Phone: (202) 827-6673
Email: info@mayanleague.org
www.mayanleague.org
UNPFII Twenty-Second Session: 17-28 April 2023
Theme: “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach”.
Agenda Item 5 (d) Human rights dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Statement by the International Mayan League
COLONIAL STATES ARE KILLING OUR INDIGENOUS IDENTITIES AND PEOPLES
Distinguished members of the Permanent Forum and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of IndigenousPeoples. I am Geronimo Ramirez of the Maya Ixil Nation,community organizer, youth leader, and Maya Ixil interpreter with the International Mayan League.
In Guatemala we are 22 Maya peoples, Xinka, Garifuna and Mestizo. We speak 22 distinct Maya languages, in addition to Xinka, Garifuna and Spanish, making the country plurinational and multilingual. Many Indigenous peoples in Guatemala are monolingual and only speak their Indigenous language. Further, they do not read or speak any Spanish, let alone English. When our peoplesare forcedtomigrate due toland conflicts, extractivism andclimate injustice,at the United States- Mexico border, and throughout the entire immigration system, Indigenous peoples’ rights to due process and to seek political asylum are violated. They can’t express their reasons for fleeing, their trauma, or their basic or urgent medical needs in Spanish or English. These human rights violations have caused unnecessary deaths.
This is not the first time that the urgent situation facing Indigenous refugees and migrants has been presented to this Forum. During the 18th session of the Permanent Forum, it was highlighted that “indigenous peoples, whether migrants or not, have rights under international instruments including the UN Declaration.” In particular we note the rights expressed in Articles: Art.1; Art. 2; Art. 3; Art 4.; 13(2); Art. 22 among others of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which clearly describe our rights regardless of colonial borders.
As Maya peoples, colonial governments kill us twice: they kill our identity, and they kill our bodies. Instead of recognizing our Indigenous identities, they improperly categorize us Central American, Guatemalan, or Mexican, or Latino or Hispanic. These categories invisibilize us. Due to the severity of the violations we face as displaced peoples from our ancestral lands, we present the following recommendations that encompass various actions.
Phone: (202) 827-6673
Email: info@mayanleague.org
www.mayanleague.org
1. Establish an independent implementing and monitoring body, facilitated by EMRIP and including U.S., Maya, and other Indigenous experts that will:
a) Conduct a thorough analysis of the human rights crisis facing Indigenous peoples in migration, at the U.S.-MX border, in detention centers, and those impacted by aggressive immigration policies with a particular focus on Indigenous peoples, women, children and the LGBTQ2S+ community, whom represent the most vulnerable people;
b) oversee the collection and analysis of disaggregated data on Indigenous peoples, in cooperation/agreement with Indigenous peoples, including on the basis of sex, age, disability and all those crossing borders (internal and international) in order to develop policies and programs; and
c) taking into account that we are in the International Decade on Indigenous Languages, establishanIndigenousLanguagesadvisorygroupandtheright tointerpretationcomprised of Indigenous language and cultural experts, with the aim of upholding linguistic rights through the development of Indigenous language resources, train Indigenous peoples’ interpreters and translators for the shelters and border patrol facilities along the border, in order to facilitate legal migration processes to ensure that Indigenous peoples’ human rights of are respected and guaranteed.
Thank you- Ta’n Tixh
April 19, 2023 | 5 B’atz’