We have continued with our training in human rights advocacy for indigenous leaders in Central and South America and we are very excited about our new project, which we began in July 2006, to provide human rights training to tribal leaders in the United States.
Indigenous peoples face many serious human rights and environmental problems due to illegal land expropriation, large infrastructure projects, forced displacement, and the imposition of extractive industry projects. The progressive development of international human rights law which explicitly recognizes the collective right of indigenous peoples to own, manage, and control their customary lands and natural resources is a critical legal and political tool that can help indigenous peoples mitigate and prevent such problems. To strengthen the ability of indigenous peoples to use international human rights law to protect their culture, lands and environment, the Center has developed a new set of training materials for use with Indian and indigenous leaders throughout the Americas.