ACTIVE: Community Consultations

Community Consultations: A model of resistance under attack in Guatemala

A bill currently before Guatemalan Congress seeks to co-opt the consultation process and violate the rights of indigenous communities to free, prior, and informed consent. Add your voice in calling on the Guatemalan government to respect the results of community-organized consultations.

Three ways to take action:

1. Print out the postcard and mail it to NISGUA’s office for delivery

2. Read more about the incredible role that consultations play in community organizing to protect land, life, and self-determination

3. Sign the extended action! Petition available here.

Photo: Graham Hunt

Download a postcard

Additional reading about community consultations

6May, 2011

Thousands protest against proposed regulation of community consultations

Graham HuntOn April 29, 2011, more than 3,000 people, primarily representatives of indigenous organizations from rural areas of Guatemala, marched through the streets of the capital city to manifest once more their disapproval of current government's attempt to regulate community referenda via a proposed law presented earlier the same year. [...]

27April, 2011

A 13 años del martirio de Monseñor Gerardi

Graham Hunt*Español abajo* On April 26, 1998, two days after publicly presenting the Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (REMHI), the interdiocesan truth commission report detailing human rights abuses committed during Guatemala's 36-year civil war, bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera was brutally assassinated in the garage of his home. 13 years [...]

2April, 2011

Se intensifica rechazo de reglamento de las consultas comunitarias – Rejection of regulation of community referenda intensifies

Graham HuntOn March 23, hundreds of representatives from more than 50 municipalities that have carried out community referenda in Guatemala, articulated in the Consejo de Pueblos de Occidente (CPO) and other regional groups, took to the streets in Guatemala City to repudiate the central government's initiative to regulate community consultations, [...]

30March, 2011

NISGUA Tour Underway! 2011 Itinerary

Listado de actividades en espanol.Our most recently updated itinerary can be found on our website www.nisgua.org. MINING AND VIOLENCE IN GUATEMALA: INDIGENOUS WOMEN RESIST2011 Speaking Tour with Tz’ununija’ Indigenous Women’s MovementMarch 28 - April 14, 2011NEW YORK CITY AND NEW JERSEY: MARCH 28-31March 28, Monday11:30am: Lunch with Community Friends in [...]

30March, 2011

Se celebra consulta comunitaria en San Martín Chile Verde – San Martín Chile Verde celebrates community referendum

A man prepares to vote in Caserío Tui Bul. Graham HuntUn hombre se prepara para emitir su voto en el Caserío Tui Bul.On March 16, 2011, 17,849 residents of the predominantly Maya Mam municipality of San Martín "Chile Verde" Sacatepéquez, Quetzaltenango, added their voices to those of the roughly 600,000 [...]

20March, 2011

Evictions in Polochic Valley Denounced

Representatives from numerous organizations held a press conference on March 18 to denounce human rights violations committed during the eviction of hundreds of rural Maya Q'eqchi' families in the Polochic Valley, in the department of Alta Verapaz and to demand that the authorities halt the evictions. The organizations addressed a [...]