ZURICH, Switzerland (May 3, 2018) - Over
the past week, the third Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation to
Europe was present in Switzerland and Germany - working to expose harms
and injustices, and engage in high-level meetings with Credit Suisse,
UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Swiss government officials, during which
Delegates demanded adherence to the standards of Indigenous rights and
human rights law, and meaningful action to divest funds from the fossil
fuel companies pushing unwanted extractive development in Indigenous
territories, while further endangering the global climate.
The Spring 2018 Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation
to Europe was comprised of both frontline community leaders, and tribal
officials who serve or have served in official capacities for their
Tribal Nations, including - Charlene Aleck (Elected councillor for Tsleil Waututh Nation, Sacred Trust Initiative, Canada);
Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle (Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota pediatrician, living and working on the Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota); Michelle Cook (Diné/Navajo, human rights lawyer); Wasté Win Yellowlodge Young (Ihunktowanna/Hunkpapa of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer); and Monique Verdin (Member of South Louisiana's United Houma Nation Tribal Council and the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative) - along with Osprey Orielle Lake (WECAN International Executive Director and Delegation organizer). [Full speaker biographies available here].
Building off of the successes and steps taken by the first two Divestment Delegations,
Indigenous women leaders spoke their truth as women living and working
on the frontlines in impacted communities during meetings with banks,
officials, media, and Swiss and German community members. Delegates
shared stories, data, and calls for accountability focused on the dire
social and environmental impacts of projects including Energy Transfer
Partners' Dakota Access and Bayou Bridge Pipelines, Kinder Morgan's
TransMountain Pipeline, and Enbridge's Line 3 Pipeline.
Face
to face meetings with both Deutsche Bank and UBS bank officials were
held, as women leaders followed up on previous demands and discussions,
and continued to make impassioned calls for divestment of funding from
fossil fuel development, and respect for Indigenous rights to free,
prior and informed consent as enshrined in the United Nations
Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As
part of the Delegation's work in Zurich, an action was held outside of
the Credit Suisse and UBS headquarters in the city's financial district,
during which Indigenous women Delegates and local women from Swiss
Klimaseniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection) raised a Tipi
structure, and spoke out for Indigenous rights and urgent climate
action. The direct-action was a response to a promise made by Delegates
to Credit Suisse during 2017 meetings, that if meaningful action was not
taken by the bank, Indigenous women would return to their doorstep with
their messages and symbols of their homelands.
Following
the action, the representatives of the Indigenous Women's Divestment
Delegation to Europe delivered a memorandum of demands and their
analysis to Credit Suisse, before entering into a meeting with Swiss government representatives, including officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Labor and Economics.
As
one of the central actions of the Spring 2018 Delegation, women leaders
also attended the Credit Suisse Annual Shareholders Meeting. Each woman
took the floor and shared powerful testimony in front of some 1,200
Credit Suisse executives, employees, and shareholders, exposing exactly
how the bank's money has contributed both historically and currently to
egregious violations of Indigenous rights, human rights, and the health
of the global climate.
The Delegation's powerful remarks were featured on Swiss national television, and a full recording of the Credit Suisse annual shareholder meeting is available here, with testimony by the Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation beginning at minute 1:51:28.
A special evening forum was also held in Zurich [full video here],
providing a platform for Indigenous women delegates to address the
public, and build important collaborations with European climate,
Indigenous, and women's rights organizations and activists.
Despite
purportedly high ethical and human rights standards, Germany and
Switzerland are home to several of the world's largest financial
institutions supporting extraction projects across Indigenous
territories in the United States and around the world, making these two
countries the focus of this and the previous two Divestment Delegations.
The third Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation to Europe was facilitated by the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International in partnership with Indigenous women leaders and their directives,
as part of an international movement which is pursuing institutional
divestment as a strategy to advocate for change from banks and
investors, and protect the climate, and rights and lives of Indigenous
communities and others experiencing the impacts of fossil fuel
development.
Members of the media are encouraged to reach out with all questions and interview requests. Photos from the third Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation to Europe are available for download here.
"We
are incredibly honored, humbled, and thankful for the reception,
recognition, welcoming, and the compassion shown by the good people of
Switzerland who have heard our cries for justice and accountability for
Swiss investments in Indigenous territories in the U.S. and Canada. I
observed, however, that the banks and financial institutions often do
not reflect the contemporary heart or values of the Swiss people in my
opinion. The world and our nations must work together to capture and
make accountable to the people, the financial systems which were created
to serve and secure humanity's resources for our collective future and
wellbeing." explains Michelle Cook (Diné/Navajo, human rights lawyer)
"By
meeting with these financial institutions who have invested in
companies and projects that impacted my community, they are able to hear
and see first hand how their investments were complicit in human,
Indigenous and environmental abuses. There is nothing more powerful than
the truth." explains Wasté Win Yellowlodge Young
(Ihunktowanna/Hunkpapa of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Former Tribal
Historic Preservation Officer)
"Our
drinking water and Lakota way of life is threatened by the Dakota Access
Pipeline and the unethical corporation Energy Transfer Partners. Until
our families are safe, we will continue to hold corporations and the
financial institutions who fund them accountable. Where is your money
going? We are downstream of your decisions. Make a difference and
divest." explains Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle (Oglala Lakota
and Mdewakantonwan Dakota pediatrician, living and working on the
Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota)
"I
found it incredible how detached the people are at these big financial
institutions, how unaware they are of the realities of the projects they
are investing in. This divestment trip really highlighted this. As I
spoke of the Orca Whales being threatened by tanker traffic and our
water being contaminated by more tar sands pipelines, the guy at the
bank said, 'get to your point', and 'ask a question...if you have one!'.
Aghast, I exclaimed, 'Stop funding these corporations that are
violating Indigenous rights and are a huge threat to our environment!'.
Being accompanied by beautiful, strong leaders from Standing Rock and
South Louisiana and Navajo Nation was powerful. I'm sure these Bankers
will remember for some time." explains Charlene Aleck(Elected councillor for Tsleil Waututh Nation, Sacred Trust Initiative, Canada)
"I
travelled all the way to Switzerland to better understand how
shortsighted investments threatening our Houma Bayou territories in
south Louisiana are linked to the protection of the sacred inlet waters
of the Tseil Waututh Nation and to the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota in the
watershed upriver from my homelands. Our delegation of women spoke our
truths from the frontlines, connected to each other by pipeline
projects, as we met with bankers in blue suits in big buildings where
international investments fuel collaborations with corporations invested
in violating human and Indigenous rights and the rights of our Mother
Earth. Paths of resistance, against pipeline companies Energy Transfer
Partners and Kinder Morgan, led us to the doorsteps of Deutsche Bank,
UBS and Credit Suisse to petition these institutions to divest from bad
business practices gambling with false promises of profit over the
generational respect of water quality, people lives and their ways of
life." explains Monique Verdin (Member of south
Louisiana's United Houma Nation Tribal Council and the Another Gulf Is
Possible Collaborative)
"The
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International is
honored to have the opportunity to organize the Indigenous Women's
Divestment Delegation with the directives of strong women leaders
standing bravely for fossil fuel divestment, for the water and climate,
and for the health and survival of their Indigenous Nations and all
people. As a group of diverse Indigenous women living and working in
impacted lands including British Columbia, the Gulf Bayou, and the
Standing Rock Sioux Nation, the Delegates faced intensive meetings where
we addressed institutionalized environmental racism, and fiercely
advocated to bring about direly needed changes to financial and
political systems. It is far past time for financial institutions to be
accountable, and for justice to be served in all cases of violation of
the land and lives of Indigenous peoples due to the continued expansion
of the fossil fuel industry. The work of the Delegates is a pivotal
contribution to the ongoing global struggle to transition off of fossil
fuels, and there is no doubt that the women have had an impact on the
bank and government officials whom they looked in the eye and demanded
morality and action from." explains Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International
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