convenio 169

elana's post about Survival International's Stamp It Out campaign brought my attention to another one of their campaigns, which is urging the UK to sign ILO 169, an International Labor Organization (of the UN) convention on the natural rights of the world's indigenous communities. When I was in Santiago last spring, Chile had still not ratified this piece of international law, even though its contents obviously apply to the country, whose geographic boundaries contain (at least on a map) a Mapuche population of over 1 million--in a country with a population of only 16 million. (for more information on the mapuche, see this site ) Apparently, however, Chile has now ratified el convenio! and is being used as an example to put further pressure on the UK.