In this issue:
-    Indigenous Rights of Mother Earth conference report-back
-    GX Human Rights Awards Online Auction – 1 day left!
-    Join us for San Francisco Earth Day 2012!
-    Woolman Semester Youth Visit GX
-    Community Rights News & Views 

Honoring the Sacred: Indigenous Wisdom on Rights of Mother Earth – read the report back blog from the Indigenous Rights of Mother Earth conference!

This has been one of our most popular blog posts to date! Earlier this month over 100 primarily Indigenous peoples gathered –and hundreds more participated online - for the RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH: International Indigenous Conference APRIL 4 – 6, 2012 at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence Kansas.

The conference was convened by the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and partners to bring together Indigenous peoples from around the world to learn more and to have discussions about the Rights of Mother Earth / Rights of Nature movement. Global Exchange’s Shannon Biggs was invited to the conference to speak about her work organizing for community and nature's rights along with Ben Price of CELDF.

For a full report–back from the conference including a video documenting the 3 days read this blog post! And please share it with others!

Global Exchange Human Rights Awards Online Auction – Just 1 day left to participate!

What do a 1-week stay in Paris, an iPad, a private sailboat cruise in the San Francisco Bay, and a Global Exchange Reality Tour have in common? They’re all prizes being offered up in the Global Exchange 2012 Human Rights Awards online auction!

For the first time ever, GX is hosting an online auction in advance of the 10th annual Human Rights Awards - a way for our supporters around the country to support our work by bidding on an amazing collection of items. Bid now on one-of-a-kind getaways, fine dining, unique collector’s items, electronics, and more. The auction closes tonight at 8pm so don’t miss your chance to participate!

Also, join us on May 10th for the Human Rights Awards ceremony and gala at the Green Room in San Francisco as we honor Annie Leonard (author of the Story of Stuff) and PFC Bradley Manning. Tickets are now available online.

Join us for San Francisco’s Earth Day Celebration – This Sunday, April 22nd!

This Sunday at the Civic Center/UN Plaza San Francisco will celebrate Earth Day and Global Exchange will be participating! GX’s Kylie Nealis will be speaking on a panel at this year’s event along with environmental activists from other non-profit organizations. It’s going to be a great panel and we hope you’ll join us!

Earth Loving Non Profits ~ Sarah Hodgdon - Sierra Club, Pachamama, Jamie Henn - 350.org, Kevin Connelly - Earth Island Institute, Melanie St. James - Empowerment Works (moderator), Kylie Nealis - Global Exchange

•    When: 2:30pm
•    Where: Speakers Dome, Civic Center/UN Plaza, SF, CA.

Woolman Semester High School Students Visit Global Exchange

On Monday, April 9th Global Exchange had a special opportunity to host students from the Woolman Semester Program to talk about the work that our organization does.

Woolman (also known as Sierra Friends Center) is a nonprofit educational community dedicated to the principles of peace, justice and sustainability. It was a very impressive group of students, all focusing on various sustainability projects on their Nevada City campus ranging from bicycle repairs to trail building to community radio.

The students had a chance to hear from Kirsten Moller (co-founder of GX) about our work in Mexico and on Fair Trade, from GX staffer Chie Abad on GX’s past and current work around sweatshops and from Shannon Biggs and Kylie Nealis about their work assisting CA communities to assert their rights above corporate interests.

If you’re involved in a school or youth organization and would like to bring them to Global Exchange to hear about our work on Community Rights campaigns or host us to speak, please contact Kylie Nealis.

Community Rights News & Views

Check out these insightful recently published articles (written by Global Exchange’s Corey Hill) about Community and Nature’s Rights:

• Rights of Nature (Common Ground Magazine)

• Owning Pigs a Felony in Michigan? Big-Ag Inspired Law Targets Small Farms (AlterNet)

Onwards, 

Kylie Nealis
Program Associate, Community Rights