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Our identity

We are an organization that considers and believes that "drop by drop the rock is drilled", that is, we try to do our part of the work, and we invite others to do their part, from their place and with their resources, in the creation of a harmonious world for the beings who inhabit it. We carry out our mission with sensitivity, optimism, and perseverance.

Mission 

Maloca Internationale is an NGO with consultative status before the United Nations, which promotes the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Declaration of the Rights of Minorities and the human right to a healthy and sustainable environment in the construction of global governance. 

Vision

We are recognized specialists in intellectual property, development and traditional knowledge, as well as  trusted partners in the multilateral system for human and environmental rights defenders on the ground. We are also recognized advocates of the non-human as a subject of rights.

Values

  • Recognition of the self-determination of peoples.

  • Respect for ancestral knowledge and non-Western genetic resources.

  • Dialogue for diplomacy, for peace and cooperation.

Important moments

2014

crossroads of cultures

In order to launch Maloca Internationale in the canton of Geneva, we participated in the “Cross Cultures” event, organized by CAGI, International Geneva Welcome Service, on Saturday, September 6, 2014. In this event, we proposed the “Home, Sweet Home” activity, where children and adults had images of 7 indigenous ceremonial houses from each of the seven socio-cultural regions of the planet (Africa; Asia; Central and South America and the Caribbean; the Arctic; Central Europe and East, the Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, North America, and the Pacific). The activity consisted of matching each of these houses with the photo of the predominant material in the construction of each of them.

2015

We have sown seed, alliance with Horyou

In its second year in Geneva, Maloca Internationale participated with the Horyou Foundation (www.horyou.com) at the Global Ethics and Innovation Forum (video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKwyjZHeK4). In this Forum, we held an exhibition of handicrafts made with seeds and tropical fruits, which was later transferred to the Viverra Coffee gallery-café, in the center of Geneva.

2016

Indigenous medicine at the UN

In its third year of existence, Maloca Internationale carried out two major activities at the Geneva headquarters of the UN. On the one hand, there was an ayahuasca ceremony in Geneva and a conference on indigenous medicines at the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Accompanied by the taita Florentino Agreda of the Inga people, we also participated in the Committee on Civil and Political Rights with the proposal to recognize the use of sacred plants by indigenous peoples in the prior, free and informed consultations that the State must organize when planning economic or legal actions that may affect the rights of indigenous peoples.

2017

Anniversary declaration of the human rights of indigenous peoples

2017 marked the tenth anniversary of the adoption, by the UN General Assembly, of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). Maloca Internationale prepared in 2016 a video with images of the ayahuasca ceremony that took place in Geneva to commemorate the adoption of this instrument at the UN (www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Ux0kE3IRA). In collaboration with Iceers and Umiyac, a conference with traditional doctors from the Colombian Amazon was organized during the Human Rights Council in September 2017; In July, we discussed during the Mechanism of Experts on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples about the sacred plants of indigenous peoples in the global market, with the participation of representatives of the Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan (Ecuador).

2018

UN Plaza intervention and indigenous traditional medicine

As of this year, Maloca Internationale decided, in agreement with various partners and notably the Mos-Espa association of Geneva, to intervene in a place charged with symbolism of the city of Geneva, the Place des Nations, in front of the Palais des Nations, UN headquarters in the city. To do this, a tipi has been installed in parallel to the sessions of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, throughout the week of July 9 to 13. In this type, medicines from indigenous peoples were shared with those attending the Expert Mechanism and local inhabitants. Inside the Palace of Nations, in collaboration with the Iceers Foundation, a conference was held on sacred plants and prior, free and informed consultations of indigenous peoples

2019

Wirikuta nature reserve non-intervention conference.

In collaboration with the Wirarika Union of Ceremonial Centers (Mexico), we held a conference at the UN on the need to preserve the Wirikuta nature reserve from mining projects that put the Peyote cactus, an endemic plant species in said reserve, at risk. Peyote is central to the culture of the Wirarika indigenous people, comparable to the importance of the yaje bejuco species for the peoples of the Colombian Amazon.
In association with the Movement against Racism and for the Friendship of the Peoples MRAP, we use two of the instruments on drug policies of the Human Rights Council (resolution 37/42 and report 39/39) to insist on the non-advisability of the use of glyphosate in the policy of eradication of illicit crops in Colombia. This policy does not discriminate between the coca leaf cultivated for traditional purposes and crops destined for drug production, as argued in our intervention before the plenary session of the Human Rights Council.

2020

Tipi in the UN Plaza in tribute to assassinated leaders and voice of social nonconformity

In the face of the systematic assassination of social leaders in Colombia, we dedicate our teepee at the United Nations in their memory, and particularly to indigenous leaders, and to the indigenous and social movement; this as a parallel activity to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Video tipi:https://twitter.com/MovimientoMAIS/status/1334515743015268362?s=20&t=b7s0ZJF4Pc9NzPgr_ybosQ). This year, we accompanied Colombian civil society in exile in their demonstrations against human rights violations in Colombia (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xHuPY9nS78&t=12s) and we try to take their voice to the United Nations (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIZfp3MJcyQ&t=383s).

2021

Oversight of the European Union in the Colombian elections

On the summer solstice (June 21) together with the Saharawi people, who installed a haima (traditional desert house) in the Plaza de Naciones, we held a demonstration for the right to self-determination of peoples. In the case of Colombia, we emphasized the right to elect and be elected (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmrOeF86lR8minute 11:57 – 13:54). We focus our declarations at the UN on this point, fundamental given the 2022 elections. With the support of the human rights coordinator of the Tolima Regional Indigenous Council CRIT, we have advocated oversight by the European Union in the Colombian elections (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QbFK0uFf8&lc=UgwSCWCQfutdO_rd-j94AaABAg), something that has finally been achieved, thanks to the joint work of Colombian citizens in Europe (www.youtube.com/watch?v=udWLuP0e-eI).

2022

International right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

By obtaining our consultative status at the UN, our work will be able to closely follow the proposals of the Human Rights Council, and participate in its sessions directly under our name. In order to publicize the relevance of the Human Rights Council in the search for solutions to the problems of the contemporary world, we have decided to install, with the support of the Mos-Espa association, our tipi in the Plaza de Naciones at the solstices and equinoxes of this year 2022. This tipi, animated by the sound of drums consecrated to our connection with the earth, serves to promote the historic resolution 48/13 of the Human Rights Council that for the first time recognizes at an international level, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right.

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