International Efforts to Advance Indigenous Women’s Rights
Indian Law Resource Center Leading Advocacy Trip to UN Human Rights Council
The Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC) is working to bring Indigenous leaders and attorneys from Brazil and Argentina to the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 57th Session in Geneva in late September to address Indigenous rights violations in their respective countries. Each year, during its Fall Session, the Council holds a half-day panel on Indigenous Rights and hosts interactive dialogues with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples.
This year, the Center will work to draw attention to two significant human rights matters. “First, we will speak out about land rights violations in the Jujuy region of Argentina, where the national government is seeking to promote industrial-scale lithium mining on ndigenous lands without adequate consultation or consideration of the social and environmental impact of this work,” said Leonardo Crippa, Senior Attorney at the ILRC. “In the United States, we have seen over and over again how extractive industries operating in or near indigenous communities lead to sharp increases in all forms of violence against indigenous women as non-indigenous workers stream into remote areas,” added Chris Foley, Senior Attorney, ILRC. “The Center’s work will focus on securing land rights for these communities and building support for their local indigenous governments to resist these mining companies, but we know this will contribute directly to advancing safety for indigenous women.”
At the same time, the Center will also create space for our longtime partners from COIAB, the leading indigenous organization in the Brazilian Amazon, to speak out against a dangerous new law being considered by Brazil’s federal government. This law would reinterpret Brazil’s constitution to bar all, or nearly all, Indigenous land claims. In doing this, it would directly undermine Indigenous peoples’ land rights and other fundamental rights, including their right to self-determination and their right to maintain and strengthen their cultures. Further, securing land rights creates a firm basis for Indigenous Nations to resist unlawful land invasions and to strengthen the governments and cultures that protect Indigenous women.
Indian Law Resource Center Developing Human Rights Training With the Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the East
One of the co-sponsors of the 2024 Commission on the Status of Women Parallel Event organized by the Center on March 12, was the Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO) an Indigenous organization in the Peruvian Amazon. At that event, Zaira Lizeth Rodríguez López (Yagua) spoke about her work to build the capacity of women in her region so that they can join her in leading political and advocacy work in their communities and Indigenous organizations. This summer, Center’s attorneys Gianella Sanchez (Shipibo-Conibo) and Chris Foley (Cherokee) have been working with Zaira and other staff from ORPIO’s women’s rights program to identify ways for the Center to contribute to a planned education initiative. ORPIO’s program will offer a cohort of grassroots Indigenous women leaders classroom instruction in human rights and Indigenous rights, building a human rights based response to violence against women and girls, and defending Indigenous lands, among other topics. With this training, these women will form a new network of leaders who can integrate women’s rights throughout their community’s governance and development programs. While the Center’s Safe Women, Strong Nations project remains focused on our work in the United States, we are very excited to share some of the lessons and organizing strategies we have developed here, with our Indigenous partners and colleagues throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America.
“Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.” —THE BEIJING DECLARATION
Upcoming International Advocacy Events
March 10-21, 2025
69th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The CSW will meet in New York City from March 10- 21, 2025, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Beijing Declaration is the leading, comprehensive global commitment on women’s rights. The Declaration recognizes that “Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms” and calls on national governments to respect indigenous women’s rights by “encouraging greater involvement of indigenous women in decision-making at all levels,” and to “take concrete steps, as a priority and with their full and voluntary participation, to address the impact of violence on indigenous women in order to implement appropriate, effective programmes and services to eliminate all forms of violence.”
The 69th Session of the CSW will focus on an appraisal of successes and challenges related to implementation of the Declaration.
Registration for in-person attendance will be open from October 4-January 24.
Further information about the CSW, details about registration and additional participation opportunities, will be posted when available at https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/commission-on-the-status-of-womenc/csw69-2025.
