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Victory for Kalahari Bushmen as Courts Grant Rights to Water |
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Contributed by Jim Elliott
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Thursday, 27 January 2011 |
At a recent Botswana Court of Appeal, the court quashed a ruling that had the Kalahari Bushmen being denied access to water in their ancestral lands.
The Bushmen, with the help of Survival International, had appealed a 2010 judgment that had prevented them from access a well that they relied on for water. The appeal decision has gone beyond the simple statement of access to water but stated that the Bushmen had the right to use their old borehole, the right to sink new boreholes and the government was to pay the Bushmen for the costs of the appeal. The government's actions have been widely condemned.
Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘This is a great
victory for the Bushmen, and also for Botswana as a whole. We hope it
will be embraced as such by the authorities and not be seen as just an
obstacle to their attempts to get the Bushmen off their lands for diamond mining. A comment from President Khama would now give the clearest signal of
whether or not the government’s position has shifted in the light of the
ruling. This is, after all, a victory for human rights and the rule of
law throughout Botswana.’
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude
Barlow says, "This is a major win, it's the first test case of our right to
water resolution at the United Nations."
In an August 2010 Survival International media release,
Barlow condemned the Botswana government’s failure to allow Bushmen to access
water. She stated, "Last week, the UN General Assembly declared that
everyone, everywhere, has the right to water. But now the world witnesses one of
Africa’s most prosperous countries denying its first inhabitants the right to
sink a well, while promoting mining and safari camps just a few miles away. It’s
hard to imagine a more cruel and inhuman way to treat people. One can only
conclude Botswana’s authorities view Bushmen as less important than wildlife.
Many people around the world will be horrified at what they’re seeing."
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 January 2011 )
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