Anuradha Mittal

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Report
Nicaragua's Gold Rush
Theft of Indigenous Lands Unhindered by US Sanctions
In a new report, Nicaragua’s Gold Rush, the Oakland Institute exposes how, despite US sanctions on Nicaragua’s gold mining sector, the industry has boomed, fueled by foreign business interests. The US is the primary destination, accounting for a staggering 79 percent of total Nicaraguan gold exports.
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Dam and Sugar Plantations Yield Starvation and Death in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley
The report sounds the alarm on the severe humanitarian crisis faced by Indigenous tribes in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley and urges government and aid agencies to provide relief assistance.
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Stealth Game
"Community" Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya
Stealth Game: “Community” Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya — reveals the devastating impact of privatized and neo-colonial wildlife conservation and safari tourism on Indigenous pastoralist communities.
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The Looming Threat of Eviction
The Continued Displacement of the Maasai Under the Guise of Conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The Looming Threat of Eviction: The Continued Displacement of the Maasai Under the Guise of Conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, reveals the Tanzanian government’s plans to evict over 80,000 residents — mostly Indigenous Maasai from their land, further restrict the livelihoods of those remaining, and destroy buildings in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). Announced in April 2021, evictions of local residents are scheduled to unfold on an unprecedented scale under the Tanzanian government’s multiple land use management (MLUM) and resettlement plan.
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Nicaragua's Failed Revolution
The Indigenous Struggle for Saneamiento
Nicaragua’s Failed Revolution details the incessant violence facing the Indigenous communities in the Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions, as evidenced by recent attacks against the Alal, Wasakin, and Miskitu communities, and provides in depth information about the actors involved — foreign gold mining firms, national and international actors in logging and cattle ranching industry, as well as prominent Nicaraguan officials.
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Losing the Serengeti
The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever
Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever is based on field research, never publicly-seen-before documents, and an in-depth investigation into Tanzania’s land laws. This report is the first to reveal the complicity between Tanzanian government officials and foreign companies as they use conservation laws to dispossess the Maasai, driving them into smaller and smaller areas and creating a stifling map of confinement.
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Justice Denied
A Reality Check on Resettlement, Demilitarization, and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka
Justice Denied exposes the many issues that continue to plague land release and resettlement in the country, and the failure of the Sri Lankan government to fulfill its international commitments to transitional justice. The Sri Lankan military continues to occupy large quantities of land; land released by the government is often of poor quality, hindering the ability of many to rebuild their livelihoods; there is a vast and unmet need for housing and infrastructure for those displaced during the civil war; and ever-changing timelines for resettlement have bred mistrust in the government.
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Waiting to Return Home
Continued Plight of the IDPs in Post-War Sri Lanka
Threatened and despaired, a group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka petitioned the Oakland Institute to help them return home. This inspired the Institute’s latest report, Waiting to Return Home: Continued Plight of the IDPs in Post-War Sri Lanka. Backed by extensive field research and interviews, the report highlights a harsh reality—amid United Nations resolutions, task forces, and numerous promises made by the Sirisena administration, tens of thousands of IDPs in Sri Lanka still await resettlement, seven years after the end of the civil war.
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The Long Shadow of War
The Struggle for Justice in Postwar Sri Lanka
The bloody civil war that ravaged Sri Lanka for 26 years officially ended in 2009 with the defeat of the minority Tamil separatists, led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The conflict, in which the LTTE opposed the government led by the majority Sinhalese Buddhists, killed around 200,000, led to the displacement of more than a million people, destroyed infrastructure across the country, and took a heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of the population of the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
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I Speak without Fear
Where Are Our Loved Ones Who Have Been Abducted, Arrested, and Disappeared?
In December 2014, the Oakland Institute carried out research and fieldwork in Sri Lanka in order to understand and document the state of land conflicts and displacement amid accusations of land grabs experienced by the Tamils and other minorities at the hands of the Sri Lankan army and the government. While investigating the land grabs, the research team witnessed discrimination, harassment by the police, and horrors of the civil war that continue to torment minority groups, especially the Tamils, even today.
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(Mis)Investment in Agriculture
The Role of the International Finance Corporation in the Global Land Grab
Oakland Institute’s report exposes the role of the Bank’s private sector branch, International Finance Corporation (IFC), in fueling land grabs, especially in Africa.
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The 2008 Food Price Crisis
Rethinking Food Security Policies
The 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies, the latest in the G-24 Discussion Paper Series, is a timely report as member states of the United Nations come together 16-18 November, 2009 at the World Summit on Food Security in Rome, in an effort to find lasting solutions to world hunger. Intended to inform current policy discussions on how to address ever-growing food insecurity, the report contends that it is essential to examine the structural causes of growing food insecurity and to understand the dynamics that have propelled the food crisis.

Our Take

Our Take
McDonald's High Tolerance for Inequity, Injustice & Racism
Amidst a global pandemic, McDonald's with its estimated net worth of $163 billion, has failed to provide the basic protective gear to keep its workers safe. 33 cooks and cashiers, mainly Latino including 24 women, at its Telegraph Avenue location in Oakland are on a strike for this reason.
Our Take
Tanzania's Withdrawal from the African Court on Human and People's Rights
A Wrong Move for the Country and for the Continent Maasai villagers, their faces are hidden for their protection. Credit: Oakland Institute When domestic mechanisms fail and there is no rule of law, independent regional and international mechanisms are essential to ensure accountability and human rights for all.
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Our Take
Legalizing Dispossession: A Tale of Two Indian Land Grabs
India's 73rd Independence Day merits introspection on the deep crisis faced by the world's largest democracy. Two recent attempts at perpetuating unprecedented land grabs, mark the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government's proclivity for legalizing dispossession and marginalization of the most vulnerable.
Our Take
Development Gone Wrong
“I am not afraid of being arrested. I am afraid of being tortured.” These words from Pastor Omot Agwa, an Anuak land rights defender, are a poignant reminder of “development” gone wrong in Ethiopia. The agricultural sector, seen as the driver for development by the Ethiopian government, has been used to lure foreign investments for agribusiness ventures — large industrial plantations as those set up by Saudi Star and Karuturi in Gambella, Ethiopia. The local indigenous communities bear the cost.

Audio & Video

No More USAID? The Take by Al Jazeera
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What’s behind Trump’s war on USAID? The Take Podcast with guest Anuradha Mittal
USAID, America’s lead aid agency, could also be nearing its end, after US President Donald Trump ordered a halt to foreign aid. Trump said the agency was run by "lunatics", while billionaire Elon Musk called it "criminal". The US provides $72bn to 180 countries – but that aid has come under criticism in the past. So, what would it mean to pull the plug on USAID? Kevin Hirten of The Take, by Al Jazeera, talks to our own Anuradha Mittal about the recent US crusade against foreign aid. More from The Take here.
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Webinar Video — A Reckoning: Holding Perpetrators Accountable in Sri Lanka
On August 9, 2022 one month after tens of thousands of citizens stormed the palace of the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is now on the run after fleeing the country, The Oakland Institute and the Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative at the City College of New York held a timely webinar focused on the struggle for justice in Sri Lanka.
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Do Conservation Efforts Endanger the Lives of Indigenous Communities?
From a November 17, 2021 BBC World News broadcast: A Kenyan organisation has been accused of displacing local communities to benefit conservation efforts initiatives.
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Sri Lanka: Statement at the 46th Regular Session of the UNHRC
“A government-led effort to geographically fragment the North and East is accompanied by a strategy to systematically erase Tamil culture and history through the establishment of Sinhalese settlements, Buddhist temples, archaeological reservations, and more.” During the 46th session of the UNHRC, the Oakland Institute in partnership with the Association Bharathi Centre Culturel Franco-Tamoul delivered a statement urging the HRC Resolution on Sri Lanka to emphasize the immediate end of land grabbing and planned settlements; ensure immediate demilitarization of the North and East; appoint a Spec