April 25, 2025

Siberian Indigenous Counter Russia's Claim of Upholding Human Rights at U.N. Permanent Forum

Siberian Indigenous Counters Russia's Claim of Upholding Human Rights at United Nations

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 25, 2025

NEW YORK -- An Indigenous representative from Siberia countered the testimony of the Russian government and organizations at the United Nations, stating that his people, the Shors, are struggling to survive, pointing out the bureaucracy at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples.

"Our tribesmen are being fined for having fished for their own purposes, and in the hunting lands, where we have been hunting for centuries, we can only hunt in exchange for money."

Indigenous pensioners collecting firewood in the far north are made to pay huge fines, at a time when there is no other ways for them to obtain heating in their houses during the severe Siberian winter, he told the United Nations today.

The government and so-called leaders of the umbrella organizations are not even trying to change this situation and protect the rights of the tribes, he said.

Countering the situation, he said it is more important for them to interact with one another at the U.N. Permanent Forum.

"This is manipulation, acting in bad faith on the part of bureaucrats."

He said he is not speaking against his country, or the government, and is not speaking against the so-called leaders, but is speaking in favor of economic and social development for his people, and in favor of the culture and environment for the development of health care and education.

All of this needs to be done, he said, not in a way that people are "allowed" -- but must be done in the way that the people themselves want it done.

He said the dialogue during the closed meeting yesterday is a good example of the policy of "divide and pitting the indigenous peoples against each other within my country."

Questioning Russia's claim of providing rights and a sustainable government, he asked what goals have been obtained in regards to the Shor people.

"None I think."

"Leaders of umbrella organizations on behalf of a people here at the U.N. are disseminating bareface lies," he said.

During his testimony earlier this week, he referred to the statements of other delegates from Russia, and questioned if they live in the same country, or even on the same planet that he lives on. He pointed out that one town had been burned to the ground ten years ago.

In the Shor village of Kazas was destroyed due to coal mining activities in Siberia in 2013. The people who opposed the mines, and the houses of those who refused to sell, were burned down.

The representative spoke on behalf of the Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North (CSIPN), a Russian non-governmental organization that works to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in the Russian North, Siberia, and the Far East.

Read more in Censored News new series

In the Amazon, Indigenous leaders are killed, and there is no action by the United Nations

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/in-amazon-indigenous-leaders-are-killed.html

From the heart of the Amazon, women arise about violence, demand sanctions on mining

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/from-heart-of-amazon-women-rise-above.html

The ecocide of mining in Bolivia

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-ecocide-of-mining-testimony-at-un.html

Australian Indigenous brings power of warrior women to United Nations

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/australian-indigenous-brings-power-of.html

Fighting for the People, Protecting the Water, Dine' Rally at Navajo Nation Council

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/fighting-for-people-protecting-water.html

Navajo President is a 'No Show.' Dine' Say Nygren is Selling Them out in Washington

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/dine-coalition-opposes-navajo.html

U.N. Permanent Forum Begins with Voices of Indigenous Women

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/un-permanent-forum-on-indigenous-issues.html

Apaches ask lower court to stop government’s imminent transfer of sacred site

Photo courtesy Apache Stronghold

Apaches ask lower court to stop government’s imminent transfer of sacred site

There will be a Hearing May 7, 2025 @ 0930 @ Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse, 401 West Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85003

By Becket Law, Censored News, April 25, 2025

WASHINGTON – A coalition of Western Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies asked a federal court late yesterday to stop the U.S. government from handing over their sacred site at Oak Flat to a multinational mining giant as early as June 16, 2025.

In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year refused to stop the federal government from transferring Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a Chinese-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever (Watch this short video to learn more). The emergency appeal comes after the government announced last week it will forge ahead with the transfer even though the case is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Israeli/U.S. 'Spy Eyes' on Arizona Border: On the Tohono O'odham Nation, a College Campus, and Hidden in a Barrel

Israeli/U.S. 'Spy Eyes' on Arizona Border: On the Tohono O'odham Nation, a College Campus, and Hidden in a Barrel

Photos by Electronic Frontier Foundation, Censored News, April 25, 2025

The Israeli and U.S. spy cameras and sensors are hidden in a sand barrel and towering above, everywhere from the Tohono O'odham Nation to Cochise College and Organ Pipe National Monument. The Electronic Frontier Foundation photographed the 'spy eyes' all along the Arizona Border. Elbit System is an Israeli defense contractor that produces weaponized drones and surveillance for the genocide in Palestine, and constructed the spy towers on the Tohono O'odham Nation. -- Censored News

Here's an Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) at the Lukeville Port of Entry. (6/14)

And here's a close-up of the lenses on those IFTs from Elbit Systems. (7/14)

Meet Romeo! That's the designation Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) gave to these Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) cameras installed on this tower above Nogales. (2/14)

And here's the RVSS system named Juliet on a building in downtown Nogales. (3/14)

We found some automated license plate readers (ALPRs) disguised as roadside sand barrels. (4/14) .

Flock Safety ALPRs can also be found in border communities, such as this one in Douglas, Arizona. (5/14)

There's also a relocatable IFT on the Cochise College campus. (8/14)

And now for some long range photography. Here is a Mobile Surveillance Capability thermal imaging truck near the fence in Organ Pipe. (9/14)

Out in southeastern Arizona, our long range lens caught a new Anduril Industries AI-controlled surveillance tower. (10/14)

And then we found what we believe might be the first relocatable RVSS in Arizona parked out back of a Border Patrol station. (11/14)

Near the restroom at the gas station in Lukeville, there was a new tower meant to house a trail cam, but the camera hadn't been installed yet. (12/14)

On the way home, we snapped this ancient Skywatch tower. (13/14)

Border Surveillance Technology

Electronic Frontier Foundation

https://www.eff.org/issues/border-surveillance-technology

Government officials refer to surveillance technology at the U.S.-Mexico border as a “virtual wall,” when, in reality, it is a digital dumpster fire for human rights and civil liberties. Hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped into camera towers, drones, aerostats, surveillance vehicles, ground sensors, game cameras and license plate readers—all to the detriment of those who live, work, or seek refuge in the borderlands. This technology isn’t exclusive to U.S. federal agencies: it’s also deployed by state and local law enforcement, and even by governments on the Mexican side.

For more than a decade, EFF has been building our knowledge and advocacy capabilities on border tech issues using litigation, public records requests, research trips, interviews, open-source intelligence, and cross-organizational collaboration. Our focus can be viewed through the following lenses:

Surveillance at official ports of entry and border crossings. EFF’s work includes defending the rights of individuals whose devices have been searched or seized upon entering the country; investigating the collection of biometric and social media identifiers and pushing for stronger protections for this data; and developing digital security guidance for people crossing borders. EFF has also mapped out the network of automated license plate readers installed at checkpoints and land entry points along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Surveillance along the border, the so called “virtual wall.” EFF has mapped out more than 465 surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border and is in the process of creating a definitive pocket guide to the types of surveillance law enforcement deploys. We also regularly give presentations, and guided virtual reality tours to journalists, academics, and activists working in the borderlands. We also recently published a zine to people who live and/or work near the border to identify surveillance technology:
Local law enforcement surveillance. The borderlands often serve as a testing ground and entry point for military surveillance to be deployed in a domestic law enforcement context, before it is imported to the interior of the country. In addition, police and sheriffs in border communities often accept federal funding, either through grants or civil asset forfeiture, to purchase technologies in the name of border security. This situation is further complicated by state and local officials who take border security into their own hands, such as Texas’ Operation Lone Star and Cochise County, Arizona’s SABRE program.
Surveillance in the cloud. Immigration authorities access massive amounts of data through third party platforms and from local agencies. Migrants and asylum seekers are also required to use apps such as CBP One and to accept electronic monitoring while awaiting legal proceedings. EFF has advocated for sanctuary data policies restricting how ICE can access criminal justice and surveillance data.

EFF published a zine guide to surveillance tech at the border in May 2024. Download it here:

In 2024, we also released a dataset of hundreds of vendors that market technology to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its components.

EFF is also a member of the #MigrarSinVigilancia coalition, which opposes indiscriminate surveillance affecting migrants across Latin America and pushes for the protection of human rights by safeguarding migrants' privacy and personal data.

In the Amazon, Indigenous leaders are killed, and there's no action from the United Nations

In the Amazon, Indigenous leaders are assassinated, and there's no action from the United Nations

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 25, 2025

Watch https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIzlvG6hOTm/

NEW YORK -- Indigenous women in the Amazon question why there is no decisive action from the United Nations while leaders are being assassinated and mining and criminals flourish in the Amazon.

"We can not talk about implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples if we do not recognize that illegal mining, drug trafficking, illegal logging, human trafficking and other illicit activities are killing us."

Read the article at Mohawk Nation News

on Newshttps://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2025/04/24/tewahontiakwehniio-i-will-own-it-all/

April 24, 2025

From the Heart of the Amazon, Women Rise Above Violence, Demand Sanctions on Mining Companies

Fany Kuiru Castro, COICA, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Censored News

From the Heart of the Amazon, Women Rise Above Violence, Demand Sanctions on Mining Companies

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 24, 2025

NEW YORK -- From the heart of the Amazon, Indigenous women demand their voices be heard, and oil and mining companies be sanctioned for crimes against humanity for the metals poisoning their rivers and women.

"I'm not here by mere coincidence, I'm here with the strength of our grandchildren, our young people, and our martyrs," Fany Kuiru Castro, coordinator of COICA, told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

She said Indigenous women endure structural and systematic violence in the Amazon.

"We are age-old owners of the biological beating heart of the planet, but when we don't even have our rights to speak on its behalf recognized -- we can no longer remain silent."

Urging those present to speak out about the violence, and demand that the voices of Indigenous women be heard, she said, "Our territories voices ring out here."

"We don't want symbolic tokenistic invitations, we demand that we participate with a voice and a vote, this must be a binding obligation."

She said countries must carry out inquiries for the ongoing crimes against humanity and issue sanctions against businesses for the crimes of extractivism, oil and mining.

The oil and mining industries leave toxic contamination, arsenic, mercury and lead. Those medals contaminate the rivers and affect the reproductive health of the women, resulting in infertility, fetal abnormalities, miscarriages and rare illnesses, as was seen in Ecuador and other regions.

"We don't come to ask for your permission but to demand justice for our physical and cultural survival and our dignity -- because when an Indigenous woman speaks, she does not speak alone."

COICA is the largest Indigenous organization in the world and Fany Kuiru Castro is the first Indigenous woman to chair the organization after 40 years of existence.

COICA, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, is the Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica founded in 1984 in Lima, Peru.

Read more in Censored News series

From the heart of the Amazon, women arise about violence, demand sanctions on mining

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/from-heart-of-amazon-women-rise-above.html

The ecocide of mining in Bolivia

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-ecocide-of-mining-testimony-at-un.html

Australian Indigenous brings power of warrior women to United Nations

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/australian-indigenous-brings-power-of.html

Fighting for the People, Protecting the Water, Dine' Rally at Navajo Nation Council

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/fighting-for-people-protecting-water.html

Navajo President is a 'No Show.' Dine' Say Nygren is Selling Them out in Washington

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/dine-coalition-opposes-navajo.html

U.N. Permanent Forum Begins with Voices of Indigenous Women

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/un-permanent-forum-on-indigenous-issues.html

April 23, 2025

The Ecocide of Mining: Testimony at U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Bolivian Parliamentarian describes the genocide from mining in her homeland.

The Ecocide of Mining

Testimony at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 23, 2025

NEW YORK -- The extractive industries lead to extermination, to genocide, said the Indigenous Parliamentarian from Bolivia. Many of her Indigenous brothers and sisters have their blood contaminated with cyanide and mercury and others, and they have no access to hospitals. They don't have medical insurance, she said, and they have no way of alleviating this.

"The ecocide is continuing," she told the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York today.

The Sami Council representative describes the mining and violations of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Blood diamonds are the currency for weapons in the Congo.

In Europe, Sami rights are violated by mining without free, prior and informed consent. The mining of critical minerals is a global crisis for Indigenous Peoples, from Asia to Bolivia, Colombia and Guatemala, say Indigenous Peoples speaking today at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

The violence targeting Indigenous Peoples by mining companies continues globally during the so-called energy transition. And the majority of the mining companies are headquartered in Canada and Australia.

Australia is failing to back Indigenous leadership, said the representative from South Wales and Australia.

"Expelling invaders does not work, because they return," said Brazil's representative.

"We have been fighting and getting stronger, to reclaim the child in each of us," said an Indigenous representative from so-called Canada, speaking about surviving residential schools.

In the struggle for their land, he said, "We need the title to our land."

"We need the U.N. Declaration Rights on Indigenous Peoples and free, prior and informed consent." The rivers are being polluted, and massive landslides blocked the migration of salmon, and the salmon are the source of their food security.

Consent must be given by the people for resource extraction, he said.

The representatives said their children and women are not protected by the government of Canada, and continue to go missing.

"Our children are our greatest resource."

April 22, 2025

Australian Indigenous Brings Power of Warrior Women to U.N. Permanent Forum

Shantelle Thompson, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Censored News

Australian Indigenous Brings Power of Ngiyampaa Warrior Women to U.N. Permanent Forum

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 22, 2025

NEW YORK -- Shantelle Thompson, a proud Barkindji/Ngiyampaa, brought the power of the oldest living culture in the world, stating that Australian Aboriginal women are not victims, and do not sell out to fit the colonial narrative. Thompson, a world champion black belt, delivered this message of women rising.

Speaking to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Thompson said she descends from the oldest living culture in the world, is a dreaming-led woman, and comes as a sovereign, self-determined woman, walking with the strength of her ancestors, with the fire of the future in her bones, and planting seeds for generations.

She carries the identity of daughter, sister, mother, auntie, black belt and world champion, storyteller, founder, knowledge-keeper, guide and warrior.

She is known as the Barkindji Warrior.

"This is not the story or experience that colonial and patriarchal Australia would have me share as an Indigenous woman," Thompson told the United Nations today.

"It would have me birth my story from trauma and adversity, that of a victim."

"It is the narrative defined by deficit, of being a Ngiyampaa, less than."

"We are seen as problems to be managed, not sovereign and matriarchal leaders."

"Too often to receive support, we are expected to prostitute our trauma, we must perform our pain, but not be too strong, or the funding disappears."

'This is the violence of the current system, a model that rewards suffering and punishes resilience."

"It is ineffective, it is dangerous and it must change."

Thompson said her story is seeded in the womb of her ancestors, and this is the narrative that Indigenous women give to the world, that of the warrior heart, Indigenous culture, matriarchal power and feminine rising.

On this journey of remembrance, she speaks as a sovereign and self-determined Indigenous woman and mother.

"We are not broken, we are not helpless, we are powerful beyond measure."

"I am not here to ask for permission, I am here to remind the world that when Indigenous women rise, the world changes."

"Let us lead not as a gesture, but as a global necessity."

CENSORED NEWS