development. 

- The Manila Declaration International Conference on Extractive Industries and Indigenous Peoples

To put an end to these dynamics of destruction and violence, the international community—particularly international investors—must...recognize indigenous communities’ basic rights to chart their own development paths, to manage their own resources, to pursue their traditional livelihoods and cultures, and to say “no” to multinational operations on their lands. The failure to respect communities’ basic right to ‘‘just say no’’ exists at the heart of the nexus of human rights violations, environmental degradation and conflict.

- John Rumbiak, West Papuan activist