The Americas

Incredible injustice for indigenous women

Editor's note: The following was named Best Editorial of 2007 by the Native American Journalists Association at its annual awards banquet July 26.

It was originally published in Volume 26, Issue 47. Indian Country Today presents it again in appreciation and acknowledgment of those who work tirelessly toward justice for Indian girls and women.

''From the oldest to the youngest, Native women are disrespected and treated in the most humiliating fashion, living and dying without justice or the knowledge that their granddaughters will live free of the violence they experienced.'' This passage, taken from testimony by Sacred Circle on the Violence Against Women Act, helps breathe life into the devastating statistics at the center of a groundbreaking report on violence against indigenous women.

Amnesty International's 113-page report, ''Maze of Injustice - The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA,'' released April 24, [2007], asserts that the U.S. government has ''created a complex maze of tribal, state and federal jurisdictions that often allows perpetrators to rape with impunity,'' and that these crimes are ''compounded by failures at every level of the justice system.''

American Indian and Alaska Native women are nearly three times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. According to the Department of Justice, nearly 90 percent of the reported cases of rapes and sexual assault of Native women are committed by non-Native men. It is a staggering legacy for women to ''fully expect to be raped,'' as one elder stated in the report, because they are Indian.

The report contains interviews with courageous survivors and advocates, including stories of abuse and injustice so vivid, the mind does not want to believe they are true. Each story illustrates why so many survivors describe their experiences seeking justice as being raped ''all over again.'' Incompetent medical personnel, non-responsive or slow-moving law enforcement, conflicting jurisdictions and underlying racism that affects court proceedings are common obstacles...

The Americas

Día Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas 2008 (9 de agosto)

OPS: Podemos evitar otro patrimonio en extinción

International Day of Indigenous Peoples 2008

PAHO: We can avoid the extinction of another endangered heritage

Washington, DC - ...On the occasion of International Day of Indigenous Peoples 2008, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) stated that "recent and historical processes in the [Latin American] region have identified different cultures where coexist a range of relationships that, with regards to the indigenous in most societies, are asymmetric, subordinated and conflicted."

Studies and reports prepared by the hemispheric organization reiterate that most of the 45 million indigenous people living in the Americas today are confronted by a growing inequity in health and access to basic sanitation. Dr. Jose Luis Di Fabio, Area Manager of Technology and Health Services Delivery within PAHO, said that illiteracy, unemployment, lack of land and territory, high rates of morbidity and mortality from preventable causes, and limitations on access and utilization of basic health services, education, housing and others, "are problems that still affect the majority of indigenous communities and affect their quality of life and their health."

"Minimum results"

The International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2004) was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 with the purpose and commitment to strengthen international cooperation to help solve the problems affecting indigenous peoples in areas such as human rights, environment, development, education and health...

In its assessment of the progress in health of indigenous populations since 1995, PAHO concluded that the results were "minimal" and that the most serious problems remained "still unresolved..."

- Pan American Health Organization

August 7, 2008

Guatemala

Celebran Día Nacional e Internacional de los Pueblos Indígenas

In Celebration of Indigenous People's Day

The city of Santa Cruz del Quiche - Organizations of the Quiche Mayan ethnic community have organized a wide range of activities to celebrate Indigenous People's Day on August 9, 2008.

Among the organizations that are presenting the events are the Academy of Mayan Languages of Guatemala (ALMG), the association Ajb'atz Quiché network, Defensoría K'iche [Quiche Defense] and the municipality of the city of Santa Cruz del Quiche.

Quiche liaison Tomas Matias Gutierrez told Cerigua that there is progress in recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples in the world. The Indigenous were previously thought to be an obstacle to development.