Photos: UN Permanent Forum 2011

UN Forum on Indigenous Issues Opens 10th Session

Top photo: Todadaho Sid Hill, Chief of the Onondaga Nation, delivers a traditional welcome at the opening of the tenth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, inside the General Assembly Hall. UN photo Evan Shneider. 16 May 2011
Photo 2: Briefing on Mining, Gas Extraction and Other Industries in Indigenous Territories

Raja Devasish Roy, Chief of the Chakma Administrative Circle (Bangladesh) and Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, speaks at a joint press conference on extractive industries and mega projects - such as gold mining, gas extraction, and large-scale forestry - in indigenous peoples' territories. UN photo Mark Garten. 17 May 2011 United Nations, New York

Photo 3: Press Conference on Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Dalee Sambo Dorough, Inuit legal expert and Professor at the University of Alaska, speaks at a press conference on the human rights of indigenous peoples, as the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continues it tenth session (16-27 May) at UN Headquarters. UN Photo Devra Berkowitz.
18 May 2011 United Nations, New York
Photo 4: Indigenous Forum Chair Briefs on Forum’s 10th Session
Mirna Cunningham, newly-elected Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, briefs on the Forum’s tenth session, taking place at UN Headquarters over the next two weeks. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras. 16 May 2011
Mirna Cunningham
Chair, Center for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples (CADPI) member, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues of the United Nations.
Cunningham was the first Miskitu woman to earn the title of surgeon; she is a leader in the peace negotiations in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua who as fought for the creation of the Statute of Autonomy in the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean; She was the first Miskitu woman governor of the North Atlantic Autonomous Region and coordinator for the Continental Campaign of Indigenous and Black Peoples (1992).
She chairs the Center for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples and was recently elected to serve on the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues of the United Nations from 2011 to 2013. In September 2009 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Cunningham is the chair of the Indigenous Itinerant University, associated with the Latin American Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples. This Fund works with 15 universities and research centres in nine countries. She is also a member of the Board of the International Global Fund for Women and Advisor to the Alliance of Indigenous Women of Mexico and Central America. She was the founder and first rector of the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (URACCAN).