IOSDE is an endorsing organization of the following Action by Activists and Community Leaders to Protest the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

Please shared this information, attend and support the action directly via the following contacts, sites and locations in the below shared press release, also located at https://www.facebook.com/PROTESTTHECCA/photos/a.394585177329341.1073741827.394576327330226/989830031138183/?&theater -

For Immediate Release:

Contacts: Mark Bartlett +1 (619) 623-5150, Community Activist,
[email protected], and Catherine Mendonca +1 (619)
839-9244, Af3irm San Diego, [email protected]

What: Hunger Strike by Activists and Community Leaders to Protest the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
When: July 5th, 2016 at 6pm
Where: 551 S. 35th St. San Diego, CA 92113, facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/241730556214163/?notif_t=plan_user_associated&notif_id=1467169151545065

San Diego, on July 5th, 2016 – This is a call for ACTION that will begin on July 5th in Southeast San Diego as we stand in solidarity to protest against the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Community Leaders and Local Activists will execute a hunger strike next to the Oceanview Facility located at 551 S. 35th St. San Diego, CA 92113. The hunger strike will continue until all action items requested by the protest organizers have been satisfied.

The CCA is the largest for-profit prison industry in America and they currently operate three Correctional Facilities across San Diego County. Two out of the three facilities are located in the heart of Southeast San Diego and Barrio Logan. Both centers are located in residential neighborhoods within close proximity of homes, churches, schools, and businesses. CCA is looking to capitalize through alternative services in order to boost their revenue by purchasing re-entry/detention centers across the country.

Rally and Protest Details: Tuesday July 5, 2016 at 6:00 pm, Correctional Corporation of America (CCA/CAI), 551 S. 35th St. San Diego, CA 92113

At a site within close proximity of the correctional facility, advocates will urge the County of San Diego to terminate their partnership with CCA and return the building back to the community. Advocates also request that all Justice Involved Individuals will be provided with quality RE-ENTRY services that are not run by for-profit prison corporations. Community Leaders also demand that all agencies at the local, state, and federal level terminate their contracts with CCA and demand a thorough investigation into their low staffing levels, high use and possession of narcotics in their facilities, possible tampering and forging of County/Federal documents, lack of resources and programs for Justice Involved Individuals, overcrowding that breaches their contract stipulations, misuse and improper handling of the distribution of prescribed medication, absence of medical care, as well as improper training and the lack of personal safety equipment for staff. We also request that the San Diego Police Department along with the San Diego Fire Department/EMT relinquish all documented complaints from the community and a record of dispatch calls they have received from the facility where they responded to a situation at the center. Lastly, Community Organizers request that the Federal Bureau of Prisons release their full monitoring audit documents for both facilities from 2015 to the public.

“These two re-entry facilities in San Diego was the birth of a new era for CCA in terms of residential community correctional centers. New avenues to generate revenue gave rise to the “Treatment Industrial Complex” where for-profit prison corporations are seeking alternative services such as Re-entry centers, Mental Health centers, and Electronic Monitoring (GPS). Both facilities were purchased in 2013 for $36 million dollars cash and have a combined total capacity of 603 beds. This is a slap in the face to the community to allow a corporation to operate in our backyards that thrives off profiting from the criminalization and incarceration of black, brown, and the poor from underserved communities. We must reclaim our communities and demand investment in infrastructures that create a pipeline to higher learning rather than institutions of formal control. Stand in solidarity as we unite to bridge the gap between our communities from the waterfront of Barrio Logan to the streets of Southeast San Diego” ~ Mark Bartlett

We must ban private prisons! "Once CCA or GEO Group secures a new contract, every taxpayer dollar that goes toward their profit is a dollar not spent on improving conditions in jails and prisons or pursuing alternatives to incarceration. Private prison companies also pitch their services as short-term solutions to overcrowding, but too often public officials become dependent on the private space and delay addressing the root causes of incarceration." Donald Cohen in It’s a crime: How private prison companies encourage mass incarceration - Salon

We do not need private prison corporations in our backyards! We need schools, parks, family owned businesses, community centers, community programs, and other establishments that will help promote positive social change for our people rather than incarceration. This is call for ACTION so we must stand in solidarity and ACT NOW! Join our fight across the country and stand in solidarity as we demand real Criminal Justice and Prison Reform that does not include the privatization of Correctional Centers and alternative services.

"Profits over People" exposes the injustices in our broken Criminal Justice system and how the privatization of prisons has played a key role in enslaving, exploiting, and the monetizing of our people which has led to mass incarceration today.

Protest the Corrections Corporation of America
https://www.facebook.com/PROTESTTHECCA

San Diego No More Prisons
https://www.facebook.com/SANDIEGONOMOREPRISONS

Endorsing organizations include: United Against Police Terror - San Diego; Af3irm San Diego; Black Men For Bernie, Artful Activist San Diego;Overpass Light Brigade - San Diego; San Diego Social Leagues; Millions for Prisoners Human Rights Committee; Justleadershipusa (JLUSA); National END MASS Incarceration; Nadia Contreras of ImMYOwnBlessing; Coalition For Labor & Community Solidarity; La Flor De La Resistencia; Angeles Sin Fronteras; Fuerza Amigos de Aztlan; South San Diego - inmate penpals, Citizens Oversight Projects, Rebuilding Re-Entry Coalition,Justice or ELSE San Diego, International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality IOSDE, The Roots Factory

In solidarity.

Protest today in front of the Honduras Embassy in New York City during the weeks of the UNPFII (UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues).

IOSDE has run into our Mindanao Indigenous friends protesting the assassination of Berta Caceres and other Human, Indigenous and Nature Rights Defenders and People(s).

While a few well-positioned people in the halls of the United Nations continue to spend time, resources and attention to UN posts, diplomatic relations with States and funding therein, Indigenous Peoples and poor people, nature defenders, mothers and women, youth, workers and people of all kinds, faiths, backgrounds and lives around the world face conditions of murder, abuse, torture, displacement and worsening conditions.

We stand in solidarity for real change for all persons, nature and peoples- for real justice in the face of hallways, board rooms, conferences, policed dominance and endless paper trails begging for, demanding and calling for life, safety and peace.

IOSDE along with ADBR (Association for Global Development of Batwa in Rwanda), an Indigenous Batwa organization from Rwanda, has submitted an Alternative Report to the United Nations CERD Committee (the Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination) for the Committee's review of Rwanda's adherence to the CERD Treaty. Full report available at the session website here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/…/…/INT_CERD_NGO_RWA_23616_E.pdf

The CERD review of Rwanda will be webcast live 28-29 April, in addition to the live webcasting of other States being reviewed during the 89th session of CERD that week and the week following.

We wish our Batwa colleagues and friends all equality, justice, safety and increased access to the United Nations Indigenous platform without discrimination.

Thursday, 17 March 2016

La Vía Campesina denounces the grave criminalization taking place in Honduras today in the form of prisons, repression and the assassination of peasant and indigenous leaders. In the last few weeks the situation has worsened greatly with the proliferation of hired assassins aiming to take the lives of those who demand land to produce food, of those who struggle against extractivism, dams, and agribusiness.

Yesterday, March 15th, several regrettable events took place which we summarize below. All require the urgent attention and action of our organizations, allies and human rights entities:

1. Assassination attempt on Cristian Alegría, cousin of Rafael Alegría, lawmaker for the Libre Party and Coordinator of La Vía Campesina Honduras. This attack ocurred in front of La Vía Campesina offices located at Colonia Alameda, Tegucigalpa. 

2. Assassination of Nelson García, member of COPINH and community leader in Río Chiquito. This tragic event took place during the forced eviction of the Río Lindo community, in department of Cortés, when an estimated 100 police officers, 20 members of the military police, 10 members of the Army, and various members of DGIC invaded the territory previously recovered by 150 families, 75 of which had built homes in the area with materials and efforts they worked hard to obtain.

3. Capture of Muca President Juan Ángel Flores in the departament of Colón. Detained in the early morning and accussed of links to drug trafficking, the lack of evidence forced authorities to release him hours later.

4. Detention of public defender Orbelina Flores Hernández, member of the Permanent Human Rights Observatory of the Aguan, accusing her of involvement in land conflicts.

5. Sentencing of David Romero, journalist of Radio Globo, to 10 years in prison. David has been courageously denouncing the embezzlement of social security and other acts of corruption in Honduras, all of which indicate involvement of the ruling party.

It is evident that these attacks are directed at combative social movements engaged in the struggle for land and in defense of territories such as La Vía Campesina, COPINH and Muca.

As such, we of La Vía Campesina:

1. Denounce the Honduran government for executing a plan of repression against leaders and social movements.

2. Demand respect for the life of Honduran social activists.

3. Call for international human rights organizations to come to Honduras and accompany the grave humanitarian situation being faced in the country. It is important that the Honduran government be denounced at the international level for its direct attacks on, and criminalization of, social struggles.

4. Ask for all those concerned with human rights and justice to articulate public acts of solidarity at Honduran embassies around the world. To make these actions known write to [email protected] and, in Honduras, contact the offices of La Vía Campesina in Tegucigalpa by emailing [email protected]. Members of the press and allies should contact: Rafael Alegría, 00504 9969-5091, office 00504 2235-9915 and Wendy Cruz 00504 9983-8506.

For La Vía Campesina, solidarity and internationalism are the key values of our movement. As such, we will continue monitoring the situation in Honduras closely, making public and denouncing internationally the persecution and criminalization faced by peasant, indigenous, and afro movements engaged in the frontline struggle to defend our territories against transnational capital and its attempt to take control of our natural resources.

Globalize struggle! Globalize hope!

For our dead, not one minute of silence! An entire life of struggle!

For more information go to: http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/human-rights-mainmenu-40/2000-international-condemnation-honduras-end-the-violence-and-death-against-the-peasant-indigenous-movement

Consultations are now underway re "possible measures necessary, including procedural and institutional steps and selection criteria, to enable the participation of indigenous peoples' representative and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them".

Consultations will include, in the quickly-coming weeks and months: engagements online, at the UNPFII (UN Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), EMRIP (UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), and at States' national levels. Stay updated on UN level consultations here: www.un.org/indigenous

Download predating related points, positions and arguments: "Indigenous Decolonization and United Nations Membership: Indigenous Peoples and the Fundamental Right to Self-Determination", 2012 LLM thesis by IOSDE Founder & Director India Reed Bowers, B.A. Cultural Anthropology, Brown University, United States, LL.M. International Law of Human Rights and Criminal Justice, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, or view online here: www.scribd.com/doc/129340589/Indigenous-Decolonization-and-United-Nations-Membership-Indigenous-Peoples-and-the-Fundamental-Right-to-Self-Determination

Video archive of first interactive briefing, "the participation of the Indigenous Peoples at the UN - General Assembly, Informal meeting 7 Mar 2016 - General Assembly: Informal meeting on the implementation of the relevant provisions of resolution 70/232 entitled Rights of Indigenous Peoples.":

Invitation (with short notice) sent to selected Representatives of Indigenous Peoples (selection criteria currently unknown) for attendance to first interactive briefing:

7 March 2016

Unlike the illegal (by International Law) criminalization of Indigenous Human Rights Defender Berta Cáceres by the Honduras State, the murder of Cáceres has not gone unnoticed by the international community at-large. When will women no longer be the targets of the violence, domination and backlash of the models of dominance-style patriarchy, of State/governance and business? WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH?

In 2013 IOSDE’s Founder and Director, India Reed Bowers, personally delivered an IOSDE statement to the Honduras Embassy in San Francisco, California USA, that demanded an end to the judicial persecution of COPINH members Berta Cáceres, Aureliano Molina and Tomas Gómez and that Cáceres, Molina, and Gómez be exonerated of false accusations against them. IOSDE demanded that the Honduran government must respect ILO Convention 169 and respect ancestral lands and that illegal concession on the Gualcarque River must be withdrawn and construction of the dam stopped, that attacks against indigenous peoples, especially in Rio Blanco, must be ended. At the same time of that criminalizing Cáceres in 2013, the Honduran delegation at the United Nations (UN) 24th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) stated, in-session during an Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), that States should consult widely with Indigenous Peoples so as to have a comprehensive process before making a decision on extractive industry.

States make a mockery of Human Rights when they present one position to EMRIP, the HRC, a Special Rapporteur or otherwise in the international arena and at the same time operate differently, ie hypocritically, at home. The abusive relationship States model therein results in murders of Human Rights Defenders, and teaches the people themselves to harm each other as a model of State loyalty/citizenship. IOSDE sees the murder of Berta Cáceres as a deliberate fear-tactic and attempt to silence Human Rights-based discourse and enacting of Indigenous Rights. Such tactics are a played-out form of genocidal operatives used to maintain both State domestic and international business control for profit, violating our sisters’ right to life, peace, wisdom, dignity and knowledge. Were States not to criminalize Human Rights Defenders, women and men with true commitment to a better world for all, like Berta Cáceres, would be alive today and celebrated for being the role models they are in life not death. Women and men like Berta Cáceres are our heroes; now is the time to stop violating and murdering heroes and start modeling their support, for a better world. [1]

For document version of statement, including attachments from footnoted documents, click here.

[1] See also 2013 IOSDE Statement re the Honduras State’s Criminalization of Berta Cáceres; and IOSDE Statement on the Murder of Teduray chieftain 'meant to silence lumad struggle for rights'; Mindanao, Philippines, 9 October 2015

 

PRESS RELEASE

APACHES CALL ON POPE FRANCIS TO RECOGNIZE THE HISTORY OF GENOCIDE AND DISPOSSESSION; DEMAND HISTORICAL
CLARIFICATION & TRUTH COMMISSION

from: the Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group, the Apache Nation
and the Coalition for Apache Ndé Nneé Justice

16 February 2016

Only a Truth Commission will end the abuse:
Pope Francis and the Catholic Church continue theft and the rape
of the Apache Ndé Nneé after UN findings

Pope Francis is currently proceeding on his official tour through the unceded Apache Ndé Nneé territory beyond borders. The Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group has issued an official statement demanding that the Pope must recognize he is advancing on his tour without the express free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the sovereign Apache Ndé Nneé Peoples. This action is in violation of Indigenous laws, governance and justice frameworks as well as the Indigenous Rights contained within the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Working Group demands the Pope, as the world representative of the Catholic Church, immediately redirect his behavior to adhering to these minimal international Human Rights principles. His current behavior is a negative reflection of the Holy See’s continuing process of on-going, present-day denial of the genocidal violence against both ancestral and present-day Ndé Nneé intergenerational survivors of the destructive campaigns by the Holy See against non-surrendering Indigenous sovereigns. 

The Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group calls on the Pope to disrupt his colonialist and paternalistic behavior in Mexico in the Indigenous territories therein, and to hold himself accountable for his ‘tour’ in the unceded Ndé Nneé territory. This continuation of disrespect towards the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples is an enactment of blatant Eurocentric practice in the ‘Americas’ which is, at the core, the general spirit of non-recognition that in fact underlies the on-going genocidal process in the ‘Americas’ itself. By not respecting the protocols of Indigenous Peoples in unceded territories, the Pope is continuing to model ‘business as usual’ - in other words, the continuation of the Doctrine of Discovery that has subjugated and dehumanized Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty as beneath that of Europeans. This ongoing violation has placed Indigenous Peoples in a position of inferiority through the normalizing of the ‘victim’ identity of Indigenous Peoples under the States’ rubrics of ‘minorities’ and ‘ethnic groups’ – a situation that is regressive and unacceptable. Such behavior propagates the legal narrative of conquest, in turn maintaining the aggressive and destructive status quo of rape, pillage, and subjugation in Indigenous unceded territories today.

The Holy See’s continuing pattern of erasure and paternalism through the Pope’s avoidance of this crucial rupture between Indigenous Peoples and Eurocentric ideology-turned-policy works to mesmerize the masses into performing Church and power-dynamic-based rituals that re-colonize Indigenous Peoples into obedience and complicity in this masquerade.

The Holy See’s ongoing assimilationist policies are represented by the Pope’s travels through Indigenous lands, as he ‘tours’ without respect to the Ndé Nneé protocols of formal, proper recognition to non-federal and federal Apache Peoples alike.  The Working Group demands that the Holy See be held accountable for its role in committing genocide against Indigenous Peoples, and that it must repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and the effects and legacy of the Papal Bull Inter Caetera.

This continuing cover-up through the Church’s denial and its ongoing refusal to meet face-to-face in diplomatic meetings with Ndé Nneé Peoples are deliberate avoidance tactics used to obscure the underlying capitalist and profit-centered interests of the Holy See, which is in fact a large property owner in the ‘Americas’. The tactics are being used to obscure the complex ways in which the current-day Church works to manage Indigenous Peoples’ discontent and growing rejection of Church Doctrine.  “Pope Francis is out of touch with actual realities and the diverse ways Indigenous Peoples, and especially the Apache Ndé Nneé Peoples, are engaging in processes of decolonization and interrogation of the ways in which the Holy See. The Church has threatened the status of Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination through advancing the asymmetrical economic and political power relationship underlying the Holy See’s and Euro-settlers’ theft of Indigenous Peoples’ inherent sovereign right to self-rule.”

The Pope’s visit is perpetuating centuries of violations against Apache Ndé women, families, land, sacred traditions and self-determination through the illegal invasion of the Holy See and its and legal-political European kingdoms and settler-State allies via the Inter Caetera and its legacy.

In November 2015 the Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group submitted to the UN CERD (Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination) that the Holy See’s Inter Caetera and the resulting Doctrine of Discovery and theft and murder of Apache Ndé Nneé lands, families, resources, sacredness and life itself was, and continues to be in its legacy, racist and genocidal. The UN CERD Committee has in response supported that the Holy See must meet with Indigenous Peoples about these matters raised, including to address “the current legacy and effects of the Doctrine of Discovery endorsed in the Inter Caetera from 1493 and its related papal bulls, as well as other issues.

Entering the territory of the Apache Ndé, and at this very time following UN CERD findings, is a calculated step by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to undermine the Apache Ndé Nneé as equals in the world society; in essence, little has changed. This violation of our spirits reeks of ongoing genocide against the Apache Ndé People.

“That the Pope continues to violate Apache Ndé Nneé self-determination and sacredness by entering our lands and peoples without seeking Apache Ndé Nneé consent, or offering to meet about the issues as per recent UN CERD findings, is the ultimate show of disrespect to the Apache Ndé as a People and Nation.”

Yet, the Pope’s presence, at the same time, means nothing to us; his patronizing, paternalistic actions are, simply put, merely psychological war games of the Church; “Where is Pope Francis on the extreme human rights violations in Ndé Nneé peoples in the shadow of the gulag Border Wall? The abuse of Ndé Nneé peoples’ rights to FPIC with regard to Rio Tinto and Oak Flats?”

“We will not tolerate the Catholic Church’s continued rape of our rights to self-determination, decision-making, sacredness of our women and own being and lands.”

We hold fast to the formation of a Truth Commission regarding the Holy See’s legacy of rape and historical violations of our people as the only way to actual reparations.

For further questions or information contact:

India Reed Bowers, legal counsel, Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group, [email protected] / phone: +46 (0) 70-283-4808

Michael Paul Hill, Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group,
[email protected] / phone: +1 520-261-7074

***
Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group Shadow Report:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/VAT/INT_CERD_NGO_VAT_22151_E.pdf

CERD Concluding Observations:

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/003/38/PDF/G1600338.pdf?OpenElement

Video recordings of the CERD Holy See review sessions, including Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group oral interventions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=442ZQkPTblg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vITLlVI2ld0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5AZX87f8Rc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8QTzEnx7Po

Transcripts of CERD - Holy See State review session:

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/268/49/PDF/G1526849.pdf

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/271/06/PDF/G1527106.pdf

Text from the CERD Committee's Concluding Observations directly regarding the Holy See and Indigenous Peoples, as a result of the contributions of the Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group, is as follows:

"Indigenous peoples

16. While welcoming the statement made by Pope Francis in the Plurinational State of Bolivia in July 2015, in which he apologized for the actions of the Catholic Church in the context of colonialism against indigenous peoples in the ‘Americas’, the Committee notes the concerns expressed by indigenous peoples regarding the current legacy and effects of the Doctrine of Discovery endorsed in the Inter Caetera from 1493 and its related papal bulls, as well as other issues (arts. 2, 5 and 6).

17. The Committee recommends that the State party engage in meaningful dialogue with indigenous peoples with the aim of effectively addressing their concerns. In this regard, the Committee takes note of the information provided by the State party delegation concerning a high-level dialogue that is scheduled to take place in Rome to address the concerns expressed by indigenous peoples, and recommends that the State party ensure that its interlocutors in this dialogue include appropriate representatives designated by indigenous peoples. The Committee requests the State party to provide information in its next periodic report on the outcome of the meeting and concrete follow-up measures taken."

***

IOSDE has submitted a Shadow Report to the United Nations CEDAW Committee (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women) for the Committee's review of Sweden. The Report was created and written by IOSDE Founder & Director, India Reed Bowers, BA LLM, and can be found uploaded to the CEDAW website here:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/SWE/INT_CEDAW_NGO_SWE_22844_E.pdf

The CEDAW Committee's public review of Sweden and associated NGO-Committee briefings will take place beginning the week of 15 February 2016 at UN Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. IOSDE will be present at the sessions to address the Committee orally and observe the Committee-State dialogue.

Table of Contents of the Shadow Report.

I. Introduction
II. Intersectional Discrimination
III. Accessibility: Disadvantage
IV. The Discrimination Act, Foreign Nationals and the Swedish Constitution
V. Legal-political-policy definition of ‘minority’ in Sweden and the Minority Act
VI. Disaggregated Data and Gender Mainstreaming
VII. “Love Immigrants”
    A. At-risk conditions of women who have immigrated to be with domestic         partners
    B. Lack of resources for ‘love immigrant’ women who are victims of domestic     violence
VIII. Domestic Abuse, the Swedish State, and the Sami Parliament in Sweden
IX. The Role(s) of the Equality Ombudsman
    A. Access to Justice
    B. The Sami Truth Commission and Sami women’s access to justice
XI. Abuse-victim narrative, body ownership and women’s rights
    A. Non-exploitative prostitution
    B. Mishandling of domestic violence victims by police, courts and other             parties

Excerpt from the Shadow Report Introduction:

"Sweden creates a clean exterior image and product presentation regarding adherence to women’s rights and the CEDAW Convention and human rights to the outside world, yet the reality lived for people and women within Sweden is very different, especially for but not limited to immigrant, Indigenous, refugee, foreign-born or foreign-born descent and all minority women.

There is a large gap between the presentable outlines of legislation, policy, funding and even gender-based work of (Stockholm- and South-Sweden concentrated) organizations of Sweden and the actual success of their functioning on the ground amongst the people and systems in the opinions of the women said to be served themselves, based on experiences of women in high-risk categories for abuse and domestic violence due to already existing in situations of intersectional discrimination in Sweden.

As an immigrant- and domestic-violence-victim-founded, Indigenous-Peoples/Rights-based, unfunded and voluntary non-governmental organization and network, IOSDE has keen insight into both silent and silenced truths in not only the international arena regarding women’s rights and violations therein, but in Sweden, its organizational home base. IOSDE stands firm that no policy, law, legislation, system, funding, reporting or otherwise can make up for the silencing of the victims themselves as the persons holding the solutions, ideas, keys, answers and concepts to a better today and tomorrow."

Full Report at:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/SWE/INT_CEDAW_NGO_SWE_22844_E.pdf

Media contact: [email protected] or +46 (0) 702834808
General questions and communication: [email protected]

Press Release from the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group

UNITED NATIONS DECLARES THE HOLY SEE LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FOR EFFECTS AND LEGACY OF RACIST COLONIAL BULLS AND DOCTRINES

14 January 2016

As the result of a comprehensive shadow report and presentations by members of the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group submitted to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) for the Committee's review of the Holy See, the UN CERD Committee has recognized that the Doctrine of Discovery, the Holy See's Inter Caetera and related Papal Bulls are within the legal scope of racial discrimination under International Law and therefore require redress.

The UN CERD Committee has also recognized in its concluding observations that the Holy See is responsible for the past and present effects, i.e. the ongoing legacy, of these historical racist legal documents, and that, in addition, the Holy See must be in direct dialogue with appropriate representatives of Indigenous Peoples to discuss its accountability.

The CERD Committee has additionally recognized that the Holy See, in its response to the Committee's questioning regarding issues raised by the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group, remarked that a high-level meeting between Indigenous Peoples and the Pope regarding the canonization of Juniper Serra (see pages 13, 14, 27, 28, 30, 34, 35, 38, 48 of the shadow report) will occur at an unspecified time in the future, but that knowledge of such a meeting with Indigenous Peoples has thus-far excluded the Apache-Ndé-Nneé and Working Group, as well as the additional issues raised in the shadow report, such as the the Doctrine of Discovery, the Holy See's Inter Caetera and related Papal Bulls, and the past and ongoing effects and legacy therein. The CERD Committee has concluded that these issues and appropriate representatives of Indigenous Peoples must be included in said high-level meeting.

With the support of the UN CERD Committee and its Concluding Observations therein, the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group holds firm and demand that this dialogue between the Pope and Indigenous Peoples must indeed occur, and must include the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group and the issues of the Apache-Ndé-Nneé, including those issues raised in the Working Group's shadow report, for full accountability of the Holy See and justice to occur. These dialogues must result in genuine redress and remedy and in the establishment or supporting of the establishment of one or more related Truth Commission(s). Moreover, such a Truth Commission must occur with respect to self-determination, historical correction, and the rights of women and all affected peoples therein.

Follow-up by the UN CERD Committee on the progress of the Holy See in these measures will occur at the Committee's next review of the Holy See, as per the Committee's Concluding Observations.

For further questions or information contact:

India Reed Bowers, legal counsel, Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group, [email protected] / phone: +46 (0) 70-283-4808

Michael Paul Hill, Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group,
[email protected] / phone: +1 520-261-7074

***

Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group Shadow Report:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/VAT/INT_CERD_NGO_VAT_22151_E.pdf

CERD Concluding Observations:
http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G16/003/38/PDF/G1600338.pdf?OpenElement

Video recordings of the CERD Holy See review sessions, including Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group oral interventions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=442ZQkPTblg&index=15&list=PL0F52AC5B69FB7D7F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vITLlVI2ld0&index=16&list=PL0F52AC5B69FB7D7F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5AZX87f8Rc&index=17&list=PL0F52AC5B69FB7D7F

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8QTzEnx7Po&index=18&list=PL0F52AC5B69FB7D7F

Transcripts of CERD - Holy See State review session:

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/268/49/PDF/G1526849.pdf

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/271/06/PDF/G1527106.pdf

Text from the CERD Committee's Concluding Observations directly regarding the Holy See and Indigenous Peoples, as a result of the contributions of the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group, is as follows:

"Indigenous peoples

16. While welcoming the statement made by Pope Francis in the Plurinational State of Bolivia in July 2015, in which he apologized for the actions of the Catholic Church in the context of colonialism against indigenous peoples in the Americas, the Committee notes the concerns expressed by indigenous peoples regarding the current legacy and effects of the Doctrine of Discovery endorsed in the Inter Caetera from 1493 and its related papal bulls, as well as other issues (arts. 2, 5 and 6).

17. The Committee recommends that the State party engage in meaningful dialogue with indigenous peoples with the aim of effectively addressing their concerns. In this regard, the Committee takes note of the information provided by the State party delegation concerning a high-level dialogue that is scheduled to take place in Rome to address the concerns expressed by indigenous peoples, and recommends that the State party ensure that its interlocutors in this dialogue include appropriate representatives designated by indigenous peoples. The Committee requests the State party to provide information in its next periodic report on the outcome of the meeting and concrete follow-up measures taken."

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IOSDE is under no illusion of the perfection of any group, institution or people/person. We hold that access to justice, and in the forms that are truly justice and healing for the victims themselves and from their own needs and perspectives, first and foremost, is paramount, as is system change coming from the knowledge, experiences and voices of victims themselves.

For persons in power, protecting, saving, authority or helping roles to take advantage of, use and/or abuse persons in vulnerable situations, and especially those whom they are meant to be helping or protecting, is the worst form of violation, as it cuts to the very core of the horror of dehumanization.

For any group to hide its own harms being committed by persons within its own ranks, and the socio-structural cultural norms therein that allow for such violations, is to enable the abuse and is a part of the cycle of violation. when an institution or group is more concerned with upholding its own image than facing its own flaws and accountability, corruption will always be present.

IOSDE strongly holds that the United Nations must be an institution of self-critique and internal process, yes, but also of accepted external critique and review, as any group or person of power, influence, authority or otherwise needs to be for true change and progress in the direction of actualized human rights.

The article The UN’s Shame: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping, by Kathleen Jennings, posted 21 Oct 2015, promotes an important discussion on these issues in the context of UN Peacekeepers and sexual and otherwise abuse of vulnerable persons and the UN's response therein. Ms. Jennings writes:

"...the UN’s response could be considered as much an attempt to protect the UN’s reputation as to protect vulnerable local residents. Thus far, it has done little to change the underlying problem – a potent mix of militarized, instable environments that provide peacekeepers with ample opportunity and, thanks to multiple, sometimes weak chains of command, little actual oversight; a rampant sense of impunity, helped along by the UN’s institutional deference to the rights of the accused over the rights of the accuser; racialized and gendered stereotypes of locals among peacekeepers, which are often reinforced by the in-mission training they received; and an entrenched ‘boys will be boys’ attitude among many within the UN system.

[...] As one of my own sources, a sex worker who (allegedly) suffered a violent assault at the hands of a MONUSCO (UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) peacekeeper, told me when I asked her why she did not make a report: the UN only looks out for the UN." (IOSDE emphasis)

We hope you will consider all walks of life in which persons in vulnerable circumstances have been and are being taken advantage of, used and abused when needing help, equality or protection, and, socio-structurally, as well as culturally, in the context of group and/or institutional dynamic, why such re-victimization is able to happen.

IOSDE will continue to address these issues and suggests that the international human rights family and all persons do so as well.