UN Human Rights Commissioner Speaks on Bolivia

The UN High Commission for Human Rights representative Denis Racicot told the Indigenous News Agency in La Paz that Bolivia needs to implement the new protections for indigenous peoples enshrined in the
country's new Constitution and insisted that Bolivia adhere to these laws by consulting with indigenous tribes before initiating mining and oil extraction in sovereign indigenous territory.  Racicot praised Bolivia for creating a constitution that he considers the most sensitive to indigenous people in the Latin America and pushed Bolivia to make a good example for other countries by implementing the
strigent legal protections for indigenous peoples in the new constitution. Racicot said (quote) "They have to go forward with the consultations with indigenous communities because these accords can only bring positive results and at the same time give the world the example that its waiting for from Bolivia because Bolivia has made great advances, more than other countries even in Latin America in the constitutional and legislative area."  Despite Bolivia's new legal protections for indigenous tribes, The Oil & Gas Ministry has began at least two new extraction projects without consulting with local indigenous groups in the form of a copper mine in Corocoro and oil drilling in the Amazon of Northern La Paz State.

http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483922759