Lcda. Gabriela Lara | Seventeenth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Thank you very much for this opportunity to express these words before the Seventeenth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Our organization, the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, considers it important to visualize the struggle of indigenous peoples in other public, political, educational, judicial, and media spaces, as an effective mechanism to strengthen the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as defending, protecting and preserving the ecological balance of Mother Earth and, therefore, the lands and territories of Indigenous Peoples.

This is the foundation of the work of the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, which is presenting to regional parliamentary blocs and other multilateral organizations, as well as to local and national governments, the proposals of indigenous peoples for the preservation of their lands, territories, natural resources and their cultural identity, gathered in the Encounters of the Children of Mother Earth, which were held in 64 events in Latin America and then 26 meetings with Indigenous Peoples on this work and on these proposals.

On the other hand, as an institution, we consider it important to promote a space for education. For this reason, the GEAP is also launching “The Chair for the Peace of the Integral Human Being”, where it is presented as an important and broad study module, teaching the knowledge, understandings and rights of indigenous peoples.

Education is a power that transforms mentalities, but we believe that it can also impact and transform the heart of human beings. And we believe that it is in the heart of children and young people that we must sow the seeds of love for Peoples and respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

During September we will be launching this Chair for Peace in more than 200 universities in Latin America that defends the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Finally, I want to invite you to attend the side event that will be held this Friday, 20, in this same place, at 1:15 in the afternoon, where we will be presenting the results of the work articulated between the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, the Indigenous Forum Abya Yala and the CICA, and we will be paying homage to women who are emblematic in the struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples. We are waiting for you tomorrow. Thank you very much.