Rights of Nature Advocates Silenced at United Nations

 

 The High-Level meeting of the UN’s Harmony with Nature and Living Well Programme Silenced International Rights of Nature Delegates.

“A Slap in the Face” — Rights of Nature Advocates Silenced at the United Nations

“They want this to fail” says former UN program head

By Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

NEW YORK — Dozens of activists for the rights of nature who traveled to the United Nations to participate in a high-level meeting were unexpectedly barred from speaking on April 22nd, Earth Day, due to a supposed “security breach.” 

The attendees, each of whom was personally invited by the Bolivian Foreign Minister, had previously been cleared by UN security personnel and issued access passes. Many had traveled thousands of miles — coming from Brazil, Poland, Canada, the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Colombia — to attend the meeting. 

Indigenous Youth to U.N. -- Mexico's Desert is a Life Giver, Now Exploited for Lithium

 

Indigenous Youth to U.N. -- Mexico's Desert is a Life Giver, Now Exploited for Lithium 

"They say there is nothing in the desert, but we are in the desert, and we have sowed life there."

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 11, 2025

NEW YORK -- An Indigenous youth from Mexico describes the beauty of life on the land when the rains come, and how the World Bank and the international financial system exploit Indigenous Peoples, pushing them off their land for lithium and cattle industries.

"I was raised in Mexico, in a land where people say nothing grows, a semi-desert."

"The rains when they do come show us the power of the cycle of life," an Indigenous youth told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Peru's Muzzle Law Follows Murder of 60 Indigenous Peoples: Peru Extinguishing Rights and Life

 

(ONAMIAP) National Organization of Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Women of Peru. U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2025. Screenshot Censored News.

Peru's Muzzle Law Follows Murder of 60 Indigenous Peoples: Peru Extinguishing Rights and Life

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 11, 2025

NEW YORK -- Peru's government enacted a muzzle law as it seeks to cover-up the murder of 60 Indigenous Peoples who struggled to defend their rights. The law will leave victims of massacres defenseless and ensure impunity for the government, a representative of Indigenous Women in the Andes and Amazon told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

"In Peru, we're actually moving backward," said the representative, pointing out Peru's failure to implement international standards that protect Indigenous peoples.

"We are facing a government where a dictatorship is being imposed that seeks to make disappear Indigenous Peoples. This government is responsible for over 60 Indigenous brothers and sisters killed."

Federal court halts destruction of Oak Flat

Photo courtesy Becket Law

BREAKING: Federal court halts destruction of Oak Flat

Judge blocks feds’ rush to transfer Indigenous sacred site to foreign mining giant for destruction

A federal court just temporarily blocked the federal government from giving an Indigenous sacred site, Oak Flat, to a Chinese-owned mining giant for destruction. The ruling comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to hear an Apache group’s appeal to protect the site.

By Becket Law, Censored News, May 9, 2025

WASHINGTON – A federal court today blocked the U.S. government from plowing ahead with plans to hand over the Western Apaches’ most sacred site at Oak Flat to a multinational mining giant for destruction.

In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the federal government recently announced that as early as June 16, 2025, it would transfer 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.

Mohawk Nation News -- Revisiting Canada 'White Paper' of 1969 and U.S. 'Termination Policy' of 1954

New today at Mohawk Nation News

Read the article at MNN

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2025/05/10/revisiting-white-paper-1969-and-termination-policy-1954/

 

Apache Stronghold at Phoenix Federal Court Defending Sacred Oak Flat

 

Apache Stronghold at Phoenix Federal Court 

Photos by Lii Nchaa

May 7, 2025

Apache Stronghold at federal court today. Photo by Lii Nchaa.

Apache Stronghold at Phoenix Federal Court Defending Sacred Oak Flat

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, May 7, 2025, Live 9 to 11 a.m.

UPDATE on Friday: Federal judge grants injunction, temporarily halts destruction of Oak Flat 

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/05/breaking-federal-court-halts.html

PHOENIX -- Apache Stronghold's attorneys argued their case in federal court today to protect Sacred Oak Flat from being turned into a massive copper mine. Attorneys for the U.S. government, and Resolution Copper, argued against the injunction, and to allow the land transfer to proceed.

Federal Judge Steven P. Logan took the case under advisement and said he will rule no later than May 14 at 5 p.m.

Apache Stronghold is seeking an injunction to halt the transfer of Oak Flat land to Resolution Copper, pending a ruling in its case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has re-listed the case 13 times, the federal judge stated as the case began today.

Apache Stronghold's attorney Luke Goodrich of Becket Law told the court that along with the Oak Flat campground, there are sacred springs, and sacred places in the area. There are no guarantees that any of the sacred places will be protected if the land transfer takes place and construction begins.

The U.S. government's attorney argued for the land transfer to proceed.

Resolution Copper says it is currently spending $11 million a month, to maintain the underground mine, to keep the mine area dry, to keep the lights on, and keep the workforce available, its attorney testified.

President of Resolution Copper Vicky Peacey told the court that the land being transferred includes Resolution Copper's land that includes culturally-sensitive areas and Native American sacred places.

Peacey said the copper mine process at Oak Flat would begin with tunnels constructed to the copper ore. This first process takes ten years. The next process of construction takes six years. She also described the existing mining structure which exists from previous mining. Four-hundred people report to work each day to maintain the area, she said.

"Resolution Copper intends to mine the sacred place until tunnels underneath Oak Flat cause it to collapse into a crater two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep," court documents show.

Peacey told the court that the copper mine would operate for 40 years.

During questions, Peacey said she does not know the monetary value of the copper ore at the site.

In closing comments, Apache Stronghold's attorney said if the land transfer takes place, there would be an immediate loss of legal rights for Apaches to use Oak Flat, all Apaches legal rights would be lost.

The immediate construction would begin with new roads, and there would be damage and ground-clearing taking place. The yucca and oak acorns that are used in Apache ceremonies would be destroyed, he said.

Apache Stronghold asked that the land transfer be delayed until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case.

In closing, the U.S. government and Resolution Copper both argued against pausing the land transfer and against the court issuing an injunction.

Apache Stronghold's court documents show the urgency.

"On April 17, 2025, the government notified this Court that it intends to move forward with the land transfer—by publishing the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that triggers a mandate to transfer Oak Flat—as early as June 16, 2025," Apache Stronghold told the court.

The majority owner of Resolution Copper is Rio Tinto, an Australian mining company that blew up 46,000 years of Australian Aboriginal sacred history in caves. Further, Rio Tinto was forced to admit the widespread sexual abuse at its mines, and reported that the largest number of sexual assaults are at Rio Tinto's mines in Australia and South Africa.

(Below) The nearby Morenci mine shows the widespread damage from copper mining in the region, located north of Tucson, and east of Phoenix.

Wendsler Nosie, Sr. and Apache Stronghold. Photo Lii Nchaa.

Apache Stronghold urges federal court to save Oak Flat

Apaches ask district court to pause government’s rush to transfer sacred site

By Becket Law, May 7, 2025

WASHINGTON – A coalition of Western Apaches, other Native peoples, and non-Native allies was in federal district court today to stop the U.S. government from handing over their sacred site at Oak Flat to a multinational mining giant for destruction. In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the federal government recently announced that as early as June 16, 2025, it will transfer 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). Apache Stronghold filed an emergency appeal in the lower court to block the transfer while the Supreme Court considers the case. The judge said that he would issue a ruling by May 14.

Since time immemorial, Western Apaches and other Native peoples have gathered at Oak Flat, outside of present-day Superior, Arizona, for sacred religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Known in Apache as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, Oak Flat is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and has been protected from mining and other harmful practices for seventy years. These protections were targeted in December 2014 when a last-minute provision was slipped into a must-pass defense bill authorizing the transfer of Oak Flat to the Resolution Copper company. Resolution Copper now plans to turn the sacred site into a two-mile-wide and 1,100-foot-deep crater. The majority owner of Resolution Copper, Rio Tinto, sparked international outrage when it deliberately destroyed 46,000-year-old Indigenous rock shelters at one of Australia’s most significant cultural sites. 

“The federal government and Resolution Copper have put Oak Flat on death row—they are racing to destroy our spiritual lifeblood and erase our religious traditions forever,” said Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold. “In the courtroom, we asked the judge to immediately block the land grab so that the Supreme Court can protect Oak Flat before it’s too late.”

Apache Stronghold filed this lawsuit in January 2021 seeking to halt the proposed mine at Oak Flat. The mine is opposed by 21 of 22 federally recognized tribal nations in Arizona, by the National Congress of American Indians, and by a diverse coalition of religious denominations, civil-rights organizations, and legal experts. Meanwhile, national polling indicates that 74% of Americans support protecting Oak Flat. The Ninth Circuit ruled 6-5 last year that the land transfer is not subject to federal laws protecting religious freedom. But five judges dissented, writing that the court “tragically err[ed]” by refusing to protect Oak Flat.  Now the Supreme Court is considering whether to hear the case.

“The feds are brazenly rushing to hand Oak Flat over to Resolution Copper, even while the Supreme Court considers whether to hear the case,” said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “We are asking the court to protect Oak Flat while the Justices consider whether to take the case.”

In addition to Becket, Apache Stronghold is represented by Erin Murphy of Clement & Murphy PLLC, Professor Stephanie Barclay of Georgetown Law School, and attorneys Michael V. Nixon and Clifford Levenson. 

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Ryan Colby at media@becketfund.org or 202-349-7219.