December 10th, 2008, is the 60th anniversary of the Adoption by the United Nations of the Universal

[Bobbieo]

Declaration of Human Rights.

What does this mean to Indigenous Peoples? What is the significance of the adoption in September 2007 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples?

Join us for a community training on Indigenous Peoples achievements at the UN and how we can utilize them to defend Indigenous Peoples' human rights today.

WHO: International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) and the Intertribal Friendship House

WHEN: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

WHERE: Intertribal Friendship House, 523 International Boulevard, Oakland, CA

WHAT: "Sixty Years Later: Reaffirming the "Inherent Dignity" and "Equal and Inalienable Rights" of Indigenous Peoples -- A Community Human Rights Training on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and how we can use the UN to defend Indigenous Peoples' Human Rights today.

BACKGROUND: After many years of work on the Declaration at the UN, Indigenous Peoples wereable to include f our understandings and definitions of human rights. These rights are based on Indigenous understandings of the essential interrelationship between our lands, cultures and spirituality, political and social institutions and self-determination, as well as the collective basis of our identity and existence.

Today, Indigenous Peoples are struggling against ongoing appropriations of our lands and desecration of our sacred sites in many places such as San Francisco Peaks and Medicine Lake. One urgent example is violation of Western Shoshone human rights by Barrick Gold Corporation in Nevada. The company has already begun the removal of 30 acres of trees per day in preparation for blasting and excavation of a new pit estimated to be over 900 acres in size with a depth of over 2,000 feet adjacent to sacred Mt. Tenobo. The Western Shoshone grandmothers have put out a call for support.

Andrea Carmen, IITC Executive Director (Yaqui Nation), will provide a community training on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Peoples work at the UN. Andrea has served as the Executive Director of the IITC since 1992. She is currently the Co-coordinator of the North America Indigenous Peoples Regional Caucus and was a member of the Indigenous Peoples International Steering Committee for work on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. .

Morning Star Gali, IITC Community Liaison Coordinator and Board Chairwoman of the Intertribal Friendship House (Pit River Nation, California), will provide an update on Human Rights Struggles from the Bay Area and across Turtle Island.