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Global Indigenous Women's Delegation Visits North Dakota to Share Strategies to Oppose Mega Oil and Gas Projects, Impact on Women and Girls
Apr 17, 2019
A delegation of Indigenous women climate defenders from Colombia, Guatemala, Israel, Kenya, Nepal and Nicaragua arrived today in North Dakota to visit the Fort Berthold Reservation where they will meet with local leaders who are confronting the devastating impact of oil and gas mega-projects on their communities, particularly on Indigenous women and girls.
The delegation, organized by MADRE and the Indigenous Environmental Network, is an opportunity for Indigenous women leaders challenging extractive industries and resource exploitation in their own communities around the world to learn from local leaders working on the Fort Berthold Reservation--home to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations. Here, they will share stories and discuss strategies for opposing the devastation and displacement wrought by extractive industries worldwide.
"Indigenous Peoples around the world facing off against mining and other harmful mega-projects in their own communities are deeply inspired whenever Indigenous Peoples rise up against these environmental threats," said Lucy Mulenkei, one of the delegates and the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network in Kenya. "We know for-profit extractive industries continue to threaten the land and well-being of people in this region--and in our own--with a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Peoples, particularly women and girls."
"Opportunities like this are necessary in the work of Indigenous Women to foster the building of lasting relationships as we help each other face urgent issues in our communities and come together to tackle them at the local to the international level," added Kandi White, Indigenous Environmental Network Native Energy & Climate Campaign Director.
"Indigenous women the world over have been identifying solutions to address the harm that has been wrought by extractive industries and resist the continued devastation of Indigenous livelihoods and lands," says Yifat Susskind, MADRE Executive Director. "We are grateful to be able to bring together a delegation to center and connect the voices and urgently-needed strategies of Indigenous women leaders powering environmental justice movements in the US and around the world. We know their solutions can and must inform relevant policy, including the Green New Deal that the US Congress is currently debating."
The delegation is meeting with Fort Berthold Protectors of Water & Earth Rights (Fort Berthold P.O.W.E.R.), local youth group members of Descendants Alliance, and other local Indigenous leaders and activists.
After visiting North Dakota, the delegation will travel to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues taking place in New York from April 22-May 3, 2019 where they will share concrete policy recommendations and a joint statement on how to best confront extractive industries and their harmful effects on Indigenous communities around the world.
All international delegates (see below), as well as MADRE and IEN representatives, are available for interviews. Photos available upon request. Delegates include:
Lucy Mulenkei (Kenya). Lucy is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) in Kenya. A Maasai from Kenya, she has been working both as a chairperson and coordinator of the African Indigenous Women Organization in the East African Region for the past several years.
Yasso Kanti Bhattachan (Nepal). Yasso belongs to the Thakali Indigenous community. She is a founding member and advisor of the National Indigenous Women's Federation (NIWF), Nepal, and one of the leading Indigenous women activists and scholars of Nepal.
Rose Cunningham (Nicaragua). Rose, a Miskito leader and expert in popular education, international labor law, and the rights of migrants, refugees, and displaced persons, is the founder of the organization, Wangki Tangni. She served as an officer of the Organization of American States for 10 years and has been instrumental in raising awareness about violence against Indigenous Women at the UN.
Ana Ceto Chavez (Guatemala). Ana, an Indigenous leader from the Ixil region of El Quiche, is the coordinator of MUIXIL, an organization that promotes and defends the human rights of Indigenous women and their communities. The first Indigenous woman in her community to receive a law degree, she is a strong advocate of restitution and recognition from the Guatemalan government for the genocide of Indigenous Peoples.
Remedios Uriana (Colombia). Remedios is an Indigenous leader who has worked extensively on behalf of the rights of children and Indigenous women of the Wayuu People. She is currently part of the Gender Group of the Colombian Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition.
Sana Ibn Bari (Israel). Sana is a Bedouin activist and advocate for women's rights. An attorney by training, she is responsible for overseeing the rights of the Naqab-Negev Arab Bedouin in the Arab Minority Rights Unit at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Sana has participated in several delegations to the UN, representing the Naqab Arab Bedouin community.
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Feminist Foreign Policy Jumpstart:New Spark for Global Grassroots Women's Voices in US Policymaking
Today, the international women's rights organization MADRE announced the launch of its Feminist Foreign Policy Jumpstart, an initiative to bring global women's voices and solutions to progressive policymaking in the US.
Mar 07, 2019
Today, the international women's rights organization MADRE announced the launch of its Feminist Foreign Policy Jumpstart, an initiative to bring global women's voices and solutions to progressive policymaking in the US.
This initiative seeks to enable policymakers to champion feminist foreign policy positions, to spotlight the leadership and expertise of grassroots women directly impacted by US policies, and to strengthen a rights-based approach to foreign policy.
"We are launching this initiative because this is a vital moment for us to act," said Yifat Susskind, Executive Director. "US foreign policy is in need of a new guiding ethic. To achieve a truly progressive, transformative foreign policy -- one that upholds human rights and protects the planet -- we need women's leadership. Grassroots women worldwide have deep knowledge about the impacts of US policies on their communities and solutions to some of the defining crises of our time, from peacebuilding to climate justice and beyond. This initiative opens new channels of engagement between these local leaders and US policymakers."
MADRE noted that the recent shift in power in the US Congress reflects the impact of women's strengthened political organizing and leadership and offers new opportunities for progressive action. However, even amid the renewed calls for a progressive foreign policy agenda, global women's perspectives and feminist analyses remain sorely lacking.
Susskind further noted, "By embracing the potentials of feminist foreign policy, progressive policymakers gain even more than avenues to protect women's rights, as vital as that is. They also gain experts with valuable perspectives in the work to counter the global rise of right-wing authoritarianism: grassroots women working to confront militarism, environmental destruction, economic exploitation, political repression and more."
The Feminist Foreign Policy Jumpstart will advance a policy agenda developed in partnership with grassroots women worldwide and create opportunities for local women leaders to present their expertise and testimonies to US policymakers. This initiative will focus on three priority areas: offering a global gender justice perspective on the Green New Deal; advancing the voices of women peacebuilders on the frontlines of war to bring lasting peace and stability; and confronting the crisis of gender violence against migrant women.
"We already have what we need to succeed, and a jumpstart will accelerate our progress," said Diana Duarte, MADRE's Policy and Communications Director. "Women like MADRE's partners worldwide are already doing the work to protect their communities against war and disaster. They know well what it means to navigate crises worsened or opportunities offered by US foreign policy. This gives them vital knowledge to offer solutions and transform a progressive foreign policy agenda."
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International Letter Demands Freedom for Sara Quinonez and Tulia Maris Valencia
Individuals and organizations from around the world sent a letter today to Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez demanding that the government drop its baseless charges against social movement leaders Sara Quinonez and her mother Tulia Maris Valencia. Both women are human rights defenders from the Afro-Colombian Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera and members of the Black Communities Process (Proceso de Comunidades Negras, PCN).
Apr 26, 2018
Individuals and organizations from around the world sent a letter today to Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez demanding that the government drop its baseless charges against social movement leaders Sara Quinonez and her mother Tulia Maris Valencia. Both women are human rights defenders from the Afro-Colombian Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera and members of the Black Communities Process (Proceso de Comunidades Negras, PCN).
The human rights advocates face politically motivated accusations as a result of their work on behalf of the collective and human rights of Afro-descendant communities. At their arraignment hearing on April 25, a judge refused to release them pending trial. On April 24, Ms. Quinonez and Ms. Valencia sent the following message from the courtroom in Cali: "We are women who defend the rights of Afro-Colombian peoples. We are innocent!"
Social movement leaders are particularly alarmed that the government is targeting advocates for arrest while failing to address the dramatic spike in threats and killings against human rights defenders in Colombia since the signing of the Peace Accords. Ms. Quinonez and Ms. Valencia were forcibly displaced as a result of the threats against them. Following the murders of Genaro Garcia (2016) and Jair Cortes (2017), fellow members of the Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera, Ms. Quinonez was forcibly displaced with her family to another part of the country where she received protection measures from both Colombia's own National Protection Unit and from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Advocates are concerned the April 20 arrests signal that the government is criminalizing efforts to defend the constitutionally recognized collective and territorial rights of Afro-Colombian people. "We are concerned that these arrests are a dangerous harbinger of a possible return to the pre-Peace Accords period where human rights activists - and especially Afro-Colombian activists - were prime targets of the Colombian state," said Jaribu Hill, Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights and Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) Coordinating Committee.
The Afro-Colombian Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera has been subjected to violence and dispossession at the hands of paramilitary groups, guerrilla groups, narcotics traffickers, soldiers, and multinational corporation over the course of decades. Ms. Quinonez served as the President and later as the Vice-President of the Community Council, and Ms. Tulia Maris Valencia is also a well-known leader of the women's group and serves on local committees in the Community Council. Thanks to their crucial work in defense of the community's rights, the Community Council of Alto Mira and Frontera is one of the few cases prioritized in the Ethnic Chapter of the Peace Accords between the FARC and the Colombian government.
"Afro-Colombian women human rights defenders like Ms. Quinonez and Ms. Valencia are at the forefront of the type of social justice movements that will lead to meaningful peace, and their work must be permitted to continue. We join with Colombian social movements calling for the authorities to drop the baseless charges against Ms. Quinonez and Ms. Valencia, and immediately release them," said Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE.
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Rights Organizations Call for No Borders on Gender Justice
Today, as the United Nations begins its annual gathering on women's rights, a coalition of international women's, LGBTIQ, and immigrant justice organizations have launched a joint initiative called: No Borders on Gender Justice.
Mar 13, 2017
Today, as the United Nations begins its annual gathering on women's rights, a coalition of international women's, LGBTIQ, and immigrant justice organizations have launched a joint initiative called: No Borders on Gender Justice.
This coalition, participating in the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), highlights that this year's session takes place under the shadow of escalated anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-Muslim policies of the United States. The organizers point to the new executive order by the Trump Administration, set to take effect this Thursday, as the latest in an exclusionary trend that prevents women from exercising their rights to political participation at UN Headquarters.
Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, spoke out in solidarity with women's rights activists excluded by these policies. "This is not the time to keep us out of the meeting rooms, out of the decision-making spaces and away from our sisters at CSW," she said.
An Indigenous Ixil women's rights activist from Guatemala, who requested not to be named, said, "I was denied a visa to travel to the US for CSW. Coming from Guatemala or from Central America, we know the obstacles and discrimination that have stood in the way of us accessing international spaces in the US, like the UN in New York. This is a barrier to our work for human rights, worsening in this political climate of fear and exclusion."
Organizers of this initiative have emphasized that the risk extends not only to access to CSW. Also at risk is rights advocates' access to UN and international advocacy spaces year round. Moreover, those most affected are women and their families, far from UN spaces, who face hate crimes, criminalization, detention and deportation due to xenophobic policies.
The No Borders on Gender Justice initiative seeks to renew strategies to reclaim space to defend the full range of women's human rights, protest racist and Islamophobic policies that bar access, amplify the demands of those who have been excluded, and deepen collaboration with women most at risk from authoritarianism.
Organizers have also released a platform of principles, available here. The organizations co-sponsoring this initiative are: MADRE, Just Associates (JASS), Center for Women's Global Leadership, AWID, Urgent Action Fund, Women in Migration Network and OutRight Action International.
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