Indigenous Peoples, Displacement Through ‘Development’ and Rights Violations: the Case of the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

While the previous chapters have engaged with the situation of people displaced due to conflict, war, persecution and political discrimination, the next two chapters examine the situation of those who are affected by development-induced displacement (DID) and displaced by infrastructure projects such as large dams. As discussed in the book’s introduction, DID is on the rise, affecting the lives of millions across the globe every year. Large infrastructure projects such as dams have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and river basins, and notably on the millions of people who must be resettled. Existing dams have displaced around 40-80 million people worldwide in the last fifty years (WCD 2000), most of whom are indigenous and minority peoples. For example, of fifty large dams surveyed, 54 per cent (twenty-six cases) were found to resettle a majority of indigenous or tribal people and other ethnic minorities (Scudder 2005).KeywordsIndigenous PeopleForced DisplacementTribal PeopleTraditional TerritorySoutheast Asian StudyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.