On Monday, May 20, 2013, Anselmo Xunic (Kaqchikel Maya), Guatemala Community Radio Program Manager for Cultural Survival and longtime Indigenous community radio activist, meet with James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples during the 12th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. The meeting with Rapporteur Anaya was a long-awaited opportunity for Xunic and the community radio movement to put a face on their struggle at the international level.

On May 20, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples (UNPFII) commenced its 12th annual session. The UNPFII is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. The UNPFII was established by the UN in response to demands from Indigenous Peoples for a high level permanent body at the United Nations.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent  (FPIC)  is the principle that a community has the right to give its consent to proposed projects that may affect their lands, resources, livelihoods, and communities.

A Coalition of 50+ Indigenous Groups Host #Proud2BIndigenous Week during UNPFII

 First Peoples Worldwide

New York, NY

On the anniversary of the death of Andres Fransisco Miguel, community leader of Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, the people of Huehuetenango and neigboring areas in Guatemala came together in protest May 1st. They denounced the disrepect of their right as Indigenous Peoples to be consutled on development projects, by the State of Guatemala and foreign companies like Spanish dam company Hidralia Energia.

Listen to an interview with Global Response Program Manager Danielle DeLuca on the air Friday May 3rd at Radio CKUW of Winnepeg, Canada.  On Scott Price’s international news program ‘Warning Shots’ Danielle spoke about land grabbing in Gambella, Ethiopia and its affect on local Indigenous Peoples as they are forcibly evicted from their homelands by the government and moved into state-sponsored villages.

Listen to the interview at 27:06 via CKUW.

Dayamani Barla is named recipient of the Ellen L. Lutz Indigenous Rights Award by an influential panel of Indigenous rights leaders. The Award, given by Cultural Survival in honor of the memory of the late Ellen L. Lutz, a renowned human rights lawyer dedicated to the rights of Indigenous Peoples, recognizes outstanding human rights activism, dedicated leadership for Indigenous Peoples rights, and a deep commitment to protecting, sustaining, and revitalizing Indigenous cultures, lands, and languages.

On  April 19, Judge Jassmin Barrios declared that the hearing in the trial charging Efraín Ríos Montt with genocide will be temporarily suspended while the Constitutional Court addresses the annulment of the trial by Judge Patricia Flores.

Madeline Hall

By Richard Arghiris, published at Intercontinental Cry

An indigenous Ngäbe protester, Onesimo Rodriguez, was killed  Friday 22 March 2013 in the hamlet of Las Nubes, Chiriquí province, after attending a rally against the controversial Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam. It was World Water day.

Another community leader from Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango has been captured by the Police and incarcerated in Guatemala City as a result of his outspoken opposition to the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz’s construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Q’anjob’al Mayan community. Rubén Herrera was captured on March 15^th in the city of Huehuetenango, and charged with kidnapping, terrorism, coercion, arson, among many other crimes.