Category Archives: Rights, Resilience, and Restoration

by | 2012-06-22 · 11:00

Indigenous deliver Kari-Oca II Declaration to Rio+20, as military halts hundreds

By Brenda Norrell, cross-posted from NarcoNews

Photos by Ben Powless, Mohawk, IEN

June 21, 2012 – RIO DE JANEIRO – Indigenous Peoples delivered the Kari-Oca II Declaration for the Protection of Mother Earth to leaders at Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainability, after the military halted hundreds of Indigenous Peoples from entering the area.

The Indigenous delegation delivering the Declaration today included members of the Indigenous Environmental Network and Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.

The Kari-Oca II Declaration was presented to the UN Director for Sustainable Development Nikhil Seth, and Gilberto Carvalho, the Chief Minister to the Presidency of Brazil.

As world leaders seek to profiteer from nature at the summit, Indigenous Peoples, barred by the military from attending, are holding their own encampment at the Kari Oca II and produced the Kari-Oca II Declaration for the protection of Mother Earth. Indigenous leaders are demanding a halt to the false carbon market schemes which allow the world’s worst polluters to continue polluting and profiteering from nature.

Kandi Mossett, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara from North Dakota, was in the delegation of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Mossett said only a small group of Indigenous were allowed past the military to deliver the Declaration.
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by | · 09:00

Video: Indigenous Declaration of Kari-Oca II delivered to UN summit; condor visits solemn ceremony

June 22, 2012 — Yesterday at Rio+20, 400 Indigenous people from throughout the world attempted to enter the UN Rio+20 summit to deliver the Kari-Oca II Declaration to United Nations leaders (see previous post). Only a handful of the delegates were permitted to enter the summit due to military intervention. The delivery of the declaration was visited on by the overflight of a condor.

The Kari-Oca II Declaration (available here) states, in part:

“We see the goals of UNCSD Rio+20, the ‘Green Economy,’ and its premise that the world can only ‘save’ nature by commodifying its life-giving and life-sustaining capacities as a continuation of the colonialism that Indigenous peoples and our Mother Earth have faced and resisted for 520 years… Indigenous activists and leaders defending their territories continue to suffer repression, militarization, including assassination, imprisonment, harassment and vilification as ‘terrorists.’ The violation of our collective rights faces the same impunity. Forced relocation or assimilation assault our future generations, cultures, languages, spiritual ways and relationship to the earth, economically and politically.”

(listen to audio interviews with members of the delegation here and here).

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by | 2012-06-21 · 19:07

Rio+20 Breaking News: GJEP and Biofuelwatch disrupt industry event with Richard Branson

For Immediate Release 21 June 2012

Activists Disrupt Sir Richard Branson at Avoided Deforestation Rio +20 Event

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–Activists from Global Justice Ecology Project and Biofuelwatch disrupted Virgin Airlines owner Branson’s speech with chants and placards at the Rio+20 Earth Summit event titled “Advancing Public-Private Partnerships for Deforestation-Free / Sustainable Agriculture” today at the Windsor Barra hotel in Rio.

“We came here to interfere with this event because we recognize that the negotiations inside the UN’s official Rio+20 Conference are essentially irrelevant,” stated Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project. “The real negotiations that will determine the fate of the planet are being held outside of the UN space at these industry-sponsored events,” she added.

Ambassador Donald Steinberg, Deputy Administrator of USAID was clear on this point when he stated during his presentation at the event, “these [public-private partnership] events are not side events, these are the main events.”

“Biofuelwatch took part in this action because of Richard Branson’s key role in promoting large-scale biofuels for aviation, geo-engineering and other destructive techno fixes,” stated Almuth Ernsting. “Branson is responsible for vast carbon emissions from his airline to which he now wants to add space tourism – his ‘solutions’ include more destructive monoculture plantations which harm forests, peoples and climate.”

Parallel to the negotiations that have been going on around Rio+20, the UN Climate Conferences and other UN forums, industry is coming together with countries like Norway to create ways to implement highly controversial market-based approaches like REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) that cannot be passed in the multilateral meetings.

Participants in the event included executives from Coca Cola and Unilever, both of which are implicated in serious human rights abuses and environmental destruction.

“We took this action in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, local communities and small farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by the privatization of their lands for Green Economy-style projects”, stated Keith Brunner of Gears of Change and Global Justice Ecology Project. “Public-private partnerships, such as those discussed here, are driving a vast transfer of wealth, resources and land into private hands–from the 99% to the 1%.”

After the disruption, participants in the action left the premises.

Contact: Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project +55.21.8079.0538

Email: anne@globaljusticeecology.org

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Greenwashing, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

by | · 19:00

Earth Audio Podcast: Sacajawea “Saki” Hall on KPFK Sojourner Truth Show, June 21, 2012

Interview with Sacajawea “Saki” Hall, the membership coordinator at the US Human Rights Network, in Rio de Janeiro with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, on KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show, June 21, 2012.

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod and the Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Segment interviews every Thursday–as well as daily interviews during international gatherings such as the Peoples’ Summit in Rio.

Click here to listen/download

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Filed under Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

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by | · 17:00

Rio+20: Opening statement of the Farmers Major Group by La Via Campesina

Cross-posted from La Via Campesina

Read by Henry Saragih, international coordinator of La Via Campesina at the opening of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20

June 20, 2012, Rio de Janeiro

Mr. Chair, Heads of States, Your Excellencies and esteemed representatives, we have been debating the future of the planet and humanity for the past two years. It is clear that sustainable agriculture is essential to the discussion on sustainable development.

Our constituencies include: farmers, artisanal fishers, pastoralists, agricultural workers, youth and indigenous peoples. They are often among the most affected by multiple crises, in particular women and young people. They also hold the solutions for sustainable development in their hands.

In order to be able to implement systems that nourish our people and sustain our planet, institutional change is necessary, particularly in the area of participation and empowerment of the most vulnerable, the majority of whom reside in rural areas. The new path of development entails the empowerment of these constituencies to produce and harvest, this requires the rights to equitable access to land tenure – regardless of gender, marital status, religious or ethnic origins – and to productive resources, including seeds, inputs, trade and markets.

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Filed under Climate Justice, Food Sovereignty, Green Economy, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

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by | 2012-06-19 · 10:41

Declaration of Kari-Oca II adopted by five hundred Indigenous representatives in sacred ceremony

By Jeff Conant, for Climate Connections

Signing of the Kari-Oca Declaration. Photo: Ben Powless

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 19, 2012 — Over five hundred Indigenous Peoples from Brazil and throughout the world gathered at Kari-Oca II, an encampment seated at the foot of a mountain near Rio Centro, to sign a declaration demanding respect for Indigenous Peoples’ role in maintaining a stable world environment, and condemning the dominant economic approach toward ecology, development, human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

“We see the goals of UNCSD Rio+20, the “Green Economy”, and its premise that the world can only ‘save’ nature by commodifying its life-giving and life-sustaining capacities as a continuation of the colonialism that Indigenous Peoples and our Mother Earth have faced and resisted for 520 years”, the declaration states.

Hundreds of Indigenous representatives plan to march from Kari-Oca on Wednesday, June 20, to deliver the declaration to world leaders at the opening of the Rio+20 Summit. Continue reading →

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by | 2012-06-18 · 17:30

Video: Grassroots Global Justice Alliance members speak about “toxic tour” in Rio de Janeiro

On June 16, as part of the Rio+ 20 Peoples’ Summit, organizers in Rio de Janeiro organized a “toxic tour” of communities in the city overburdened by industrial pollution and associated health and social problems. In the videos that follow, two members of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance share their impressions from the tour.

Naeema Muhammed tells of her visit to the community of Santa Cruz.

Lottie Spady of East Michigan Environmental Action Council speaks about the toxic burdens faced by marginalized communities in Detroit and in Brazil.

Throughout the week, Climate Connections will be posting short videos of participants in Rio+20 Earth Summit and the alternative Peoples’ Summit.

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Filed under Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Pollution, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

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by | · 09:00

Civil society activists join forces to protest at Rio+20

From Ibon International

Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, June 17, 2012 – Civil society activists from across the world joined for a protest on Sunday inside the Riocentro convention center to push the messsage: “Our Future, Our Voice.”

The activists, part of the Rights for Sustainability campaign, taped their mouths and held placards before gathered media.

The protest was in reaction to a lack of voice for civil society at Rio+20; back-tracking on the Rio principles established at the 1992 Earth Summit; and the prioritizing of unregulated corporate interests over human rights and equity.

Paul Quintos of IBON International, which coordinates the NGO Cluster on Rights and Equity at Rio+20, and the Rights for Sustainability advocacy platform, said: “Civil society’s ability to promote the voice of the people it represents has been steadily eroded throughout the process leading up to Rio+20.”
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