In response to an appeal submitted by the Indonesian Indigenous Peoples Alliance (AMAN) and Forest Peoples Programme…the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on the Indonesian government to reconsider its plans to allow a private sugar company to take over half of the Aru Islands as a plantation. The land grab threatens the lands and very survival of the indigenous peoples of the island. The UN body, which oversees State parties’ compliance with their obligations under the treaty (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) notes that under the Convention, long ratified by the Republic, Indonesia has a duty to recognise and protect indigenous peoples’ land rights…