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A step towards accountability
First Peoples Human Rights Coalition
March 10, 2007

In February, the Western Shoshone exercised their right to represent themselves on an international level, by submitting a shadow report [attached] to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva. Several other articulate Indigenous groups also submitted reports to the Committee, all regarding human rights responsibilities of the government of Canada.

The Western Shoshone report emphasized that the actions and policies of transnational corporations registered in Canada were causing adverse effects on the human rights of the Western Shoshone in the United States, as well as …

Please find enclosed the press release regarding Harriet Nahannee’s death as a direct result of her incarceration. The call for a public inquiry to answer the below questions has gone out and we are also forwarding it to the European Support groups, who are looking into a campaign on Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples especially in light of the 2010 Olympics being railroaded into Aboriginal Territories and Harriet losing her life trying to stop it.

As you all know elder and environmental activist, Betty Krawczyk, 78, will be sentenced by the same judge, Mme Justice Brown, who sent Harriet to jail …

First Nations Activist Dies After Release from Jail
By Zoe Blunt, www.zoeblunt.gnn.tv
24 Feb 2007

In memory of Harriet Nahanee, age 71

VANCOUVER - A community is in mourning following news of the death of a great-grandmother who fought to defend aboriginal rights and the environment. Activist Harriet Nahanee died at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver on Saturday, February 24, one month after she was sentenced to fourteen days in jail for protesting the destruction of a wetlands for a highway bypass.

The woman who once said that natives need an “aboriginal Malcolm X” to restore their pride will be

…

From Zoe, www.zoeblunt.gnn.tv

The Kwakiutl First Nation has called for a demonstration at the Legislature on Monday at 11 am to protest the Province’s decision to transfer land in its territory without consultation. The transfer is part of a deal between Western Forest Products and the Province to take private land out of Tree Farm Licenses on northern Vancouver Island. The Kwakiutl Band Council states that it was informed about the application, but it was not consulted, and it is still waiting for official notice of the decision that was made January 31. Western Forest Products stands to make millions …

HOUSTON, Jan. 31 — Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon, environmentalists and human rights groups today called on the Peruvian government to suspend its tendering of oil concessions that threaten to devastate a vast swath of pristine tropical rainforest and the native communities that live there.

They arrived in Houston today to speak out as Perupetro, Peru’s state- owned oil company, launched its 2007 roadshow in Houston timed to coincide with the NAPE Expo, the oil prospecting industry’s semi-annual trade show. Perupetro plans to tender 11 Amazonian blocks, covering approximately 22 million acres of intact primary tropical rainforest.

Three of those blocks …

received via www.rightsaction.org: Please re-distribute this info all around. If you want on-off this e-list, or for more info about North American nickel and gold companies in Guatemala and Central America: info@rightsaction.org.

For detailed background information on the recent evictions in Guatemala, please see this post

Guatemala: Open Letter by Victoria Henderson to Ian Austin, CEO of Sky Resource Mining Company

[PLEASE NOTE: I would like to encourage those interested in this case to review my initial letter to Skye Resources, of 28 September 2006, and Mr. Austin’s response of 9 October 2006, both of which Mr. …

Even though I admire and respect non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International, I’m continuously compelled to point out that they have a number of responsibilities which extend far beyond their mandate, whatever it may be.

Among others, this includes a social responsibility to act in the best interests of those effected by their actions; as well as to be fair and balanced/ to not take sides if there mandate is, for example, something as encompassing as protecting human rights.

Such organizations do not or should not have the luxury to pick and choose what they want to do, as they see …