
On December 12, 2015, after two decades of climate talks within the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), world leaders from 195 countries in Paris came to a consensus on a legally binding agreement on climate change, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C and reducing carbon emissions across the globe.
November 3rd, 2015- Cultural Survival congratulates Lorenzo Mateo Francisco as he received an award on behalf of the independent media site Prensa Comunitaria, a small independent news collective covering grassroots social movements and Indigenous Peoples rights in Guatemala.
The Washington DC-based non-profit Guatemala Human Rights Commission presented the award, reporting:
Saul Mendez with his family at a peaceful demonstration in Barillas in 2013.
Two Q’anjobal Maya community leaders who were imprisoned in Guatemala for the past two years, have finally been declared innocent and released. A regional criminal court in Guatemala found the two men to be absolved of all charges on October 28, 2015.
By The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission
The 2015 Alice Zachmann Human Rights Award will be presented to the community media group Prensa Comunitaria (Community Press) by the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC).
On September 24, 2015, the Continental Confederacy delegation in Lenape Territory (Philadelphia) took place focusing on the process of Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery coinciding with the US visit of Pope Francis. It featured leaders from Indigenous Nations from across Turtle Island - Abya Yala.
By John McPhaul
A case of Indigenous land rights is testing the Central American country of Costa Rica's otherwise stellar reputation for protecting human rights.
In July of 2012, Sergio Rojas, a leader Costa Rica's Bribri Indigenous community, led Bribri and Teribe Indigenous in an effort to reclaim land within the Salitre Indigenous reserve in the Talamanca Mountains in southwestern Costa Rica.