In line with Green Cross’ advocacy on Indigenous and Environmental Rights, Green Cross International together with the NGO, Uma Gota no Oceano, have facilitated, Sonia Guajajara’s participation to the World Water Forum.
Guajajara is one of the strongest indigenous and environmental leaders in the world today. She serves as the executive coordinator of the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and has been instrumental in unifying more than 305 ethnicities around an agenda that protects indigenous rights. She is recognized worldwide for her fearless activism and defence of indigenous and environmental rights in the face of pressure from some of the most powerful sectors of Brazilian society. She currently serves as candidate for the co-presidency of the Brazilian Republic, along with Guilherme Boulos, for the PSOL Party.
Guajajara has taken her advocacy to the national congress, where she has opposed a number of neo-developmental projects and institutional amendments aimed at withdrawing hard-won indigenous rights. Moreover, as a staunch defender of the Amazon rainforest, her work valorises all forms of life and benefits everyone on earth by defending this crucial carbon sink.
Representing APIB, Guajajara will be a panelist at the “Learning from Traditions: How Water Heritage Can Guide Our Water Future”, convened by Green Cross, the Water-Culture Institute and UNESCO, (11:00-12:30 -Room ST2 (M8)) on March 22. The will also deliver a speech: “To what end are we risking our rivers and traditional culture?” A brief video produced by Uma Gota no Oceano, will also be shown.
Several bodies of Human Rights Law apply to the sometimes critical situation of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for instance). Implementing the following SDGs would also address the multiple situations that are imposed on them:
Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 2: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
Goal 6: By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
Event: Learning from Traditions: How Water Heritage Can Guide Our Water Future
Date & Time: 22 Mar 2018,11:00 to 12:30
Location: Ulysses Guimarães Convention Center, Room ST2
GCI’s Agenda at the Forum