Areas of Action

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Thanks to the accreditation offered by the Lutheran World Federation, Maloca Internationale  was able to be present at the negotiations of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) that was part of the Macro Convention of United Nations Conference on Climate Change, in February 2015.  The objective of the ADP was to achieve a protocol or agreement within the Macro Convention on climate change. The Geneva negotiations, of which we were part, gave rise to a text later discussed in Bonn and in Paris during COP21, which allowed the Paris agreement to be reached.

We advocate, together with numerous civil society actors (240 NGOs), for the inclusion of language to recognize and promote human rights in actions against climate change. This language was eventually incorporated into the preamble of the Paris agreement:

"Parties shall, in all climate change-related actions, respect, protect, promote, and fulfill human rights for all"

This Environmental work complements our work with indigenous medicines, based on the hypothesis that traditional medicines allow the development of greater respect and sensitivity towards non-human life in ecosystems. 

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People are genuinely interested in learning more about you, so don't be afraid to share personal anecdotes to create a more friendly quality.

Taken in its collective dimension, the right to self-determination necessarily depends on the existence of a territory occupied by a people. In addition to working on the preservation of the territory, in its ecological sense, as a system that allows collective human life, we also work on political self-determination, for cases that are clearly defined in international law. The clearest case is perhaps that of Western Sahara.

The UN included Western Sahara, by virtue of Chapter 11 of the United Nations Charter, in the list of non-autonomous territories, with resolution 20/72 of 1965 of the General Assembly. On Spain fell the responsibility, unfulfilled until today, to take the necessary measures to achieve the independence of Western Sahara from colonial domination. A fundamental cause of this violation of international law is the disengagement of Spain as the administering power of Western Sahara, and the subsequent invasion of Morocco. International law has recognized the Kingdom of Morocco as the occupying power of the non-autonomous territory of Western Sahara, with resolution 35/19 of the General Assembly, which deplored "the persistent occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco", at the same time as reaffirms "the inalienable right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and independence in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Charter of the Organization of African Unity and with the objectives of resolution 1514( XV) of the General Assembly, as well as the legitimacy of the struggle being waged to achieve the exercise of this right in accordance with the provisions of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity”. The previous resolution echoes the opinion of the International Court of Justice of 1975, which finds no basis in the relations of the Moroccan sovereign with some tribes of Western Sahara, to claim any exercise of sovereignty by Morocco over the Non-Self-Governing Territory ( Opinion of October 16, 1975. Western Sahara, Advisory Opinion, 1. CJ Reports 1975). 

For their part, the Kurdish people have never possessed a State to satisfy the exercise of external self-determination. The fate of this town has been decided by state actors outside of it. With the Zuhab agreement of 1539 between the Ottoman Empire and Iran, a portion of these people remained within the limits of Iran. After the disintegration of the centuries-old Ottoman Empire, the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 segregated two other parts of the Kurdish people in Iraq and Syria, and in 1923, the Lausanne treaty did the same within Turkey's borders. However, the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the consequent destabilization of the country allowed the creation of an autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq, thanks to the 2005 Political Constitution. The People of Iraq are defined by their diversity in the The Constitutional Preamble and the fundamental principles give their own name to this diversity: Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans are recognized together with the majority Islamic identity, the languages of the Armenians, Assyrians, Syriacs, Turkmens and Kurds have official status in the territories where they are spoken. .

In both the Kurdish and the Saharawi cases, the future of these territories depends on the use of their tremendous solar energy potential, under conditions that allow the peoples of these territories to enjoy the benefits of these resources independently. Through panels and an annual international conference, we maintain attention and make these two cases known in the debate within the Human Rights Council. 

We are permanent observers at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). There, we pay special attention to the sessions of the WIPO Intergovernmental Group on Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Traditional Cultural Expressions.

WIPO has been an open arena for indigenous peoples since 2002, when negotiations began in order to establish relevant intellectual property instruments for these peoples.
In the past, the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples took 25 years to be adopted. At present, the convention on business and human rights and the WIPO Intergovernmental Group are the two places of international negotiation that are of interest to Indigenous Peoples. In accordance with the positions presented by indigenous members in WIPO, we come to the conclusion that secrecy is the best instrument for the protection of the intellectual property of Indigenous Peoples.

We depend on internal political processes to achieve the protection of the intellectual property of Indigenous Peoples within our States. For this reason, it is necessary to support political projects capable of including the protection of the intellectual property of Indigenous Peoples, while at the same time turning them into an axis of national development.

Ayahuasca, Yajé, Natem, Cipo, Vegetal…

Of all the medicines developed in the Amazon, Ayahuasca or Yajé, as it is known in Colombia, has been the most widespread in recent years worldwide. Currently there is a whole field of studies, los Ayahuasca Studies, which is dedicated to investigating, from a multitude of perspectives, the phenomena linked to the type of beverages covered under this generic name.

In Putumayo (Colombia) Yajé is a decoction of two plant species, the liana banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of Diplopterys cabrerana. Ayahuasca can be accompanied by other medicines, including perfumes made from various plants, including Floripondio, Tijiki or Borrachero (Brugmansia arborea).

In general, traditional doctors and doctors conceive their work as a mental, emotional and physical harmonization of the person, through a deep spiritual connection with nature and with themselves. The healing process, within this context, consists of carrying out said harmonization, thanks, first, to contact with nature, its sounds, its rhythms, concentration exercises achieved through music and singing, as well as a process of internal body cleansing An external cleaning process is also undertaken with the application of perfumes and incense made from plants, with the breath of tobacco and wairasacha. It is a therapy that is difficult to describe verbally, since it brings bodily and affective aspects into play, which can be better understood in a direct experience with traditional doctors. We respect the diversity of interpretations of the experiences lived with the modified states of consciousness, which are accessed with the medicines used.

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