Thursday, October 25, 2007

Indigenous Border Summit responds to human rights crisis

Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7 -- 10, focuses on human rights and right of mobility

SAN XAVIER, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION -- A human rights crisis for Indigenous Peoples living along borders in the Americas threatens their survival, with rapidly expanding militarization and new laws which limit their mobility in their ancestral territories.
Responding to this crisis, the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation will host the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7- 10, with support from the International Indian Treaty Council.
Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham summit organizer, said, "It is necessary for Tohono O'odham and other Indigenous Peoples of the border regions to collectively address the adverse impacts that are increasingly occurring on tribal lands. The Border Summit of the Americas II will provide us the opportunity to do just that."
San Xavier District Chairman Austin Nunez joins Flores in welcoming Indigenous Peoples to the Border Summit on Tohono O'odham land, located near South Tucson.
"Welcome," Nunez said, "Our community is pleased to be hosting this year's conference."
The Border Summit will host a human rights workshop by the International Indian Treaty Council. The summit will be broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.earthcycles.net/ as was done in 2006.
From the southern Andes to the northern Arctic, corporations intent on seizing natural resources have increased the oppression and displacement of Indigenous Peoples, resulting in their forced mobility across national borders.
Further, free trade agreements, mining and exploitative development have forced Indigenous Peoples into exile in the Americas, displaced from their lands where they farmed, hunted or fished for survival.
In the United States, corporate profiteering for private migrant prisons, experimental spy technology, poorly trained border agents, privatized security and new laws for immigration threaten the right of mobility in ancestral territories.
The human rights crisis at the southern border of the United States and Mexico has resulted in over 4,000 migrant deaths in recent years, including deaths of women from Guatemala on Tohono O'odham tribal land in Arizona who died walking with their children in 2007.
Migrants, including Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and Central America, die of dehydration and severe temperatures while walking in search of a better life. The Border Summit speakers will include Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson, who puts out water for migrants on tribal land.
“No one should die for want of a drink of water,” Wilson said.
The privatization of prisons, including the T. Don Hutto Residential Center and Raymondville migrant tent encampment, both near Austin, Texas, reveals the sinister motivation of profiteering from the plight of migrants. Hutto imprisons migrant and refugee infants and children.
Speakers will include Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr., of Texas, among those organizing protests against the prisons and border wall.
In May, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for migrants, Jorge Bustamante, was denied entrance into Hutto, and Johnson-Castro helped organize the human rights protests that followed.
The border wall and border vehicle barriers along the southern border have resulted in the removal of ancestors’ remains of the Tohono O'odham and Kumeyaay from their final resting places. Further, the barrier wall on Tohono O'odham land is a barrier interfering with an ancient annual ceremony.
Since ceremonial leaders from Mexico often lead ceremonies in the United States, new immigration laws threaten the survival of ceremonies, culture and languages. Because many Indian people are born at home, or lack funds for visas and passports, crossing the border has become a harsh ordeal.Further, at both the northern and the southern borders of Canada and Mexico, federal border agents ransack and violate ceremonial items.
Speakers on the right of mobility at the northern border include a delegation of Mohawks from Turtle Island.
With the increased militarization and surveillance at the borders, the dangers from speeding border agents, aerial vehicle crashes and abuse and harassment by border agents increase.
Women, children and elderly along the border are most often the victims of oppression and suffer most often from the lack of food, safe drinking water and medicines.With the militarization and oppression increasing for Indigenous Peoples around the world, the Border Summit of the Americas invites Indian people to offer their testimony while receiving information and training on human rights.
The International Indian Treaty Council will present a human rights training, following the United Nations adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The US will be examined by the UN Committee for Racial Discrimination (CERD) Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland.
“This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this country and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law,” IITC said.
“An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.”
The human rights workshop presenters will be Bill Means, Lakota cofounder of the Treaty Council; Andrea Carmen, Yaqui and Treaty Council executive director; Ron Lameman, Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, and Francisco Cali, CERD Member and Treaty Council board president.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Treaty Council presents human rights training during Border Summit

Human Rights Training

Using the United Nations to hold the US accountable for Racism towards Indigenous Peoples & Strategies for Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

You are invited!
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) will conduct a workshop focusing on holding the United States' accountable to its legally binding obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The US will be examined by the CERD Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland. This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this county and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law.

An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.

PRESENTERS: Bill Means (Introduction & MC); Andrea Carmen (IITC Executive Director); Ron Lameman (Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations), Francisco Cali (CERD Member, IITC Board President)

This workshop is being held in conjunction with the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II” from November 7-10, 2007 which will be held at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation. For more information on the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit.

Contact Kim Garcia at (520) 573-4000 or by e-mail at kgarcia@waknet.org or Mike Flores, (520) 235-2406, email: Michaelflores_@hotmail.com or bordersummit2007@yahoo.com

http://www.treatycouncil.org/

Working for the Rights and Recognition of Indigenous Peoples

Updated agenda and speakers
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/blackfire-to-perform-at-border-summit.html

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

River Park Inn rooms reserved for Border Summit 2007

Room reservations for Border Summit
The Indigenous Peoples' Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7 -10, 2007, has reserved a block of rooms at the River Park Inn for $69 plus tax, per night for rooms with two queen beds. It is located off I-10 near downtown.
River Park Inn
Main: 520.239.2300
Toll Free: 800.551.1466
Fax: 520.622.8143

Free full breakfast; high speed Internet access; heated pool & jacuzzi; microwave; free parking; pet friendly; refrigerator; room service available from Bennigan's on site.
http://www.theriverparkinn.com/

Camping available at San Xavier, on site at the Border Summit
Campground includes sweatlodge and showers, please bring tents and sleeping bags

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II

Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II

INVITATION AND ANNOUNCEMENT

We are honored and pleased to invite you to the Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II from November 7-10, 2007 at the San Xavier Community Center, 2018 W. San Xavier Rd, Tohono O’odham Nation.

It is hosted and coordinated by the San Xavier Tohono O’odham District Community.The Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II will provide the opportunity for Indigenous peoples of the border regions to exchange experiences and information about how the international borders impact their respective communities.

It will also create a way to unite Indigenous Peoples to address and resolve issues of mutual concern affecting our traditional homelands, cultural and ceremonial practices, sacred sites, treaty rights, health and way of life.

The San Xavier Community/District previously hosted border summits in 1989 and 2006, recognizing the critical issues facing the Tohono O’odham and other indigenous nations divided by international borders (US/Mexico/Canada). By again hosting an Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas, San Xavier Community wants to promote the human rights of indigenous peoples and support each other in our common struggles.

The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is co-sponsoring the Summit, and will be the fiscal sponsor. The IITC is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America and the Pacific, working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights, Treaties, traditional cultures and sacred lands.

IITC representatives will provide training and updates on new developments at the United Nations during the Summit, including the recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and how we can use the UN to hold countries, including the US, accountable for human rights violations.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas II, will build awareness and educate all peoples about the impacts of polices and practices being carried out along the borders. We hope that you, your Nations and your organizations can participate and we look forward to seeing you in the San Xavier Community in November, 2007.

Updated agenda and speakers:
http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com/2007/11/blackfire-to-perform-at-border-summit.html
Contact: bordersummit2007@yahoo.com