Wednesday, February 3, 2010

International Indigenous Human Rights Class

Bookmark and Share
I would like to go back to early readings you did for the first class this semester. On page 3 in HRSJ, the author discusses the contents of each chapter and provides some background information for why they consider these topics essential to this textbook. Please do some quick research (basic, simple, web-based inquiry looking for constitutions in English for Iran, Brazil, India, and or Pakistan). Choose one of these countries and compare their constitution to the US constitution answer the following two questions and post your response on this blog:

1. What rights are citizens granted (social, political, economic, cultural etc.) in the current constitution (of the country you chose). Is the country you choose a signatory to the UNDHR? If not, can you identify why based on your reading of its constitution?

2. How does the current US constitution and social order adhere to the basic human rights principles as outlined in the preface and introduction to HRSJ? How does it not adhere to basic human rights principles as outlined in the UNDHR?

Monday, February 1, 2010

Cacique Marcos Xukuru - Group Meeting for Remembering Retomadas (re-taking of land) and for re-mapping of Indian territories 11-09

Bookmark and Share


--
Marcia Mikulak
Associate Professor
Anthropologh Department
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND 58202-8374
701-777-0718 Office
701-330-1311 Cell



To the US and Back to Pernambuco

Bookmark and Share
I haven't posted in a while, but I've been very busy reaching out to a variety of individuals and organizations in the US who can assist in reviewing the legal case of Cacique Marcos Xukuru, and assist us in our push to put pressure on the 5th Regional Tribunal in Recife to reverse his 10 year and 4 month prison sentence.

While in the US during December, I contacted The American Anthropological Association and passed on information about the human rights abuses endured by the Xukuru for more than 30 years (not to mention colonial attempts at eradication. The AAA has agreed to review Marco's case. If they find in favor of assisting Marcos, they will be a very valuable addition to our list of organizations supporting the reversal of his sentence, and also in support of indigenous human rights in Brazil.

In addition, I also spoke with the Indian Law Review Center in Washington, DC regarding the Xukuru fight for land and human rights. They also agreed to review the history of human rights abuses against the Xukuru up to and including Marco's case. Their advocacy and legal assistance will be invaluable to Marcos and his legal team here in Brazil.

If any human rights lawyers are reading this blog, I would love to hear from you in order to share more detailed legal documents from the 2009 trial that reveal the absence of due process for Marcos and demonstrate judicial bias. I'll be posting some of the trial data (in Portuguese) soon.

WDAZ TV Xukuru Research Synopsis