U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Begins in Geneva

U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Begins in Geneva

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 13, 2026

Christine Diindiisi McCleave, PhD, Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe, said commercial industries are using Indigenous medicines for profit, and the psychedelic movement is making money from Indigenous medicines. Traditional medicine is increasingly  targeted by rapidly expanding psychedelic industries. While others profit, Indigenous struggle to maintain their culture. She said extracting Indigenous resources and knowledge is a contemporary form of colonization for global markets. Dr. McCleave represents the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund.

 "Around the world, Indigenous medicines and knowledge systems are being commercialized without our free, prior, and informed consent. Others profit from our medicines and our ceremonies while Indigenous communities struggle to maintain our cultural survival and economic self-determination," Dr. McCleave said.

"At the same time, psychedelic churches and new religious movements invoke religious freedom protections to gain access to indigenous medicines, ceremonies, and sacred knowledge without acknowledging the ethnocide, forced assimilation, cultural prohibition, and religious conversion that was inflicted upon indigenous peoples globally through colonization."

"My doctoral research shows that the psychedelic movement is in fact ongoing colonization inflicting harm upon Indigenous peoples and extracting our Indigenous resources and knowledge. In this perpetuation of colonization, Indigenous peoples bear the costs of resource depletion, cultural appropriation, and ecological harm while others accumulate wealth and influence."

"This is an ongoing conflict situation for Indigenous peoples, a contemporary form of colonial extraction in which Indigenous medicine medicines, knowledge, and spiritual traditions are transformed into commercial, religious, and pharmaceutical products for global markets."

ECUADOR -- An Indigenous representative from Ecuador described how Ecuadorian security forces fired projectiles and tear gas at Indigenous on strike in September and October, killing four people, injuring 880 people, and imprisoning 225 people. Indigenous in Ecuador asked the U.N. to help ensure the constitutional rights of those who work in agriculture, and help ensure their protection from harassment and prosecution by the government.

"The communities of the Quechua received as a state response criminalization, criminalized as terrorists, and persecution," he testified. "We also suffered a systemic pattern of institutional abuse through the imposition of continuous states of emergency, arbitrary detention, and the political repression— 225 political detainees."

"What happened in Ecuador wasn't a response to public order, but a systematic response against indigenous peoples who've protected their fundamental rights."

Tohono O'odham Ophelia Rivas Speaks on Israeli Spy Towers in Spain

"Our Fire is Burning," Tohono O'odham Ophelia Rivas Speaks on Israeli Spy Towers in Barcelona, Spain

Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, speaks at Build Peace in Spain. Photo Build Peace, Censored News

Building Peace Conference in Spain

By Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, Censored News, Nov. 22, 2025

French translation by Christine Prat

https://chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=8603

SANTA COLOMA de GRAMENET, Spain -- Today I am speaking of the absence of true peace on O'odham lands, including personal peace, peace for plants and animals, peace for mountains and valleys, and peace for water and air.

The O'odham are under continuous surveillance from the U.S. government perspective of border security for protection of the american way of life.

U.S. and Canada Among Top Violators of Indigenous Rights: Mining, Militarization and Boarding Schools

Paiute Shoshone elders and mothers defending the unmarked burial place of Paiutes massacred here, are now being sued by Lithium Americas of Canada.

U.S. and Canada Among Top Violators of Indigenous Rights: Mining, Militarization and Boarding Schools

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 1, 2023

French translation by Christine Prat

Published today on Indybay

GENEVA -- The United States and Canada are among the top countries violating the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, with mining companies based in the U.S. and Canada linked to assassinations of Native people around the world, Indigenous told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The United States is responsible for accelerating the crimes against humanity with its endless war, resulting in the deaths of millions of innocent people, which benefits its war manufacturers.

Canada's long history of abuse of Native people includes the mandate for churches to seize Native children from their families and institutionalize them in residential schools, resulting in abuse, torture and murder, and generations of trauma. The Pope confirmed the Catholic Church was responsible for the genocide of Native people in 2022. Currently, Mohawk Mothers in Montreal are monitoring the search for graves at McGill University, the site of a CIA torture site.

Indigenous Peoples Under Attack by Militarized Forces: From Peru to the Tohono O'odham Nation, murder with impunity

United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Human Rights Council

Indigenous Peoples Under Attack by Militarized Forces: From Peru to the Tohono O'odham Nation, Murder with Impunity

Native Hawaiians and Indigenous in Guam want the US military out; Russian youths want an end to war


By Brenda Norrell, Censored News

July 17, updated July 29, 2023

GENEVA -- Native Hawaiians want the US military off their lands, and training exercises in the Pacific shut down. An aquifer has been poisoned in Honolulu, and unexploded ordinances left behind make lands inaccessible.

Christopher Edward said the U.S. military installation in Hawaii is the largest in the world, 200,000 acres, and has resulted in the displacement of Native Hawaiians from their traditional lands. Edward testified before the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Edward joined Indigenous from around the world in reporting human rights abuses, during the session, "The Impact of Militarization on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

United Nations -- Criminalization of Indigenous Water Protectors

View the Report 

Indigenous Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline criminalization of dissent and suppression of protest

Article by Brenda Norrell, Censored News

NEW YORK -- Broadcast live from the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues event, LaDonna Allard of Sacred Stone Camp, describes how the youths at Standing Rock used social media, and ran across the country, and launched the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline.

LaDonna, among those on the panel, describes the attack on Sept. 3, 2016, and how the water protectors were maced. She stood out in the middle of the attack dogs. "Blood was running from his mouth," she said of one of the attack dogs. "The young men came with their horses, and put their horses between us and the dogs."

She always thought the laws of the United States are just.

At that moment, she realized no, the laws of the U.S. are not just.

"I am really angry.  I watched some really good people get hurt."

The militia groups came, the military came.

They were shooting people, macing people.

Percussion grenades, water cannons.

"I watched very amazing young people stand up in prayer, ceremony and song."

The police engaged in military strategy.

Then, they brought in the military, attacking people, and they began the propaganda.

The newspapers carried the propaganda.

"That's when I realized money buys everyone's souls."

She said there is no law by these corporations.
"You don't have a right to build a pipeline outside my home," she said.
"Someone has to show me America is a just system."
Speaking of her Dakota ancestors, LaDonna said, "We never had a conflict with America, and you came and killed us anyway."
She describes how officials came to take her land.
"How many times do I have to start again in my home."
LaDonna said she knows the history of the land for 10,000 years.
"I have the roots growing right out of my feet."
"I will stand until I die there."
Indigenous Peoples are holding on for the world, she said of the protection for all liing things and Mother Earth.
"We want the world to live."
"There's no more time."
"It is now you must stand up."


Video above by Cultural Survival Michelle Cook (Dine’) speaks about Standing Rock! "We are asking for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarding Standing Rock...Media plays a role in the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples because it desensitizes people."

Michelle Cook, Dine' attorney and panelist, was among those who went to stand with LaDonna.
"We are going to keep fighting for justice," Michelle said during her presentation.
Michelle describes how she helped begin the Water Protectors Legal Collective, in an army tent at Standing Rock.
She describes how helicopters circled overhead, and there were children in the camp, with nothing more than feathers and prayers to protect them.
Michelle tells how water protectors are in jail, and some are waiting trial or sentencing.
Since Standing Rock, there have been 58 bills introduced to deny free speech and assembly.
Who pays for it? Energy Transfer Partners gave $15 million to North Dakota.
If we can not find justice in the United States, we need to go to the international justice system, Michelle said.
While at Standing Rock, Michelle received death threats, but the threats only made her more determined.
"We have also been going to the banks," she said, describing the divestment efforts of the financial institutions who invest in Dakota Access Pipeline and fossil fuels.
Now, Michelle asked how water protectors can seek help for post traumatic stress syndrome.
In the report just released, attorneys urge that criminal charges be dropped against water protectors, and there be reparations for victims.
She also describes the role of the media.
"We have to create our own media," she said, adding that the media has been compromised.
"We are threatened with extinction."
Indigenous Peoples are the ones protecting the land.
"That is who I am."
"We realized who we are."
Now, she said, "We need action."
Michelle said she is thankful for what has happened.
"It changed my life for the better."
"We are not going to give up."
"We are going to work harder."
The report, “Indigenous Resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline: Criminalization of 

Dissent and Suppression of Protest,” makes the following recommendations:

• Drop all criminal charges against the water protectors
• Investigate, punish, and provide appropriate reparations for all human rights violations, including the use of excessive force and mass arrests in response to DAPL opposition; OR convene a truth commission with the indigenous representative institutions of the Oceti Šakowiŋ
• Adopt a regulatory framework to supervise and monitor activities of extractive industries and energy companies, private security firms and other non-state actors to prevent human rights violations in regard to activities that affect indigenous peoples and their lands
• Provide training to law enforcement and private security on best practices for managing peaceful demonstrations; the right to free expression and assembly; and indigenous peoples rights under international law
• Implement national measures to protect indigenous human rights defenders in compliance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international standards to ensure the full enjoyment of their rights to free expression and assembly
• Regulate/restrict transfer of military-grade weapons and equipment to local law enforcement
• Direct prosecutors to seek proportionate penalties for protestors who violate the law
• Reject or amend state legislation that violates the right to free assembly

Thursday, April 19, 2018:

https://www.facebook.com/CampOfTheSacredStone/videos/2077628722526155/

Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance and the Criminalization of Indigenous Human Rights Defenders

By Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy, University of Arizona
Event: Thursday, April 19, 2:45–4 PM
United Nations Secretariat Building, New York
(Room S-2725 BR)

IPLP is convening a panel of experts to discuss the criminalization of peaceful protest as part of United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The event is titled “Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance and the Criminalization of Indigenous Human Rights Defenders,” and takes place April 19, 2:45–4 PM PM at the United Nations Secretariat Building (Room S-2725 BR).

The event will feature leading human rights scholars and activists who will discuss the criminalization of indigenous activists and the need for protection of indigenous human rights defenders worldwide. If you are attending UNPFII, join IPLP for a critical discussion on the criminalization of indigenous human rights defenders worldwide.

The panelists for the event are:

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is an indigenous leader from the Kankanaey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines. She is a social development consultant, indigenous activist, civic leader, human rights expert, public servant, and an advocate of women's rights in the Philippines. She was the former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010). As an indigenous leader she got actively engaged in drafting and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. She helped build the indigenous peoples' movement in the Cordillera as a youth activist in the early 1970s. She helped organize indigenous peoples in the community level to fight against the projects of the Marcos Dictatorship such as the Chico River Hydroelectric Dam and the Cellophil Resources Corporation. These communities succeeded in stopping these.

Elifuraha Laltaika (Member, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)
Elifuraha Laltaika is the executive director of association for law and advocacy for pastoralists (ALAPA) and a law lecturer of Tumaini University Makumira (Arusha, Tanzania). He previously served as a Harvard Law School visiting researcher. He holds a Doctorate in Law from the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program. Elifuraha is an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and a member of the Tanzanian national Bar association (Tanganyika Law Society). Mr. Laltaika has 10 year’s experience working on indigenous peoples’ issues, including as senior fellow at OHCHR in Geneva. He is currently employed as a Lecturer in Law in Tanzania.

Seanna Howard (Professor, University of Arizona, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program)
Seánna Howard teaches International Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples and the International Human Rights Advocacy Workshop. Professor Howard has been with the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program since 2006, representing indigenous communities on precedent setting cases before the Inter-American and United Nations human rights systems.

Carla Fredericks (Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder School of Law)
Carla Fredericks is Director of the American Indian Law Clinic and Director of the American Indian Law Program (AILP), which serves as the umbrella organization for Colorado Law's academic, practice-focused, and community outreach activities in American Indian law.  She is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Columbia Law School. At Colorado Law, Fredericks leads a year-long clinic in which students have the opportunity to represent American Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals in a variety of matters, designed to ready students for the complexities of general counsel work. Fredericks is also of counsel to Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan LLP, where she focuses on complex and appellate litigation and Native American affairs, representing Indian tribes and organizations in a variety of litigation and policy matters.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (Sacred Stone Camp Founder)
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard is a mother, Lakota historian, land-owner along the Dakota Access Pipeline route, and the founder of Sacred Stone Camp, the first prayerful resistance camp opened as part of the movement to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. By December 2016, more than 10,000 Indigenous people and environmental activists were camping in the area on and around LaDonna’s home. She has been a major catalyst and leader in the Standing Rock movement, which has become the perhaps the largest ever intertribal alliance on the American continent, with over 200 Indigenous nations represented. With most Standing Rock defenders now departed from her land - LaDonna remains as a ceaseless voice for her people, the Earth and the water - sharing her story and calls to action at platforms around the world as she continues to advocate for justice. Allard is an enrolled member of, and former historical preservation officer for, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Her people are Inhunktonwan from the Jamestown Valley, Hunkpapa and Blackfoot.

Michelle Cook (SJD Candidate, IPLP)
Michelle Cook is an indigenous human rights lawyer and SJD candidate at Arizona Law’s Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program. She is writing her dissertation on international law, indigenous people’s human rights, gender, sexuality, and indigenous transnationalism. She is a founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective, the on-the-ground legal team which provides legal services to those arrested at the Standing Rock encampment.

Kanyinke Sena (Member, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights)
Kanjinke currently serves as Member of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa (Working Group). A member of the Ogiek indigenous community of Kenya, Kanyinke is a long-time advocate for inclusionary approaches to conservation policy and indigenous peoples’ rights in Africa. He currently serves as a Professor of Law at Egerton University in Kenya. Prior to his role as Member of the Working Group, Kanyinke served as chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from 2013–14.

O'odham and Anarchist Thanksgiving Day Protest Against Border Patrol

Article and photos courtesy of O'odham and Anarchist solidarity action
Censored News

"On Thursday, November 28th, 2013, a group of people made up by members of the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Anti-Colonial Anarchist Bloc, and various Tucson community members in solidarity with those resisting ongoing colonisation on stolen Native land, gathered in front of the gates to the Border Patrol headquarters at Golf Links and Swan in Tucson. 

They carried banners and signs and spoke passionately about their reasons for skipping "thanksgiving" celebrations in order to draw attention to the ways that colonisation is being perpetuated by institutions such as U.S. Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, Tucson Police, the University of Arizona, the mayor and council of Flagstaff, and the Arizona Department of Transportation. 

Ofelia Rivas, a grandmother from the O'odham Nation, welcomed the group in her traditional language and spoke to the ways that she has experienced harassment and abuse from U.S. Border Patrol occupying her Nation's lands. She described the ways that the checkpoints on the Nation, and the activity of the Border Patrol agents, make it impossible for O'odham people to participate in traditional ceremonies, and how this disrupts traditional culture. 

She spoke about how the demanding of proof of "american citizenship", to people who sometimes do not not have birth documents, systematically disrupts the freedom of O'odham people. She described scenarios in which O'odham people had been held at gunpoint by Border Patrol officers. And as she spoke, a bus packed with people being detained by Border Patrol drove through the gates. Some of the protesters cried, some waved, some booed the agency and its atrocities, while a large banner advocating "¡Fuera Migra! ¡Fuera Policía!" was held up for people on the bus to see, who waved and watched as they were taken away.

Chants to "End U.S. Imperialism!", to get "Off O'odham lands!", saying "No Thanks For Genocide!", and to take down the border were heard by people in their cars at the busy intersection, likely traveling on the holiday to visit family and celebrate what protesters called "a distraction from genocidal violence that is ongoing." A banner that loudly pronounced "NO BORDER PATROL ON STOLEN LAND" was held high. A list of demands was read, including that Border Patrol immediately leave Tohono O'odham lands and deconstruct all surveillance equipment on those lands, and that they close down ALL Border Patrol checkpoints, especially those on O'Odham lands.

The protest ended with a closing from Ofelia Rivas, and a promise from the group that they will continue to demand accountability and an end to ongoing colonialism long after the distraction of "thanksgiving" is replaced by another one."

Please share this link (located in your browser)
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/11/oodham-and-anarchist-thanksgiving-day.html

Exposed: US Border Patrol plans massive complex on sovereign Tohono O'odham land

US Border Patrol plans to expand the militarization of Tohono O'odham land with new three-acre complex on tribal land

 

By Brenda Norrell
Copyright Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
French translation by Christine Prat!
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=1077

SELLS, Ariz. (Sept. 17, 2012) -- Ignoring human rights appeals and outrage over the abuse of O'odham by US Border Patrol agents, Homeland Security plans to construct a new massive US Border Patrol complex on sovereign Tohono O’odham land in Pisinemo District. It would house 32 Border Patrol agents, with a helicopter launch pad, horses, dogs, and spy tower, Censored News has discovered in federal documents.

As usual, a Finding of No Significant Impact was declared in an August report, despite the fact that saguaro in the region are home to the federally protected species of the lesser long-nosed bat. The proposed three-acre US Border Patrol complex would include a helicopter launch pad, housing, horse corrals, canine pens, communication tower and remote surveillance tower.

The planned complex is marked in red. Source federal document.
Click to enlarge.

The site in Pisinemo District is an alternative because O’odham rejected the complex in the communities of Dirtburn and Kupk on Tohono O’odham land, according to the federal document.

Although the plan has been intentionally concealed, the public comment period ends on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012.

In this area, there are Tohono O’odham culturally sensitive plants including saguaro, cholla, Palo Verde, prickly pear cactus, mesquite and wolfberry.

The massive complex would add to the noise and pose more risks to local O’odham from helicopters, increased pollution, increased water usage by the Border Patrol, and disturb the fragile land of the Sonoran Desert. Further, more O’odham land would be seized for the corridor for a separate electrical transmission line which would be constructed to the north, according to the documents.



US spy tower on Tohono
O'odham land south of Sells.
Photo Brenda Norrell.

Already O’odham are protesting the militarization, constant harassment and abuse by US Border Patrol agents here. An O’odham was beaten in front of school children at a school bus, and other agents have held O’odham women and elderly at gunpoint. Still other border agents have shined flashlights into O’odham women’s homes at night, stalked O’odham women, endangered O’odham lives with high rates of speed and destroyed the fragile desert with off road vehicles. Further, the constant spying and searches by federal agents have left many O'odham living in a state of fear.


Tohono O’odham Bennett Patricio, 18, was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol in this region. Bennett was crushed as he walked home at dawn. Bennett's family sought justice in federal court and accused the US Border Patrol agents of intentionally murdering him. They believe Bennett walked upon the border agents involved in a drug transfer in the desert. The Border Patrol agents were never held accountable.

O'odham protesting the US Border Patrol say they can not depend on their tribal government to protect them because it has been coopted by the US government.

Hundreds of US Border Patrol agents have been arrested for drug trafficking and conspiracy. The US ATF has already been exposed for Project Gunrunner, which has supplied cartels with assault weapons since it began in 2005 in Laredo, Texas, then expanded to the Arizona border.

Tohono O’odham Border Ground Zero for War against Indigenous Peoples

Tohono O’odham Border is Ground Zero for Colonial War against Indigenous Peoples
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com


TOHONO O’ODHAM LAND – On the border, Klee Benally, Dine’, says the terrorism against Indigenous peoples by the US government includes the militarization of Tohono O’odham land in southern Arizona, and the desecration of sacred San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona.


Alex Soto and Klee Benally on O'odham land.

On the Tohono O’odham border, where the US Border Patrol speeds down dirt roads, cutting into the dry and fragile desert earth, and border agents abuse O’odham on their own land, Benally said, “For me this is a deep issue of colonialism, settler colonialism, and state violence, really state terrorism.”
"This is one of the many ground zeroes of the colonial wars against Indigenous Peoples," said Benally of this area, one of the deadliest for Indigenous Peoples and other migrants who walk north through the Sonoran Desert in hopes of a better life. It is also a region where the US border, US militarization and border laws, violate religious freedom rights and the ceremonial passage of O'odham on their lands in the US and Mexico.
 “Recently there was a marked anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the US. But there have been many Sept 11ths for our communities,” said Benally, Navajo, as he joined Amy Juan and Alex Soto, both Tohono O’odham, on the border on Saturday, on the Tohono O'odham/Mexico border.
“Right now we as Indigenous Peoples don’t have guaranteed protection for our religious freedom because our sacred sites are under attack.”
“Indigenous communities here don’t have that same freedom of movement that is essential for their cultural continuity. These are the types of attacks that also need to be addressed,” said Benally, referring to the militarization, border restrictions, and the abuse and harassment by US Border Patrol agents.
“This is the type of state terrorism that needs to be confronted and it is hard to do it in the context of these social and environmental justice movements that continue to further ‘invisibilize’ who we are as Indigenous Peoples.”
Benally said that part of the work underway, being carried out indirectly and directly, along with networking, is to intervene and address these issues in both the progressive liberal media and the corporate media, and at the same time, in the social and environmental justice movements.
“We’re here to say, hey, we are still here as Indigenous Peoples. We can’t further be invisibilized -- especially in the context of these attacks of state terrorism against our people and our lands.”
“Right now as we’re here, San Francisco Peaks are being desecrated with the state sanctions by the US Forest Service and the US Department of Agriculture.”
Benally spoke of the destruction of the old growth forests underway and the long protested plan to use sewage water for snowmaking for tourists at Arizona Snowbowl on sacred San Francisco Peaks. The Peaks, sacred to 13 area Indian Nations, is a place where medicine men conduct ceremonies and gather healing plants. Earlier, Benally was among the Navajos and other Native Americans who locked down to equipment in protest in the Protect the Peaks movement.
As the abuse of the land and the people continues, the US offers superficial "listening sessions." On the border Benally said, “Even though the Department of Interior is holding sacred sites listening sessions to reconsider their sacred sites policies, on the one hand, they are still supporting and sanctioning the desecration of our sacred lands, which is cultural genocide.”
“What is really at stake here is our cultural survival as Indigenous Peoples.”
“Part of the challenge for us as young people is to step up and to take that responsibility to address these issues and to get justice for our people”
Watch this video interview of Klee Benally on the border:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/09/on-tohono-oodham-border-video.html
Article copyright Brenda Norrell, For permission to repost in full; brendanorrell@gmail.com