Renowned indigenous leaders and human rights defenders are available for interviews as they campaign against the government of the Philippines, which has placed them on a terrorist list in retaliation for their defense of the country’s Indigenous Peoples.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the Human Rights Council since 2014. She is an indigenous leader from the Kankana-ey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines. As an indigenous activist, she has worked for over three decades on building movement among indigenous peoples and as an advocate for women’s rights. Read her full bio.
Joan Carling is an expert member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and a current co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group on Sustainable Development. She is an indigenous activist from the Cordillera, Philippines and former Secretary-General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact who has been working to strengthen land rights for more than two decades. Read her full bio.
For more information and/or interviews with Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (currently in Europe) and/or Joan Carling (currently in Washington), please contact:
- Susan Tonassi: +49.160.9327.9327, [email protected] (in Berlin)
- Wanda Bautista: +1.302.233.5438, [email protected] (in Washington)
KEY INFORMATION AND STATEMENTS
Background: Petition filed by the Philippines Government
Response by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Response by Joan Carling, co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group
Statement by Erik Solheim, Head, UN Environment
Statement by Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and Catalina Devandas Aguilar, Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures
Statement by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Statement by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on “massive” impact of military operations on Mindanao indigenous peoples
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS BY SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS
Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Protection International
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
Pesticide Action Network – Asia Pacific
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines
Ibon International
CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness Working Group on Conflict and Fragility
United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (UN-REDD)
International Union for Conservation of Nature
the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago of Indonesia (AMAN)
Friends of the Earth International
Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples
Federation for Indigenous Peoples Self-Determination (FAPI)
People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty of Latin America
Association Pour L’integration et le development durable au Burundi
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policies
Center for the Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples – Nicaragua