Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

September 8, 2010

Mohawk Nation News editor joins grassroots delegation to Cancun climate summit

INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S DELEGATION
Mohawk, O'odham and Navajo delegation seeks sponsors for UN Climate Conference in Cancun, grassroots voices for safeguarding the rights of Mother Earth

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, will join a grassroots Indigenous delegation to the United Nations Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico. The Indigenous delegation of Mohawk, O'odham and Navajo, seeks financial sponsors to attend the summit, which follows the Bolivia Climate Summit.

Indigenous Peoples will join Bolivian President Evo Morales in Cancun to deliver the message from the summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia, held in April, focusing on the protection of the rights of Mother Earth, safeguarding the homelands of Indigenous Peoples and new standards for the reduction of greenhouse emissions. The Cancun summit will be held Nov. 29--Dec. 10, 2010.

Kahentinetha will travel with one other person, according to Haudenosaunee tradition. To sponsor Kahentinetha Horn and her traveling companion, please contact her at: kahentinetha2@yahoo.com

Ofelia Rivas, founder of the O'odham Voice Against the Wall, served as cochair of the important Working Group on Indigenous Peoples at the Bolivia Climate Summit in Cochabamba in April. Ofelia lives on Tohono O'odham land near the US/Mexico border and is a constant voice of human rights as a traditional, ceremonial O'odham. She is one of two women receiving the 2010 Borderlinks Women on the Border Award and advocates for the right of Indigenous Peoples to travel in their own territories without harassment. She is a supporter of the Zapatistas and the struggle for autonomy and dignity in Mexico. (Photo Ofelia Rivas, center, at Bolivia Climate Summit by Ben Powless, Mohawk.) To sponsor, e-mail contact via brendanorrell@gmail.com Cochabamba: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/final-conclusions-working-group-n%c2%ba7-indigenous-peoples

Michelle Cook, Navajo scholar and human rights activist, is currently a Fulbright scholar in New Zealand, learning about Maori traditions. Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, made a special request for sponsorship for Michelle, to assist Ofelia with the work in Cancun. Michelle focuses on Indigenous cultures and women's studies. Michelle attended the Bolivia Climate Summit in April, making the difficult journey from Auckland, New Zealand, to Cochabamba, Bolivia, on flights touching down across South America. While a student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, she was a voice for youth and women in the border struggle and supported the Zapatistas struggle for autonomy and dignity. Michelle urges Indigenous Peoples to work together in unity to obtain their goals. Her maternal grandparents live the traditional way of life on the Navajo Nation, living the Beauty Way. (Photo: Michelle Cook, left, at Bolivia Climate Summit.) To sponsor, e-mail Michelle Cook at: cookmichelle7@gmail.com

Earthcycles and Censored News Independent Media:
Along with the Indigenous grassroots delegation, Earthcycles grassroots radio producer, http://www.earthcycles.net/, Govinda, and Censored News publisher Brenda Norrell, http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ seek sponsors to provide independent online radio and print media coverage of the Cancun Climate Summit. (Photo: Govinda in his solar-powered radio bus, at the end of the 5-month Longest Walk Talk Radio across America in 2008. Photo by Lenny Foster in DC.) Contact Govinda at: govinda@earthcycles.net or brendanorrell@gmail.com
Round trip airfare from Tucson to Cancun is $400, and $500 from Montreal, depending on the date of purchase. Hostel and food costs will be at about $500 for each person for 12 days. Michelle Cook's airline ticket from New Zealand to Cancun roundtrip is $1,800.
The high costs in Cancun, a tourist city, add to the difficulty of grassroots Indigenous Peoples attending.
A special thank you to the sponsors of the Indigenous grassroots delegation to the Bolivia Climate Summit.
The Cancun Climate Summit, Nov 29 - 10 Dec 10, 2010, is the COP 16 & CMP 6 (UNFCCC) 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16)/ 6th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6.)
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Bolivia Peoples Agreement conclusions incorporated into United Nations Climate Change document
Press statement from Bolivian government
BONN, Germany -- After a week of negotiations, the main conclusions of the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Right of Mother Earth (Cochabamba, April 2010) have been incorporated in the document of United Nations on Climate Change, that now have been recognized as a negotiation text for the 192 countries which has been congregated in Bonn, Germany, during the first week august of 2010.
The most important points that have been incorporated for its consideration in the next round of negotiation before Cancun, that will take place in China, are:
· 50 % reduction of greenhouse gasses emission by developed countries for second period of commitments from the Kyoto Protocol years 2013 to 2017.
· Stabilize the rise of temperature to 1 C and 300 parts for million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
· To guarantee an equitable distribution of atmospheric space, taking into account the climate debt of emissions by developed countries for developing countries.
· Full respect for the Human Rights and the inherent rights of indigenous peoples, women, children and migrants.
· Full recognition to the United Nations Declaration on of Indigenous Peoples Rights.
· Recognition and defense of the rights of Mother Earth to ensure harmony with nature.
· Guarantee the fulfillment of the commitments from the developed countries though the building of an International Court of Climate Justice.
· Rejection to the new mechanisms of carbon markets that transfer the responsibility of the reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases from developed countries to developing countries.
· Promotion of measures that change the consumption patterns of the developed countries.
· Adoption of necessary measures in all relevant forums to be excluded from the protection of the intellectual property rights to technologies and ecologically sustainable useful to mitigate climate change.
· Developed countries will allocate 6% of their national gross product to actions relatives to Climate Change.
· Integrated management of forest, to mitigation and adaptation, without market mechanics and ensuring the full participation of indigenous peoples and local communities.
· Prohibition the conversion of natural forest for plantations, since the monoculture plantations are not forest, instead should encourage the protection and conservation of natural forests.

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