Guatemala's Coordinadora Nacional Indigena y Campesina reports that on January 10, 2011 police in the department of Alta Verapaz have attacked the Q’eqchi’ Mayan village of  Se’ Job’ Che’, destroying their crops and animals and firing on the people. The police in this area, which borders Mexico, have been given broad powers to fight Mexican drug dealers who have crossed the border into Guatemala, but the village in question has no connection to the drug trade. A state of siege has been declared in the area.

At its sixty-fourth session, the United Nation's General Assembly discussed the findings of the Secretary General’s midterm report tracking the progress made in the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People so far. UN organizations, NGOs, and states contributed to the findings in the report.

The Republic of Congo will become the first country in Africa to pass legislation that will protect its Indigenous Peoples' rights. Ten percent of Congo’s population is Indigenous, many of whom are marginalized and even used as slaves.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has released a new guide for Indigenous Australians, explaining how they can use the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

At the White House Tribal Nations Conference December 15, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the United States would "lend its support" to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. "The aspirations it affirms," he said, "including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples, are one we must always seek to fulfill. . . I want to be clear: what matters far more than words, what matters far more than any resolution or declaration, are actions to match those words.  And that’s what this conference is about.

Today, President Obama met with tribal leaders at the White House Tribal Nations Conference. The text below is his address to the audience and includes a statement of support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The president promised a full statement to follow.

Six high Kenyan officials have been charged by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with crimes against humanity for their part in violence that left more than 1,000 people dead after the disputed 2007 presidential election.  Of the six, two men exercised direct authority over the Kenyan police who carried out 405 extrajudicial killings.

On December 3, 2010 armed Chilean troops equipped with riot gear opened fire on unarmed Rapanui civilians refusing to be evicted from ancestral lands. The police started shooting pellet guns and tear gassing at the Rapanui people who for months now have been reoccupying their lands.