On the occasion marking International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Mano River Union Civil Society Natural Resources Rights and Governance Platform (MRU CSO Platform) calls for a concerted approach in advancing the pressing need for a new social contract geared toward combating the legacy of exclusion and marginalization.

The platform calls for indigenous people everywhere to be included in critical decision-making and development outcomes in relation to their lives and resources.

The MRU CSO Platform is a network of environmental, land and human rights defenders; indigenous, urban slums and communities affected by the operations of multinational corporations.

One of the platforms leaders is Attorney at-law and environmentalist Alfred Brownell.

He has been speaking to WADR from his base in Massachusetts, United States of America about the plight of indigenous people particularly in West Africa.