The UN agency responsible for promoting peace and preserving culture has been accused of turning a blind eye to torture, rape and killing of Indigenous people in and around its designated World Heritage Sites in an investigation by Survival International.

Published in April, the human rights organization’s report includes case studies from six sites that it says occupy stolen Indigenous land in the DRC, Tanzania, the Republic of the Congo, Thailand, India and Nepal. UNESCO, it claims, has been complicit in evicting Indigenous residents in several locations, promoting a militarized model of ‘fortress conservation’.