International Mayan League
1201 K St NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
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 3: Special theme of session: “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach”
Statement by the International Mayan League EXTRACTIVISM AND CLIMATE INJUSTICE
Indigenous Peoples Defend the Rights of their Peoples and Mother Earth
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Distinguished Colleagues and Permanent Forum Members, my name is Juanita Cabrera Lopez, I am a proud member of the Maya Mam Nation and I make this statement on behalf of the International Mayan League of which I am the Executive Director.
On this sacred day of 4 Tz’i, the day of justice and on the ancestral homelands of the Lenape Nation we come to the United Nations to call attention to the crisis faced by the Maya and Mother Earth in Iximulew (Guatemala), and in forced migration, because we are not being heard.
Our peoples are currently experiencing grave human rights violations under state sponsored violence and at the hands of governments that fail, time and again, to meet their domestic and international human rights obligations. Large scale environmental degradation is occurring at an accelerated rate from mining, agribusinesses, and “clean development mechanisms'' like hydroelectric dams. Land conflicts and militarization of our territories in favor of transnational corporations are intrinsically linked to root drivers of climate change and forced migration for Indigenous peoples. From violent evictions in the communities of Chicoyou and Chapín Abajo in Iximulew, anti-asylum policies in the United States, and the recent horrific migrant detention center fire in Juarez, Mexico, all are a direct result of colonial violence against our peoples beginning in 1492. Our demands can no longer be ignored by governments, international human rights institutions, and civil society.
Last year, we traveled back to our ancestral lands to meet with Maya communities and traditional authorities because it is their message that needs to be brought to the international community. We heard over and over that our peoples are considered invaders inour own lands. In a testimony gathered by the Mayan League in March 2023about the violent eviction that occurred in Chapin Abajo in2022, Maria, a Q’eqchi’ Maya authority, stated how she was detained and taken to jail on December 6, 2022 for defending MotherEarth.The police andmilitaryforcesviolentlyenteredhercommunityof Chapin Abajo at 4am that day, fired tear gas, injuring newborn babies, elders, and pregnant women. They destroyed maize crops, looted the convenience store, stole money, and forcibly evicted families. After being displaced, many suffered trauma, and began to get sick. This violence was provoked by NaturAceites, with the support of the Guatemalan government, which are accused of ordering the evictions.
More than ever, we must listen to and protect Indigenous peoples fighting for their survival and defending Mother Earth; they are being persecuted, criminalized, and killed. This violence, in turn, leads many to migrate to the United States since they have nowhere to go. Some families make the heartbreaking“choice” tosend theirchildren alone because there is noother option,and many of these childrenend up inexploitation andtrafficking.InthejourneyNorth,our peoples’Indigenousidentities are erased, and we are mislabeled as Latino, Hispanic, and Indigenous Latino. We face violence at the
hands of coyotes, Narcos, and government authorities. The vulnerability of our peoples because of their Indigenous identity, gender, age, and the Indigenous languages that they speak, lead them to experience human rights violations in detention centers including death.
With urgentclimate injusticesdevastatingourhomelandswe say,thisisnot a climatechange problem, and this is not an immigration problem. This is a crisis created by neoliberal policies and extractive industries endorsed by the governments that have granted licenses to transnational corporations like NaturAceites, Fenix, Enel, and others. States in coordination with the military, and the police forces work for the economic interest of a few, and at the expense of our peoples and Mother Earth in violation of Indigenous peoples’ self-determination.
Faced by the escalating violence and displacement of Indigenous peoples, we call for acknowledgement of the particular impacts endured by our peoples, and for accountability and action. We provide the following recommendations:
1) We call on the UN Forum members and relevant UN mandate holders to work with states to ensure that the recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples’ individual and collective rights to their lands, territories, and natural goods of the Mother Earth are in alignment with International standards.
2) The Forum members lead adequate coordination of relevant UN mandate holders to address the severity of the transnational displacement experienced by Indigenous peoples and: a) Echo the calls by Maya leaders for a fact finding mission to include the Special Rapporteur on housing , the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous peoples to verify the multitude of violent, forced evictions of Maya peoples and the particular ways this violence affects women and girls as the epidemic of gender based violence is known to disproportionately impact Indigenous women and girls, among others; and b) Issue a full report of the human rights violations including injuries to minors, elders, pregnant women, impacts to LGBTQS+ , and the destruction of property.
3) We call on the U.S. to extend an invitation to UN Special Procedures, specifically the UN Special Rapporteurs for: The Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Human Rights of Migrants; Violence Against Women; to conduct an in-country visit and investigation into abuse and deaths at the border and in detention centers, and labor exploitation, with a specific focus on Indigenous children and families.
4) Callfortheestablishmentofanindependentimplementingandmonitoringbody,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 at the border, in detention centers, and those impacted by aggressive immigration policies with a particular focus on Indigenous peoples and children; b) oversee the collection and analysis of disaggregated data on Indigenous peoples, in cooperation/agreement with Indigenous peoples,includingonthebasisofsex,age,disabilityandallthosecrossingborders(internal and international) in order to develop policies and programs and an legal pathway to Indigenous asylum seekers to enter the U.S. and c) establish an Indigenous Languages advisory group comprised of Indigenous language and cultural experts to develop Indigenous language resources, train interpreters and translators in shelters and border patrol facilities, and immigration generally.
1201
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 827-6673
Email: info@mayanleague.org
www.mayanleague.org
5) In this International Decade of Indigenous languages, States must be held accountable to their obligation to provide Indigenous peoples’ due process rights in the languages that we understand as is stipulated by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Thank you - Chjonte.
April 18, 2023 | 4 Tz’i