Belize (Q’eqchi’)

Expertise:
Human Rights

Program Director

Day 3: Solutions

Panel:
Traditional Knowledge and Climate Solutions

Sunday, December 4, 2022

The Julian Cho Society (JCS), founded by Cristina Coc, is dedicated to the conservation of the environments and rights of Indigenous peoples of southern Belize. Coc is program director, and an organizer and co‐spokesperson for the Maya Leaders Alliance. As a Maya woman, she brings a wealth of knowledge of these communities, fluency in Q’eqchi’, and experience mobilizing local residents.

When the government of Belize granted unrestricted logging concessions to a multinational company in the mid‐1990s, the Maya built a social movement that fought back. They also sued the government for Indigenous rights to their lands. In 2004, the Inter‐American Commission for Human Rights ruled that the Maya had full Indigenous rights to the lands of southern Belize, but concrete changes have been slow. 

In 2007, two Maya villages, Conejo and Santa Cruz, brought a claim against the government for its failure to recognize and protect the customary land rights of the Maya people. After a trial, the Supreme Court of Belize accepted the villages’ argument that Maya property rights, like other forms of property, are protected by the Belize Constitution and international human rights law. 

Recently, Coc and other Maya leaders have worked with lawyers from the Indigenous People’s Law & Policy Institute at the University of Arizona to test the lawsuit, negotiate with the government and build capacity among local Maya. 

Coc is a young woman, but in this work, she has accumulated vast experience. She has felt the cold reality of discrimination. She has negotiated complicated and contentious issues at the highest level. Most important, she has gained the respect of the Q’eqchi’ and Mopan villagers of Toledo. 

Off

Uganda

Expertise:
Human Rights

Chairperson
Osukuru United Women's Network (OWN)

Day 3: Solutions

Panel:
Adaptation, Mitigation, Disaster Response: How should governments, acting individually and through international cooperation, address the impact of climate change for the most vulnerable, whose voices are often unheard?

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Constance Okollet is the chair of the Osukuru United Women’s Network (OWN) in the Tororo district of eastern Uganda, and is a self-described peasant farmer and mother of seven. As the chair for OWN, she leads a consortium of about 1,200 small women’s groups working on education, community health and nutrition.

Off

Iran & United States

Expertise:
Human Rights
Law & Policy

Humanitarian Action and DRR Advisor

Day 1: Impacts

Panel:

Friday, December 2, 2022

Elham Youssefian joined the International Disability Alliance (IDA) Secretariat in November 2019 as the inclusive humanitarian action and DRR advisor. She leads and coordinates the implementation of IDA’s strategy to promote and support the effective enforcement of inclusive humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction. She ensures strategic leadership, coordination, provision of technical expertise and advice to optimize the impact of IDA’s work in this area.

Youssefian has a PhD in international law from the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran, and a master’s in human rights law from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also has diverse experience in protection and human rights, with a focus on issues related to human trafficking, refugees, domestic violence and discrimination against people with disabilities.

Off

Lebanon

Expertise:
Law & Policy
Human Rights

Vice Chair

Day 1: Impacts

Panel:

Friday, December 2, 2022

Nahla Haidar El Addal is one of the vice chairpersons of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Haidar has also been elected as a commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). She acted as the rapporteur for the elaboration and adoption of CEDAW General Recommendation 37 on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change.

Haidar has over 30 years of professional experience, mainly within the United Nations System in various capacities at headquarters and in the field, ranging from social development and humanitarian assistance to peace-building and human rights. She holds an LLM in law from Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris and a law degree in international law from Saint Joseph University (USJ) in Beirut, Lebanon, as well as a license in sociology. Arabic is her mother tongue and she is fluent in French and English with a fair knowledge of Spanish.

Off

Colombia

Expertise:
Law & Policy
Human Rights
Climate Change & Environment

Lawyer, Consultant and Board Member

Day 1: Impacts

Panel:

Friday, December 2, 2022

Astrid Puentes Riaño is a lawyer with more than two decades of experience in environmental law, human rights and climate change, and the intersection of these, with a perspective of climate justice, diversity, equity and inclusion. She has worked for and with communities and Indigenous peoples in Latin America, contributing to the protection of their rights and territory, including in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. She received her law degree from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, holds a master's degree in comparative law from the University of Florida and has an environmental law degree from the University of the Basque Country. She served as co-executive director of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, AIDA, from 2003 to August 2021. She is an independent consultant and has advised the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Mexico on catalyzing actions to better protect the environment, human rights and climate. 

Riaño has extensive experience in public interest environmental, human rights and climate justice litigation. She has published several articles and lectured at the Human Rights Academy of the American University, and at the Diploma on Strategic Litigation and Tools for the Defense of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights at UNAM in Mexico, among others. She has been part of the board of directors of International Rivers since September 2021.

Off

Nigeria & the Ogoni People

Expertise:
Human Rights

Executive Director
Indigenous Centre for Energy and Sustainable Development, ICE-SD

Day 2: Obligations

Panel:
Climate Justice Activism: Litigation and other strategies to hold governments accountable in the context of climate change

Saturday, December 3, 2022

Legborsi Saro Pyagbara is executive director of the Indigenous Centre for Energy and Sustainable Development, ICE-SD. He is the former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, an Ogoni-based nongovernmental, nonpolitical apex organization of the Ogoni ethnic minority people of southeastern Nigeria. MOSOP was founded in 1990 with the mandate to campaign nonviolently to promote democratic awareness; protect the environment of the Ogoni People; seek social, economic and physical development for the region; protect the cultural rights and practices of the Ogoni people; and seek appropriate rights of self-determination for the Ogoni people.

Off

“We continue to advocate for clean water because it's not just for our communities. It's for everyone, and it's for everything.”

—Tia Kennedy

Across Canada, millions of people don’t think twice when turning on the tap. But Indigenous activist Tia Kennedy never takes a glass of water for granted.

As a member of both the Oneida Nation of the Thames and Walpole Island First Nation, located in southwestern Ontario next to the Great Lakes, her connection to water is ancient. Her advocacy for clean water, however, is the result of more recent injustices.

In 2022, the Oneida Nation of the Thames remains on a boil water advisory because of underfunded water treatment and distribution systems. And Walpole Island First Nation is still grappling with the consequences of water contamination perpetrated two generations ago.

“While my grandmother was growing up, they were dumping chemicals and strong pollutants into the waterways,” Kennedy said. “This is what eventually took the lives of my grandmother and her two sisters. They passed away from cancer. It was quite traumatic for different people in my family to lose three women so close together at such young ages.”

Meanwhile, a mere 14 miles away, another city in Ontario can safely fill up a cup straight from the faucet.

“It's not fair that we're the ones constantly fighting and putting ourselves on the frontline advocating for this water, and yet we're the only ones in Canada that don't have access to it,” Kennedy said.

Fossil fuel extraction methods, such as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), chemical spills, and unsafe disposal of industrial pollutants by private corporations and the Canadian government, have severely affected water quality and supply in First Nation communities for the past 30 years.

More than two decades into the 21st century, at least 30 First Nations still lack access to clean drinking water, and some have no running water at all. The Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario has not had safe tap water since 1995. Delays in funding mean these issues may not be addressed again until 2026.

In 2021, Kennedy received a as part of its first fellowship cohort in her quest to make change and raise awareness of the need for clean water. This life-changing experience helped her develop many creative talents and skills while working with professionals to produce a short documentary film about these injustices. The film is scheduled to be released this year.

“My film not only highlights the devastating impacts of the water crisis, but it also highlights the beauty and the resiliency of Indigenous peoples. We're not only survivors of the past, but we're integral pieces of the future of this planet,” said Kennedy, who is also considering law school as a way to create a healthier future for her communities.

Founder of , Kennedy is already a youth activist, speaker and consultant who works with governments, corporations and communities to address discrimination and promote meaningful and effective interactions with Indigenous peoples. Her fight for clean water will only become more important as the planet’s climate changes, threatening access to clean water for millions or even billions of people around the world.

“We continue to advocate for clean water because it's not just for our communities. It's for everyone, and it's for everything,” Kennedy said.

Off

“Children have a lot of their future ahead of them. They have to know about climate change so they can stand up, speak up and fight for their future.”

—Kera Sherwood-O’Regan

When Kera Sherwood-O’Regan was young, her parents gathered the pito (umbilical cord) that had nurtured her in the womb, and, per tradition, buried it on sacred coastal grounds in Te Waipounamu, the South Island of New Zealand, alongside the remains of her ancestors.

Growing up in the Kāi Tahu tribe, she learned early on to treat Aoraki, the chiefly mountain of her people, and Waitaki, their river, with reverence. When she went fishing with her dad, he would always throw the first catch back to Takaroa, the god of the ocean, to ensure the  sustainability of the fish stocks for future generations.

“From the time we are born, we see ourselves in a deep relationship with the environment, and with that relationship comes responsibility,” said Sherwood-O’Regan, who will serve as a panelist at the upcoming Right Here, Right Now Climate Summit on the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder campus.

As climate change increasingly threatens that environment and the people who depend upon it, Sherwood-O’Regan has taken that responsibility seriously, serving as a vocal advocate not only for her fellow Māori—the Indigenous people of New Zealand—but also for people with disabilities. Having been diagnosed with fibromyalgia in her 20s, she seeks to assure that Indigenous people, people with disabilities and people like her at the difficult intersection of the two have a voice at the table.

That’s critical, she said, because they are at once uniquely affected and uniquely well suited to provide solutions.

“Indigenous and disabled people have been organizing and innovating and creating novel solutions to problems for generations, because there has been no other option for us,” said Sherwood-O’Regan, co-founder of Activate, an Indigenous- and disabled-led social impact agency. “But only very recently have our views and experiences been [accepted as] part of the mainstream climate conversation.”

Citing her mentor, Rhys Jones, she described climate change as an “inequity magnifier.” Hold it, like a magnifying glass, over existing inequities/social issues and those challenges grow more intense. She noted that in New Zealand, only about 2% of homes are accessible to people with disabilities. With waters rising because of climate change, rendering some coastal homes unsafe, that housing stock is shrinking further.

Climate change-related heat waves can also exacerbate symptoms. For instance, people with spinal cord injuries may have trouble regulating their body temperature and are more likely to suffer heat-related illnesses. Higher pollen counts and extended allergy seasons can worsen respiratory issues among those with asthma, allergies and other chronic illnesses. Her own symptoms, including migraines and fatigue, flare when the temperature rises. When climate change-related disaster strikes, deaf people and people who are hard of hearing may not hear the sirens, and people with disabilities may have trouble being evacuated.

“Everyone has the right to be rescued, but in many areas around the world, civil defense planning doesn’t account for disabled people,” she said.

More than 1 billion people, or 15% of the population, have a disability, according to the United Nations, and disabilities are disproportionately high among Indigenous populations.

“There is a massive intersection between Indigenous rights and disability rights,” she said.

For her, and other Indigenous people around the world, climate change brings another more visceral threat: the loss of their cultural sites.

Already, the burial ground Sherwood-O’Regan’s parents visited after her birth has begun to erode as rising seas lap at the coast. She has visited occasionally, reinforcing her connection to her ancestors and the land of her people.

She hopes that if she has children someday, she can do the same for them.

“It makes me so emotional to think about it. I don’t ever want to have to say, ‘I’m sorry. But we lost that land.’”

Off

“When I was a little girl, I never heard of climate change. I never heard of floods or disasters. It was not that common.”

—Pasang Dolma Sherpa

Pasang Dolma Sherpa cherishes any time she can spend in Nepal’s mountainous region, where she grew up in a Sherpa village. Now, as an adult, she loves introducing her two young children to the beautiful natural setting and the joys of living off the land.

“That is where [my] heart is,” she said. “Everything is back to nature. . . . You have all the food on your farm.”

But the scenery Dolma Sherpa adored as a kid has changed significantly—and for the worse.

The shift in rainfall and snowfall patterns, rise of vegetation-destroying worms and insects, and other climate change­-driven issues are causing severe damage to vital crops, such as potatoes, garlic, rice and barley, and making it more challenging to raise livestock. Some Sherpa communities live in fear of avalanches and landslides, which have also destroyed spiritual sites—devastating events that people sometimes blame on themselves or an evil spirit because they don’t understand climate change, she said. 

“When I was a little girl, I never heard of climate change,” she said. “I never heard of floods or disasters. It was not that common.”

As a result, Sherpa people choose to migrate, leaving their homelands behind and restricting their chance to pass down spiritual, cultural and social values to younger generations.

Experiencing the changing weather’s harmful effects on Nepal’s Sherpa villages led Dolma Sherpa to become an advocate for Indigenous communities, specifically in the areas of climate change and environmental protection.

After working behind the scenes for the Center for Indigenous Peoples Research and Development (CIPRED) for several years, she became the organization’s executive director in 2016. The role enables her to lead efforts to address Indigenous peoples’ issues and concerns—including those related to climate change, biodiversity conservation and the management of natural resources—via policy advocacy, resources documentation, traditional livelihood empowerment and more.

Part of Dolma Sherpa’s work includes bringing the voices of Indigenous community members to relevant local, national and global government agencies and other bilateral groups to raise awareness about their contributions to the resilience and adaptation of biodiversity. Even though Indigenous peoples only make up about 6.2% of the world’s population, they protect more than 80% of the world’s biodiversity and have ancestral expertise on how to adapt and reduce climate change and disaster risks.

Dolma Sherpa said the preservation of Indigenous peoples’ cultural values and skills, such as farming native fruits and creating various handcrafts, is also important. That allows them to pass that knowledge along to young people—who can learn to value their roots and be inspired to fight the effects of climate change in the future.

“We need to balance science knowledge and the Indigenous knowledge so that our future generation will have an option in life,” she said. “When you know cultural values, that gives you the option to bring the science knowledge [you learn in the city] and also support your community on the ground.”

Off

Sweden (Sámi)

Expertise:
Law & Policy
Human Rights
Education

Professor of International Indigenous Rights and Sámi Law

Day 1: Impacts

Panel:

Friday, December 2, 2022

Mattias Åhrén originates from Ohredahke Sámi, an Indigenous reindeer herding community in northern Sweden. He holds Master of Law degrees from Stockholm University and the University of Chicago, and a PhD from The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), where he is a former professor and presently a visiting law professor. Åhrén teaches international law, human rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights and Sámi rights at universities around the world. He has written extensively on Sámi and Indigenous rights, including Indigenous Peoples’ Status in the International Legal System. 

As a practicing lawyer, Åhrén has served in a diplomatic capacity in numerous UN negotiations and processes relevant to Indigenous peoples’ human and other rights, especially with his leading role in the negotiations before the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Åhrén has also been commissioned to write expert reports by UN system organizations and specialized agencies. He has acted as counsel to Sámi Indigenous reindeer herding communities in proceedings before domestic courts and international judicial institutions, most recently in the Rönnbäcken case before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 

Åhrén has also served, on several occasions, as an expert witness in domestic court proceedings on Sámi land and resource rights, including in the seminal Girjas case. He has appeared in the same capacity before national parliaments and has participated as an appointed expert member in national legislative committees. Åhrén was a member of the Expert Group, which wrote the draft Nordic Sámi Convention.

Off