Content Note: The following includes disturbing information on violence against Indigenous Peoples.
In November 2023, the University of California Network for Human Rights and Digital Fact-finding of the University of California, in partnership with Cultural Survival, published a Story Map on Indigenous land defenders who have been killed in Brazil.
Georges Theodore Dougnon (Dogon), Capacity Building Program Assistant, hails from central Mali. He holds a Master's degree in Global Governance, Intercultural Relations, and Peace Process Management from the University of Siena in Italy. He is deeply committed to community engagement and envisions a world where peace and justice prevail. As a human rights and social change activist, he devotes his free time to various community engagement projects and initiatives aimed at fostering social change. Drawing inspiration from the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, Georges firmly believes that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere... Whatever affects one of us directly, affects all of us indirectly." His passion for advocacy and dedication to creating a more just society drive his ongoing efforts toward positive change and equality. Georges speaks English, French, Italian, Dogon, Fulani, and Bambara. Contact Georges at: georges.dougnon@culturalsurvival.org.
By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee)
By Bia'ni Madsa' Juárez López (Ayuuk and Binnizá)
The Tehuantepec Isthmus in Oaxaca, Mexico, is a territory shared among the Binnizá, Ikoots, Angpøn, and Ayuuk Peoples that produces 76.8 percent of the country's wind energy. As of January 2020, 1,600 wind turbines had been installed here at 32 wind farms, and thousands more are in construction plans, in an effort to secure "green energy" to combat climate change.
By Reynaldo A. Morales and Diana K. Elhard
In October 2023, Cultural Survival and our partner organization Qhana Pukara Kurmi submitted a joint alternative stakeholder report on the situation of Indigenous rights in Bolivia for the 111th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which will take place in Geneva from November 20-December 8, 2023.
By CS Staff
On September 20-24, 2023, overlooking Hoerikwaggoa (Table Mountain) in Cape Town, South Africa, Indigenous people from Africa and abroad gathered to exchange experiences about implementing the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the context of mineral extraction.
By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar) CS staff
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, concluded his four-day visit to Nepal on November 1, where he highlighted the urgent need for global attention to the climate crisis in the Himalayas. Despite the war in the Middle East, he chose to visit Nepal, perhaps to draw attention to another catastrophe—the climate crisis—a month before UNFCCC COP28 is set to take place in Dubai.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
