Declaration of the National and
International Forum on Indigenous Communication and Public Policy:
Debates and
Practices
Popayán, Cauca - Abya Yala [Colombia] November 26-29, 2014
November 29, 2014
Indigenous Communication and Territorial Realities
International Context
The Forced Disappearances
of Ayotzinapa
Whereas on September 26th in the Mexican municipality of
Iguala de la Independencia, in the state of Guerrero, municipal police attacked
students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa in several episodes of
violence, a criminal assault leaving six people dead, twenty wounded and the
forced disappearance of 43 students of the Rural Normal School Raúl Isidro
Burgos;
Faced with such critical realities and processes affecting
of our Nations of Indigenous Peoples across all of Abya Yala:
We commit to:
Denounce and bring permanent visibility to these realities,
mobilize and join forces from within our respective communication processes to
demand respect for the territories, processes and rights of our Nations of
Indigenous Peoples.
Express our solidarity with the peoples of Mexico and demand
of the Mexican State accountability and to drastically punish the responsible
parties of the forced disappearance of 43 indigenous students Ayotzinapa,
Iguala in the state of Guerrero. We
demand an end to impunity and the criminalization of the protests realized in
the past two months. We join the worldwide outcry: "They were taken alive, we want them back alive!"
We condemn the persecution, prosecution and criminalization
of indigenous and social leaders in Ecuador.
The Afro Colombian, campesino, indigenous as well as popular
social sectors of Colombia are experiencing situations that threaten their ancestral
territories and survival as peoples, due to displacement, forced recruitment,
restricted mobility and occupation of their territories.
The Nasa Communities of Putumayo
communities demand respect for their territories against the expropriation that
has been driven by the oil industry and the territorial disputes between armed
groups.
Indigenous and campesino communities have mobilized to block
construction of the dam El Quimbo to
demand enforcement of agreements with the national government of Colombia, protecting
them against displacement from their territories.
Afro-Columbian women
of Suarez Cauca who have mobilized to demand respect for their territories
being exploited by large scale mining corporations have suffered repression by
the government.
Two members of the Guardia
Indigena (Indigenous Self Defense Guard) were killed by FARC in Toribio Cauca
in early November and on November 25th a defender of the territory was
prosecuted and condemned to prison by the law of the state of Colombia;
Public Communication Policies
Whereas the indigenous movement in Colombia, represented by
five national indigenous organizations, has developed a proposal for Public Policy of Indigenous Communication
within the framework of the Permanent Committee of National Communication;
We commit to:
Support the proposal of Public Policy of Indigenous
Communication developed by indigenous organizations in Colombia and call for
its adoption and implementation by the State of Colombia, allocating resources
and the necessary guarantees for immediate implementation with the
participation of indigenous peoples.
Continue to provide feed back into these processes of Public
Policy with our communities and implement its applicability with practical
actions based from our territories, as well as disseminate the participatory
construction of the Public Policy of Indigenous Communication and share its
contents as a contribution to international regional processes and as an
initiative in practice of the mandates of the two continental Summits of Indigenous Communications of Abya
Yala.
Third Continental Summit of Communication
In consideration that from 17 to 20 September a Pre-Summit Preparatory Meeting was held
in La Paz, Bolivia to prepare for the Third Continental Summit of Indigenous
Communication of Abya Yala, whereupon the National
Commission under charge of the Unity Pact of Indigenous Organizations under
the direction of the Indigenous Audiovisual Coordinator of Bolivia (CAIB) was
formally installed and where proposals were elaborated, and recommendations
made for the realization of the 3rd Summit;
Likewise, it is recommended that the indigenous
organizations responsible for follow through at the international level of the
first and second summits to empower themselves with the responsibilities of these mandates and offer political orientation
in order to not make the mistake that would allow NGOs to take over ownership
of these processes with different objectives than that of the purposes of the
proposed by the Original Nations.
That the National
Organizing Committee of the Third
Continental Summit of Indigenous Communications has scheduled a number of
preparatory activities, such an event in May 2015 to review and approve the
methodology through which the institutions participating in the International Operations Commission
must participate.
We commit to:
Position the III
Continental Summit of Indigenous Communications as a key strategic event to
assert the right to communication as an essential human right in the exercise
other human rights which should be acknowledged with greater importance in the
new millennium.
Support the national processes in Bolivia for the organization of the Third
Continental Summit of Indigenous Communications, and promote the participation
of the diverse indigenous communication processes in the scheduled events.
Collective strategy and advocacy
Considering the need to unite forces and achieve a greater
international political projection in order to make visible and contribute to
the exercise of the right of communication of indigenous peoples.
We commit to:
Strengthen the networking efforts to unite our initiatives
and experiences at the national and international levels of indigenous communication
and elaborate a virtual platform in
expression of the right to indigenous communication in order to facilitate the
coordination of actions and to exchange resources and experiences.
Form an intercultural
legal working group to monitor the situation of the right of communication of
Indigenous Peoples and develop legal initiatives of international scope from
the foundations of "Original Law".
Involve and engage the international agencies of the United Nations and the Inter-American System of Human Rights
(IACHR-OAS, Inter-IDH) in order to make visible the Right of Communication of Indigenous Peoples and insist that the
States to promote their respect and application.
Promote partnerships with international institutions and
networks to make common cause with the Right to Communication and the
establishment of regulatory frameworks that promote indigenous community radio
and television media.
It is proposed that the commissions that were generated from
the First and Second Summit be reestablished along with their members.
It is proposed that in the area of Formation of Indigenous Communicators efforts should be made to
unify or coordinate the different organizational experiences that already exist.
In terms of strengthening thee Formation of Indigenous Women Communicators, it is proposed to join
in the efforts that already exist.
It is proposed that the virtual platform be reactivated.
Regarding the Observatory
it is proposed to join with the efforts being realized already in the various
continental processes.
Regarding the slogan or slogans is proposed that each production (graphical,
radial and audiovisual) that is generated from the organizations and groups
included the slogan: "On the Road
to the 3rd Continental Summit of Indigenous Communication, Bolivia 2016".
It is agreed to integrate training initiatives of Formation of Indigenous Communicators
with those initiatives established by the Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities such
as the Network of Indigenous
Intercultural and Community Universities of Abya Yala- RUIICAY.
Indigenous Games
Whereas the Inter
Tribal Committee of Brazil is promoting the Games of Indigenous Peoples as a global event that shall contribute
to visualize the presence and richness of Indigenous Peoples:
It is agreed:
To contribute to the dissemination and convocation of the Indigenous
Games and facilitate a complementary preparatory meeting of coordination to
advance the trajectory of the indigenous agenda of international communication.
People's Summit on Climate Change
Whereas from December 8 -11 there will be held in Lima,
Peru, the People's Summit on Climate Change as an alternative event of
indigenous peoples and civil society to the Conference of the Parties of the
United Nations Convention on Change climate or COP 20, during which a World March will be held in Defense of Mother Earth on December 10 under the slogan: "Change the system, not the climate."
It is agreed:
In support of the
People's
Summit on Climate Change, and the
World
March in Defense of Mother Earth,
the
Indigenous Communicators of Abya Yala shall disseminate the contributions
that are developed from this alternative effort from the perspective of
Indigenous Peoples.
We salute the
90th
anniversary of the Kuna Revolution February 2015 in Panama.
Popayán, Cauca - Abya Yala [Colombia] November 2014
CRIC
Consejo Regional Indígena Regional del Cauca - CRIC
