Vance Center Institutional Integrity Program Advisor Cuitláhuac Castillo (fourth from right) and civil society representatives after meeting with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo to present the findings of the report on criminalization of Indigenous communities in Guatemala City, March 9, 2026. Photo credit: Juan Castro On March 9 and 10, the Vance Center’s Institutional Integrity Program attorneys joined the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), the Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal and Social Sciences (INECIP), and the Indigenous Peoples Law Firm, a Guatemalan firm, for a series of events to launch a new report, “Evictions and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples... read more
Post tagged in "Indigenous communities"
Vance Center Participates in Meetings with Guatemala’s President and Officials to Present Report on Use of Criminal Law Against Indigenous Communities
Posted on March 24, 2026
Vance Center, New York City Bar Association File Amicus Brief to UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Behalf of Guatemalan Indigenous Authorities
Posted on August 3, 2026New York, August 3, 2026 – The New York City Bar Association and its nonprofit program the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice today filed an amicus brief to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in representation of Luis Haroldo Pacheco Gutiérrez and Héctor Samuel Chaclán Batz, Indigenous authorities and former officials who have spent more than 15 months arbitrarily detained in Guatemala. The brief argues that their detention is arbitrary under four of the Working Group’s five categories. It asks the Working Group to declare Pacheco and Chaclán’s detention as arbitrary and call upon the Guatemalan state... read more
El Vance Center y el Colegio de Abogados de la Ciudad de Nueva York presentan un amicus curiae ante el Grupo de Trabajo sobre la Detención Arbitraria de la ONU en apoyo de la denuncia de detención arbitraria de dos autoridades indígenas guatemaltecas
Posted on August 3, 2026Nueva York, 3 de agosto de 2026 – El Colegio de Abogados de la Ciudad de Nueva York y el Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, un programa sin fines de lucro del mismo Colegio de Abogados, hoy presentaron un escrito de amicus curiae ante el Grupo de Trabajo sobre la Detención Arbitraria de las Naciones Unidas sobre la denuncia de la detención arbitraria de Luis Haroldo Pacheco Gutiérrez y Héctor Samuel Chaclán Batz, autoridades indígenas y antiguos funcionarios públicos que llevan más de 15 meses detenidos arbitrariamente en Guatemala. El escrito sostiene que su detención es arbitraria según... read more
Observations from the Brazilian Amazon: Attending “O Chamado do Cacique Raoni”
Posted on August 25, 2023By Nathalya Desterro, Vance Center Environment Program Advisor The Call of Chief Raoni was the second event of its kind, described by organizers as a “great global gathering of Mother Earth guardian leaders.” More than a thousand attendees, including more than 800 people representing about a dozen different Indigenous communities, came to celebrate the nominal 91st birthday of Indigenous leader Chief Raoni Metuktire, acknowledge his decades of leadership on environmental issues and bring attention to the voices of Indigenous communities on the Amazon region, the climate, and more. Chief Raoni is an iconic Indigenous leader who has spent much of... read more