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Legal Defense of Mapuche Environmental Protectors

Tax deductible
CIDSUR invites you to share our commitment to justice, due process, human rights, and indigenous rights.

During the last decade Center for Legal Defense CIDSUR has worked tirelessly in the legal defense of hundreds of indigenous leaders, water protectors and victims of human rights abuses in the southern part of Chile in more than 100 judicial cases. 

Our legal team needs your support to travel from Chile to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights in Washintong, D.C. to advocate and present a relevant case. When states violate or fail to protect human rights it is imperative to take these paradigmatic cases to the Inter American System of Human Rights to assess the damage which can be reviewed, repaired and legal reforms can be made so these violations do not occur again. 

By making a donation you will support human rights defenders on the ground in their continuing work to eliminate violence, discrimination, and barriers in the access to justice of indigenous Mapuche land protectors.

Your contribution will support:
- $20      : One ticket from rural communities to participate in hearings or prison visit.
- $50      : One visit to rural communities to document allegations of human rights abuses. 
- $100   : One hour of legal advice, defense, or one hour of psychological services to victims of human     rights abuses.
- $500   : Trip to Chilean Supreme Court for allegations for indigenous case lawyers and victim.
- $500   : Forensic reports to document human rights abuses presented as evidence.
- $1000: One defender or petitioner´s trip to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Washington, D.C. USA.
- $1000: Monthly office overheads and expenses.

We are collecting the funds for CIDSUR through La Peña Cultural Center and we will send the money as soon as the campaign reaches its goal, hopefully by June 30th.

* This is a campaign based in the United States and it is tax deductible.

If you would like to do donations by check or money order, it may be sent to: La Peña Cultural Center / Cid Sur Campaign 1096 66th street unit B, Oakland CA 94608 (before June 20th) Check written to La Peña Cultural Center with memo for CIDSUR campaign.

Thank you for supporting CIDSUR

For contact and request for information: [email redacted]




About CIDSUR:

CIDSUR has been advising, advocating and defending indigenous leaders criminally persecuted when protecting their culture and land. CIDSUR has been able to successfully engage in legal proceeding challenging the responsibility of the State of Chile. The defense of rights of Mapuche highlight cases in which they have been subjected to torture and humiliating treatment with the aim of coercing them to confess crimes and betray other Mapuche community members.

During the last decades, hundreds of Mapuche Water and Land Protectors have been imprisoned using counter-terrorism legislation aimed at curbing Mapuche protests against extractivism. The Inter-American Court in 2014 condemned the Chilean State for manipulating these laws to target indigenous leaders and sanctioned Chile due to serious discriminations in their legal cases. Human rights abuses against Mapuche communities have continued including violent raids resulting in children injured and youth killed by militarized police. 

During the last decade, 
CIDSUR has supported the community members and their families in various ways including: 
1) conducting periodic visits to the penal centers of the Bio Bio, Araucanía and Los Ríos regions in order to maintain permanent contact with the prisoners and monitoring their prison situation. 
2) Periodic visits to family groups of criminally persecuted people, in order to keep them informed of cases, inform them about their rights and the process itself and agree on strategies that include them in the defense, investigation and documentation process. 
3) Generation and inclusion of expert reports as evidence (social, anthropological, psychological, among others) for each case. 
4) Requests for review of precautionary measures in favor of persons who are the result of criminal prosecution in preventive detention and appeal to the Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court. 
5) Requests for investigation and filing of legal remedies that contribute to the defenses. 
6) Holding regular meetings of the team, as well as making contact with other criminal defenders for possible coordination of the defenses in order to keep updated information on the cases.
7) Accompaniment and documentation of criminal proceedings through the study and orientation of causes in which the state has taken the sponsorship in order to safeguard due process.

For more information:
Center for Investigation and Defense CIDSUR
Social Organization of Human Rights
Legal Personality Nº 4682,
www.cidsur.cl 
Twitter: @CIDSUR
Facebook: Centro de Investigación y Defensa CID SUR
Temuco, Chile

*Photography by Patricia Pichun Carvajal
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Donations 

  • Luz Vega
    • $10
    • 5 yrs
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Fundraising team: Center for Legal Defense CidSur (5)

Elisa Duran Micco
Organizer
Berkeley, CA
La Peña Cultural Center
Beneficiary
Ruth Vargas
Team member
Felipe Lagos
Team member
Antonia Mardones
Team member
Patricia Mazuela
Team member

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