By Marisol Hitorangi

I am Marisol Hitorangi, spokeswoman of the Hitorangi Clan of Easter Island, Chile. As a Polynesian Clan we are struggling to get our ancestral land back, illegally expropriated by the Chilean State. We have been tortured for decades, as individuals and as a culture.

British company GCM Resources was dealt a serious blow today as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) agreed to consider complaints regarding severe human rights violations associated with the company’s planned coal mine in Bangladesh. 

GCM wants to open a massive open-pit coal mine in Phulbari in the north-west of Bangladesh, displacing up to 220,000 people and threatening the Sundarbans, one of the world’s largest remaining mangrove forests and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Through our Global Response Program, Cultural Survival had the pleasure of inviting representatives from Mayan communities in Huehuetenango, Guatemala and Toledo, Belize to the United Nation Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York this May to speak on issues related to the defense of their territories.

For Immediate Release

Para abogar aún más por los derechos de los indígenas de todas partes del mundo, Sobrevivencia Cultural, una organización basado en Cambridge, Massachusetts que lucha para los derechos de las personas indígenas, desarrolla una serie de radio innovadora para correr la voz de los derechos de los indígenas al Consentimiento Libre, Previo, e Informado (CLPI).  Sobrevivencia Cultural produce y distribuye una serie de programas de radio sobre la Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas para informar al pueblo indígena sobre sus derechos bajo la ley inter

On May 24, 2013, in New York City, FIMI (Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indigenas/International Indigenous Women’s Forum) presented two important Indigenous women leaders Mphatheleni Makaulule (VhaVenda) from South Africa and Dr. Mirna Cunningham (Miskita) from Nicaragua with the 2013 FIMI Global Leadership Awards.

After spending over two months in prison under charges of terrorism, Rubén Herrera, community leader and outspoken activist against the Hydro Santa Cruz dam in Barillas, Huehuetenango, was released on Thursday May 30^th due to a lack of evidence to the charges against him.

“This is a historic moment for the Mapuche nation and for all nations of the continent because it is setting a precedent for international opinion in a case in which a First Nation seeks justice and reparation for the violence inflicted by the State.”—Victor Ancalaf, Lof Choin Lafquenche, Mapuche People, Chile

Febna Caven