Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

September 29, 2014

Demilitarization Censored: Pacific Islanders withdraw support for Indigenous World Conference

"What happens at the UN when indigenous peoples even attempt to speak to the issue of demilitarization? We are forced to leave the "process" with the one thing we cannot even consider bargaining away: our conscience." -- Noho Hewa

Statement by Kalamaoka’aina Niheu
Ohana Koa-NFIP
Censored News


Aloha kakou,
It is with great sadness and outrage to find at the 11th hour that Paragraph 21 regarding Demilitarization has been removed from the Outcome Document.
For this reason, Ohana Koa –Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific can no longer consent to our participation in the High Level Plenary Meeting (HLPM) also known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (WCIP).
At every stage in the process on the road to the HLPM, demilitarization has been a critical demand for the different regions throughout the world. Its removal at this stage indicates a gross disregard for one of the key issues facing our community and an indication of the lack of strength of this document.
Military violence, occupation, transport, storage, practice, and construction have been the cornerstone for the destruction of all Indigenous Peoples. For what reason have we been forced to watch as our culture, lands, and peoples are destroyed and abused for economic gain? Because political power grows out of the barrel of their guns.

Listen: Are Indigenous Issues sold out at the UN?

Indigenous Peoples' summit pushed out of the spotlight

Updated 29 September 2014, 11:54 AEST
During a frantic week in New York when world leaders gathered to discuss climate change and the security situation in Syria and Iraq, a meeting of the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples has largely slipped under the radar.
Many of the delegates wanted to be involved with the climate discussions, which they consider to be vital to the future of their peoples, but conveners controversially ruled out climate change from the agenda, as well as the thorny issue of demilitarisation.
Kalama Oka Aina Niheu from Hawaii is a member of the Pacific Caucus and she says there is growing concern that the landmark United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is in danger of being sold out.
Presenter: Richard Ewart
Speaker: Kalama Oka Aina Niheu, member, Pacific Caucus

US Gunrunning to Cartels: Four facts mainstream media doesn't want you to know

Arizona police circulated ATF Project Gunrunner 'Weapons of Choice' in 2008

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

When US Attorney General Eric Holder resigned, the Blaze reported that it was in response to the fact that a federal judge ruled that Fast and Furious documents must be released.

Still, the mainstream media is scratching itself, and refusing to report on the ATF gunrunning weapons to the cartels.

Here's four facts that the media, and the US government, don't want you to know:

1. Gunrunning to cartels began in 2005 in Texas:

A Department of Justice report in 2010 states that Project Gunrunner began in Laredo, Texas, during the Bush administration in 2005. 
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/OIG_report.pdf
More http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/09/project-gunrunner-enters-oz-phase-with.html

2. Tucson's Operation in 2006:

Although the news media has focused on the ATF’s Fast and Furious, another operation, Operation Wide Receiver, allowed guns to “walk” into Mexico during the Bush administration, 2006 -- 2007, according to a Tucson gun seller who kept a lengthy journal.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/10/tucsons-wide-receiver-gunrunners-during.html

3. US Army and Navy were on Arizona police e-mail about gunrunning in 2008:

Anonymous' Lulzsec hacked the Arizona police departments and a Project Gunrunner brochure was exposed and posted online. (See photo above.) ATF's Project Gunrunner Weapons of Choice was dated as revised in 2008 and shows photos of the automatic weapons, which the US allowed to "walk" across the border. The e-mail containing the brochure was circulated by e-mail from an Arizona police officer to US army and navy personnel.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/06/project-gunrunner-collapsed-media-cant.html

4. US public showed little compassion for the death of Mexican citizens

There was no public outcry in the US after the US gunrunning to cartels was first exposed, even though innocent bystanders were often killed with those weapons in Mexico. The outrage came only after US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed with one of the weapons in southern Arizona in 2010. A second US federal agent, ICE agent Jaime Zapata, was killed with one of the weapons in northern Mexico in 2011.

Tribunal on Indian Boarding Schools Wisconsin Oct 22 -- 25, 2014

October 22 - 25

BlueSkiessmall

AN INVITATION


You’re invited to attend our forum focused on the experiences of Native children who were forced at early ages to attend Indian boarding schools.  This Tribunal is scheduled for October 22 through the 25th, 2014, at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center, in Oneida, Wisconsin.
A panel of qualified Native judges will be listening to the witnesses as they provide first hand testimony of the abuse and mistreatment they suffered at the hands of the federal government and religious institutions while being forced to live away from their families and Nations.  At the conclusion of the Tribunal, the Judges will issue an executive summary with their findings and recommendations.  The executive summary will be shared with Native communities.