Insight / Emergency Response / Land Rights
This week, many people in the United States were saddened and angered by the death of Jakelin Caal Maquin, the seven-year-old Mayan girl from Guatemala detained by the U.S. Border Patrol. Few noticed, however, that on Tuesday the United States and Guatemala were two of only eight countries that voted…
Insight / Land Rights / Right to Food and Agriculture
What is a peasant? Many people in the United States think it’s a derogatory term referring to people ruled by feudal lords in the middle ages. But it really means a “person of the land or of the country” and in much of the world, family farmers and rural workers…
Insight / Emergency Response / Land Rights / Women's Rights
The U.S. immigration system is descending further into crisis, as the Trump Administration’s authoritarian and draconian policies are only increasing injustices and exacerbating the underlying problems. The Trump Administration continues aggressive deportations and detentions and the separation of families at the border, yet a massive caravan of thousands of refugees…
Insight / Land Rights
Today is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples! We celebrate the countless contributions of Indigenous peoples to the world, including their diversity of ideas, languages and technologies, their knowledge and histories, and their lasting commitments to protecting the environment. In a world threatened by rapid climate change, Indigenous peoples…
Insight / Emergency Response / Land Rights / Politics & Economics
Last week in Texas, the U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed 20-year-old Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles, an indigenous woman from the Maya Mam community of San Juan Ostuncalco in the Guatemalan highlands. Claudia left her home after being unable to find a job with her degree in accounting. She was…
Insight / Land Rights / Right to Food and Agriculture
Earlier this week, UN Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, visited Maya Q’eqchi land rights defender Abelino Chub Caal, imprisoned for 15 months on baseless charges, and denounced racism and unequal access to justice in Guatemala. As Tauli-Corpuz explained, the case of Chub Caal is just the…
Insight / Land Rights
Abelino Chub Caal, an indigenous Q’eqchi leader in northeast Guatemala, was sitting down to lunch with his wife and children in the town of San Pedro Carchá, when he was approached by police and arrested without explanation. He was later charged with aggravated land grabbing, arson, coercion, illicit association, and…
Insight / Land Rights
Lobbyists for giant Malaysian palm oil firms are elated. This week, they sent out an email blast saying: “Guardian Investigation Finds the EU’s Palm Oil Ban Would be a Disaster.” But there was no investigation – just an article that failed to explore all the global and local issues at…
Insight / Land Rights / Right to Food and Agriculture
Earlier this month, the World Bank held its annual land and poverty conference. Ironically, the title chosen for the event was Land Governance in an Interconnected World, but while the bank’s bigwigs championed their role in this space, we joined with 70 organizations in Brazil and across the globe to…
Insight / Right to Food and Agriculture
Over the last two years the U.S. government has abandoned its once highly touted “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition” policy aimed at Africa. Now, the Government of France has finally announced that it is formally withdrawing from the Group of 8/7 initiative that came out of a 2012…
