Declaration of the Abya Yala Council, Ixim Uleu-Maya Territories [Guatemala]

DECLARATION

International Encounter of Original Nations and Indigenous Peoples of

Abya Yala

In Exercise of the Right of Self Determination

Ixim Uleu, Maya Territories [Guatemala]

 August 12, 2014 

Original Nations and Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala:

Terena of Brazil; Nahuizalco, Pushtan, Indigenous Communities of Texacuango and Central El Salvador; Izkaloteka, Zuni, O'otham, Xikano of Turtle Island, Abya Yala North; Yukatek Maya of Mexico and the Maya Pueblos articulated in the CPO: K'iche, Mam, Kaqchiqel, Ixil, Achi, Q'eqch'i, Akateka Poptí, Q'anjob 'al Chuj, Sakapulteco; having assembled in COUNCIL in the territories of Txeljub' - Quetzaltenango, Quiche Aj Q'umaraq, Iximche ' - Chimaltenango upon the occasion of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, we affirm and record the following:

The Original Nations of our continent are clear that we are currently facing a fourth cycle of plunder under the guise of a false premise of economic development, where colonial governments and transnational corporations are robbing our territories without our consent by imposing projects including mining operations, hydroelectric plants, petroleum extraction, monoculture agribusinesses, and many more.

We note with great concern the humanitarian crisis that is being generated in the northern territories of Abya Yala, Turtle Island via the criminalization of migration across international borders of the states.  This crisis has been manufactured by political interests and colonial government states in order to divert attention away from the root causes of the Human Rights issues of colonialism that demand true reform as articulated by the migrant communities themselves.

Before this situation, we DECLARE:

In the exercise of the right of self-determination, self-government and sovereignty of our Original Nations as articulated in the framework of norms, treaties, national and international conventions, we as Original Nations are in the process of regeneration as Indigenous Peoples while we strengthening our mutual relationships at the continental level in order to put a halt to the false economic development schemes being imposed upon our territories without free, prior and informed consent.  Today, in the fertile soil of the Maya Nations, we plant the seed of the Council of the United Nations of the Original Nations of Abya Yala.

We denounce the lack of legitimacy of the representation of self-appointed indigenous peoples or those appointed by successive governments states who do not represent the legitimate demands of our peoples as in the case of the upcoming "World Conference on Indigenous Peoples" which is nothing more than a plenary assembly of the UN member states.  We demand that these governments instead comply with the relevant international covenants and treaties in full recognition, respect, and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.  Likewise, we reject the representation of the Central American Indigenous Council (CICA) because they do not represent us as Indigenous Peoples, instead they represent the interests of successive national governments and oligarchies.  We demand an audit of the investment of the funds allocated to this institution on behalf of our Indigenous Peoples.

The mechanisms of Indigenous representation underwritten by the government states of North, Central and South America are illegal and illegitimate because they were not elected by our indigenous peoples or Original Nations according to our laws, so their opinions do not have our support and consent, such as the case of the Central American Indigenous Council (CICA).  As Indigenous Peoples we engaged are in the reconstitution of our original nationalities therefore we shall decide for ourselves the representation of our delegations as Original Nations.

We add our support and solidarity with the decision of the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC) at the continental level of Abya Yala, Turtle Island and will not participate in the "World Conference of Indigenous Peoples" because this initiative does not represent the legitimate interests of our Indigenous Peoples and Original Nations, but the discriminatory and racist interests of the states and multi-national corporations.  We demand that the international community comply fully with the international conventions and treaties in recognition, respect, and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.

We demand of the colonial government states of the Americas not to unjustly criminalize the humanitarian crisis that has led to the migration of our relatives north towards the USA.  The international borders of the colonial states are racist impositions of the illegal colonization of Abya Yala.  As Original Nations, we Indigenous Peoples are free to traverse through our ancestral territories as Indigenous Peoples and Nations.   We do not acknowledge or submit to the false international borders of the states that have been imposed by colonialism.

We welcome the fruit of the efforts of our relatives from El Salvador for achieving constitutional recognition for Indigenous Peoples and join with them in calling for the national government of the state and the present administration to ratify ILO Convention 169 and other conventions on Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We condemn the policy of the government of Brazil of dismantling the constitutional rights of the Indigenous Peoples to impede the process of territorial demarcation, and the reopening of cases of demarcation already granted, in order to encourage private landowners and transnational mining companies and hydroelectric dams with the intent of imposing these projects on Indigenous Peoples' territories in violation of the right of free, prior and informed consent.

Finally we join the call from the V Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala in calling upon Pope Francis and the Vatican State to address the issues of violation of our Human Rights, particularly the right of Self-Determination of Indigenous Peoples, in order to institute collective corrective measures in rejection of the Doctrine of Discovery, since this doctrine continues to serve as a mantle of camouflage that upholds and immorally legitimizes the continuing colonization and neo-colonization of our Indigenous Peoples and the territories of our Original Nations.

Ixim Uleu, Maya Territories
[Guatemala]

 August 12, 2014

YouTube:

Encuentro Internacional de Pueblos Originarios por la Libre Deterninacion

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International Encounter of Original Nations for Self Determination

August 8-12, 2014: On the road from Xelaju 

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Ancient Sky: Zuni Pueblo and the Maya of Gu'marc'aaj [Guatemala]

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Maya Nations: Consejo de Pueblos del Occidente (CPO) 

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San Juan Sacatepéquez,

Kakchiquel Maya Nation Territories [Guatemala]

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Tupak Huehuecoyotl: Encuentro Internacional de Pueblos Originarios

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Consejo Abya Yala

DESMANTELANDO 

La Doctrina de Descubrimiento

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SoundCloud:

KPFK American Indian Airwaves September 2, 2014

Report from Guatemala

Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs

US Department of State

Universal Periodic Review Consultation with Civil Society

August 1, 2014

Human Rights Council

Universal Periodic Review

Report of the

Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review

United States of America

Statement by

Movimiento Macehualli

Los Comités de Defensa del Barrio

TONATIERRA

Good Greetings,

In addressing this call for consultation by the US State Department regarding hearings that the US government is obligated to conduct in order to uphold the standards of International Human Rights laws, policies and practices, we begin with a general comment:

As Indigenous Peoples who do not subscribe to US status as federally recognized tribes, we stand with the position of the Oglala Lakota Nation submitted to the 13^th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (May 2014):

“The Oglala Lakota Nation further rejects the assertions of the United States government, as stated in its announcement that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls for “a distinct international concept of self-determination specific to indigenous peoples.”  The Oglala Lakota Nation rejects the fabricated claim of the United States that the Declaration is intended “to promote the development of a concept of self-determination for indigenous peoples that is different from the existing right of self-determination in international law.”

Subsequently, while the US government accurately reports in their 2010 report to the UN Human Rights Council that by virtue of their status as sovereigns that pre-date the federal Union, as well as subsequent treaties, statutes, executive orders, and judicial decisions, Indian tribes are recognized as political entities with inherent powers of self government, we clarify now that the designation of “tribes” while consistent with US Federal Indian Law, does not that accurately describe the pre-existing sovereignties of the Nations of Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala [the Americas], nor our international and intercontinental Confederations that not only precede European American colonial governments, but still today continue to exercise our inherent Human Rights as Indigenous Peoples, in spite of US government policies and the imposition of international borders of the states.

Universal Periodic Review Recommendations

1. CIVIL RIGHTS, ETHNIC, AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

Statement: 

While the US government’s role in the defense of Civil Rights in the state of Arizona has been the focus of litigation in the case of AZ SB1070 specifically, and the subsequent appointment of a US federal marshal in the case of Melendres v. Arpaio, neither instance has identified the violations of Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples as migrant workers with their families as is articulated in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, a subsidiary body of the UN system. Designation of categories of “racial profiling” identified for redress in both cases, excludes Indigenous Peoples and only provides relief for categories “Latinos” as litigants, a blatant act of systemic discrimination by the US domestic legal system in denial of the principles and standards of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

8. THE ENVIRONMENT

Statement: 
Our inherent Human Rights as Nations of Indigenous Peoples are founded in the reality of our nationhood and collective responsibility as children of Mother Earth, and respect for the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth.  The position of the US government on this issue of climate change, global warming and climate chaos is an unacceptable and flagrant denial of responsibility as a mass consumer society before the natural world and future generations which constitutes complicity in the crime of TERRACIDE.

10. TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS

Statement: 

As Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples, our children must also be acknowledged, respected and protected as equals in Human Rights, most importantly the Right of Self Determination.  We call upon the US government to uphold the principles and standards articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in full responsibility for the Human Rights of the Future Generations, we call for recognition of the Human Rights of the refugee children arriving at the US-Mexico border as refugees of the illegal colonization of Abya Yala [the Americas] beginning on October 12, 1492 with the Doctrine of Discovery and with complicity by subsequent US government administrations under the premise of the Monroe Doctrine (1823) by military intervention and trade polices that make the US government a responsible party for the extreme violence driving the mass migration of children, youth, and families from the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

In the same regard, in defense of the Human Rights of all children, we denounce the complicity of the US government in contracting with the government of the Zionist apartheid state of Israel to supply armaments being used at this moment to massacre the civilian population of Palestinians in Gaza, including an unbearable number of children as victims of state sponsored genocide.

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August 1, 2014

UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review - USA 

Movimiento Macehualli

YouTube:

 STATEMENT