The South Rupununi District Council (SRDC), a Guyanese partner organization of the Global Justice Clinic, published a press release welcoming the recent Communication sent to the Government of Guyana by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concerning the mining on Marutu Taawa (Marudi Mountain). The UN Committee’s Communication is timely and crucial, as the SRDC continues to fight the contamination, pollution, and destruction of the sacred mountain, which is also an important watershed at the source of Guyana’s main waterways. The issue of mining at Marudi is a matter of grave concern as it affects the Wapichan people’s Constitutional rights to health and a healthy environment, as well as to the protection, preservation, and promulgation of their cultural heritage and way of life. The SRDC calls for all mining on Marudi to be halted until the Wapichan people have been fully included in the decision making process.

For more information, read the complete press release here.

The Global Justice Clinic has been working with the SRDC and its international partners, Digital Democracy, Forest Peoples Programme, and Rainforest Foundation US, since 2016. Through the Clinic, students have provided data analysis and legal support for monitoring activity.