030227 SE Indigenous Legal Studies - Genocide, Ethnocide and Ecocide (2021W)

At the end of May 2021, a shocking message went around the world: Remains of 215 indigenous children were found at a closed Canadian boarding school in Western Canada. The Kamloops Boarding School was one of many similar schools set up in the late 19th century, where students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters, teachers and religious staff, who stripped them of their culture and language.
At the same time, there are more and more international reports that prove that the government of Brazil is rolling back social and environmental safeguards for indigenous peoples. The Bolsonaro administration has openly declared its intention to undermine international human rights law and national constitutional law protecting indigenous peoples. With full knowledge of the consequences to loss of life, and inhumane suffering, it has openly sought to stimulate, encourage and promote a predatory policy of natural resource exploitation, often with violent rhetoric against cultural integrity of Indigenous peoples.
Based on these two situations, the relevance of the legal terms “genocide, ethnocide and ecocide” for Indigenous peoples will be examined. It will be discussed that in many cases, cultural assimilation policy can not be separated from intentional physical destruction, and that the destruction of Indigenous Peoples is directly related to environmental degradation or even ecocide.

See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzfRaGIOM8o