Censorship Debated at U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in New York

Navajo Councilwoman Eugenia Charles-Newton

Racism, land rights and a debate over censorship highlight the discussion at the U.N. Permanent Forum

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 28, 2025

Watch live 11th session https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1fqogq35h

NEW YORK -- Indigenous delegates were clearly frustrated, and spoke out against the self-glorifying statements of governments and NGOs, during the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues today.

Indigenous described the racism and discrimination in the U.S. and Canada. Censorship within the Permanent Forum was debated by delegates from Burundi, the Russian Federation and the United States.

Navajo Nation Councilwoman Eugenia Charles-Newton spoke on crime in Indian country, and the lack of felony prosecution on the Navajo Nation, during this morning session.

Charles-Newton described the Navajo Nation as a sovereign nation and "domestic dependent tribal nation" with a temporary tribal government that is similar to the U.S. government.

Our Right to Say 'No' -- Brazil's Indigenous in Amazon Demand Rights at U.N. Permanent Forum

 

"Our right to say 'No' is a fundamental part of our right to self-determination and must be respected," says an Indigenous representative from the Brazilian Amazon. "We don't accept our fundamental rights to be seen as a currency to be exchanged as a bargaining chip, or subject to negotiations." Speaking on the right to free, prior and informed consent, in defense of the land in the battle against mining, the representative said the rights of Indigenous in voluntary isolation must be protected as they naturally cross borders. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continues today in New York. -- Censored News.

Censored News new series

Amazon's Indigenous Leaders are Assassinated, and There's No Action by United Nations

Amazon's Indigenous Leaders are Assassinated and There's No Action by the United Nations

by Brenda Norrell

Sun, Apr 27, 2025 8:04AM

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. Speaking during the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, Indigenous women called for action by the United Nations and for countries to sanction mining and oil companies. In the Navajo Nation Capitol, Dine' women led rallies to protect their water from coal mining and radioactive uranium transport.

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

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 27, 2025

Censored News at Indybay

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. Speaking during the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Indigenous women called for action by the United Nations and for countries to sanction mining companies.

"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," Nely Shiguango, Quichua, told the U.N.

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'Fighting for the People, Protecting the Water' -- Dine' at Nation Council, Photos by Lydia Fasthorse

 

Photo by Lydia Fasthorse, Censored News

'Fighting for the People, Protecting the Water' Dine' at Navajo Nation Council, Photos by Lydia Fasthorse

Photo by Lydia Fasthorse, Censored News

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.

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."

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)

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

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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)

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

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

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

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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)

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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)

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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:  

1. 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.  
2. 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:
   
3. 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.  
4. 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

Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Napo (FOIN) at U.N. Censored News

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

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 25, 2025

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," said Nely Shiguango, Kichwa leader and Head of Education, Culture, and Women’s Affairs at the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Napo (FOIN) in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Mohawk Nation News 'I Will Own It All'

Read the article at Mohawk Nation News

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

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

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." 

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