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| Indigenous in Chile battling transnational companies told the U.N. that the environmental impact statements are paid for by the companies who become the judge and jury of the outcome. Screenshot by Censored News |
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| Krystal Brant, Mohawk, Ontario Native Women's Association speaking at U.N. |
Indigenous Women: Land Defenders, Water Carriers, Life Givers, Assert Rights at United Nations
Updated July 13, 2024
GENEVA -- Indigenous women spoke of their ancestral languages woven into their relationship with the land, and as caretakers of biodiversity, from the deserts of the Sahara to Canada and the Amazon.
Linda Benally, Dine', representing the Native American Church of New Mexico, urged new measures be taken to ensure the protection of peyote, which is used as a sacrament in ceremonies with traditional languages. Benally told the United Nations that it is being exploited, over-harvested by individuals and that pharmaceutical companies are using for its mescaline.
The World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, passed a groundbreaking Treaty related to Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge at the WIPO Diplomatic Conference.
"Genetic resources include those that are found in medicinal plants and the traditional knowledge associated with the use of such medicinal plant," the Native American Church of New Mexico said in a statement in May.
Statement Native American Church of North America
GENEVA -- Indigenous women spoke of their ancestral languages woven into their relationship with the land, and as caretakers of biodiversity, from the deserts of the Sahara to Canada and the Amazon.
Speaking out against oppression and genocide from Armenia and Vietnam to the Americas, where they are celebrated as "folklore," while being violently oppressed, Indigenous women urged new measures to ensure justice for land defenders, murdered and missing Indigenous women, and increased efforts to protect medicine plants from exploitation, during the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
An Indigenous woman from Chile said the laws in Chile regarding consultation with Indigenous Peoples benefit the transnational companies. She pointed out that the environmental impact statements are paid for by the companies who become the judge and jury of the outcome.
"They allow for a passive participation based on folklore. This constitutes domination through participation," she told the U.N.
She said Chile is failing to recognize all Indigenous Peoples, and Indigenous rights on ancestral lands in cross-border regions.
Chile is prioritizing the interests of transnational corporations, she told the U.N., describing the struggle for constitutional reform in Chile.
"It is our inherent right as land defenders, water carriers and life givers, to speak on our own behalf and represent ourselves, our families and our future generations," Krystal Brant told the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples today, during the fourth day in the week-long session in Geneva.
Brant, Bear Clan, Mohawk and vice president of the Ontario Native Women's Association, urged governments to ensure Indigenous women's full, effective and meaningful participation and leadership, in decision-making at all levels.
"We hold the solutions to the issues that we face yet the U.N. and State's policies seek to exclude us," Brant said on behalf of the Ontario Native Women's Association, representing 30 Indigenous women's groups.
Canada is leaving Indigenous women's organizations out of relations, in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she told the U.N.
"Canada for example has adopted a distinctions-based, nation-to-nation, policy for Indigenous relations that favor national organizations -- excluding Indigenous women's voices. This is in direct contradiction to UNDRIP."
The current remedies, including Treaties, are not leading to actual changes in the daily lives of Indigenous Peoples, she said.
"Canada's inaction in response to the ongoing missing and murder indigenous women and girls crisis is a form of systemic and structural violence against Indigenous women."
"Today, only two of the 231 National Inquiries into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls for justice have been implemented."
Brant urged the Expert Mechanism to recommend to the Human Rights Council to consider the development of a dedicated United Nations mechanism or body, led by and for Indigenous women, to further their rights and advance implementation of recommendations that ensure Indigenous women's leadership and safety.
Canada is leaving Indigenous women's organizations out of relations, in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she told the U.N.
"Canada for example has adopted a distinctions-based, nation-to-nation, policy for Indigenous relations that favor national organizations -- excluding Indigenous women's voices. This is in direct contradiction to UNDRIP."
The current remedies, including Treaties, are not leading to actual changes in the daily lives of Indigenous Peoples, she said.
"Canada's inaction in response to the ongoing missing and murder indigenous women and girls crisis is a form of systemic and structural violence against Indigenous women."
"Today, only two of the 231 National Inquiries into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls for justice have been implemented."
Brant urged the Expert Mechanism to recommend to the Human Rights Council to consider the development of a dedicated United Nations mechanism or body, led by and for Indigenous women, to further their rights and advance implementation of recommendations that ensure Indigenous women's leadership and safety.
"We need action and accountability to keep Indigenous women safe."
Survival in the Sahara
Aïcha Walet Ahmed, Tuareg people, Land is Life Indigenous Women fellow, with her mentor M Aboubakrine. Photo Land is Life.
Aïcha Walet Ahmed, Tuareg from the Sahara region of Africa, spoke eloquently of Indigenous Peoples as caretakers of the world's biodiversity, and of survival for her people.
Ahmed told the U.N., “For some Indigenous Peoples from Africa, like my own, effective participation is today a matter of survival. The recurrent conflicts on our territory is provoking the genocide of our people.'
"We can no longer keep count of the massacres, summary executions and rapes, the occupation of grazing areas, drone strikes on nomadic camps and so on, the list goes on. Our indigenous people are forced to flee their lands to seek refuge in various countries."
"This destroys our traditional institutions, our rich cultural and social values are affected and our survival as a people is threatened. It's a tragedy that has been going on for over 60 years, and requires an urgent solution.”
Protecting Medicine and Ceremonial Knowledge
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| Linda Benally, Dine', speaking today at the U.N. Screenshot Censored News |
Linda Benally, Dine', representing the Native American Church of New Mexico, urged new measures be taken to ensure the protection of peyote, which is used as a sacrament in ceremonies with traditional languages. Benally told the United Nations that it is being exploited, over-harvested by individuals and that pharmaceutical companies are using for its mescaline.
"This medicinal plant is currently vulnerable to over-harvesting by individuals and appropriation by pharmaceutical companies who are developing synthetic versions of what science has identified as its active ingredient – mescaline – without consultation or consent of the Indigenous Peoples who have long treated Peyote as a sacrament. Indigenous People relate to the medicinal plant as interconnected and explicable only as a whole," Benally told the U.N.
While urging more action be taken to ensure protection of peyote as a medicine, and the traditional ways of ceremonies, Benally pointed out that a historic Treaty was passed recognizing and protecting the genetic resources in medicinal plants and traditional knowledge in Geneva in May.
The World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, passed a groundbreaking Treaty related to Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge at the WIPO Diplomatic Conference.
"Genetic resources include those that are found in medicinal plants and the traditional knowledge associated with the use of such medicinal plant," the Native American Church of New Mexico said in a statement in May.
The WIPO Treaty includes a requirement that patent applicants “disclose” when their patent applications are based on traditional knowledge obtained from Indigenous People.
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/leonard-peltiers-words-conclude-un.html
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/leonard-peltiers-words-conclude-un.html
Linda Benally on behalf of Native American Church of North America – State of New Mexico, Inc. (1981) Ya’at’eeh, greetings Chair and Excellencies. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Native American Church-State of New Mexico, Inc.
Our mission is to support the protection of American Indian religious, ceremonial, spiritual and traditional practices.
The NAC is comprised of tribal citizens, including individuals of the Navajo Nation from Shiprock, New Mexico. We call on the EMRIP to consider adding advice about the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) in the context of traditional plant knowledge and traditional ceremonial practices.
Indigenous Peoples have rights over their traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions, and genetic resources, recognized in Articles 11, 12, 24, 25, and 31 of the Declaration. As duty-bearers under international law, member states have the affirmative responsibility to prevent infringement of these rights.
Yet states, including the United States, are currently failing to prevent widespread exploitation of the Peyote plant and to protect the habitat in which it grows. This medicinal plant is currently vulnerable to over-harvesting by individuals and appropriation by pharmaceutical companies who are developing synthetic versions of what science has identified as its active ingredient – mescaline – without consultation or consent of the Indigenous Peoples who have long treated Peyote as a sacrament. Indigenous People relate to the medicinal plant as interconnected and explicable only as a whole.
We applaud the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) member States for adopting the Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge (Treaty). This historic new Treaty, adopted on May 24, 2024, is the first-ofits-kind that addresses the interface between intellectual property, genetic resources, and traditional knowledge.
The Treaty’s requirement that patent applicants disclose when their patent applications are based on traditional knowledge obtained from Indigenous Peoples presents an opportunity for better protection of Indigenous Peoples Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. Item No. 3 July 8, 2024 2 We call on member states, including the United States, to sign, ratify, and implement this WIPO Treaty.
Secondly, we welcome EMPRIP Advice No. 17 on measures to achieve the ends of the Declaration, and call on member states, including the United States, to: a. Respect Indigenous knowledge in agency planning and decision-making with respect to lands, habitats, natural resources, and ecosystems;
and b. Create autonomous Indigenous-specific institutions, such as a national commission, to implement the Declaration. More specifically, the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture should deploy Joint Secretarial Order No. 4303 (2021) on co-stewardship to enable management of former tribal lands and territories to protect the limited natural habitat of medicinal plants and ecosystems.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Ahe’hee.
Presented to: United Nations Seventeenth Session of the Expert Mechanism on Rights of Indigenous People Item 3 July 8, 2024 Study on Constitutions, laws, legislation, policies, judicial decisions, and other mechanisms through which States have taken measures to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in accordance with Article 38 of the Declaration.
Original Series by Censored News
Testimony at U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva, July 2024
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Please send corrections, additions, statements to Brenda Norrell brendanorrell@yahoo.com
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