Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

Forging Partnerships for Peace

A Luzon-Visayas Indigenous Peoples Conference

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples will take place on August 9^th, bringing the most marginalized sector of society into the fore of our consciousness. To celebrate this day, close to 200 indigenous Filipinos from Luzon and the Visayas and IP advocates, both international and local, will gather together on August 7 - 9 at the Sacred Heart Novitiate Retreat House, Novaliches, Quezon City for the Forging Partnerships for Peace Conference.

Ten (10) civil society and IP support organizations [Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID), Cordillera People’s Forum (CPF), Balay Rehabilitation Center, GZO Peace Institute, Anthropology Watch (AnthroWatch), Inter-Peoples Exchange (Ipex), Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI), Cartwheel Foundation, Non-Timber Forest Products-Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP), and the Assisi Development Foundation (ADF) ] have teamed up to organize this activity mainly to assess the decade-implementation of the Philippines’ Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) through five major issues surrounding the tribal communities: Kapayapaan (Peace and Conflict Management, Social Justice), Karapatan sa Lupa (Land Rights), Kalikasan (Environment, Resource Use & Management, Livelihood), Karunungan (Knowledge and Education), Kultura at Kasarinlan (Cultural Integrity & Self-Governance). The gathering will also draft an IP peace agenda to be presented to the Philippine government.

The diplomatic community, international partners, government agencies, and the academe are also invited to the affair. Interested parties and individuals may contact the Assisi Development Foundation at 6321001 for details or visit the site http://ipconference.blogspot.com.