Appeal for support and financial resources for the legal defence of the rights of the Mapuche Nation / Wallmapu People.
Dear friends and social organisations,
We are writing to you on behalf of the Mapuche people, in order to request your support and financial resources to defend our rights and our territory.
In response to various requests made by ancestral authorities of the Mapuche Nation and as a result of the systematic repression they have suffered since 1881; as a result of the military invasion of the Chilean and Argentinean State in their ancestral territories, with the consequent genocide, territorial dispossession, European colonisation, depredation of nature, extractivism and ecocide, which continues to be a common practice to this day, the ‘COMMISSION OF KIMCHE AND DEFENDERS OF WALLMAPU’ (CKDDW) has been created in 2021 as a technical/legal working commission of the MAPUCHE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (MHRC).
Territorial dispossession has always been accompanied by state repression, with intimidation, illegal imprisonment with police set-ups, improper and excessive use of police and military force, torture and even killings and forced disappearances, which is sufficiently documented by the reports of different local and international human rights organisations.
On the 7th of March 2023, CKDDW filed a petition for international arbitration requesting the State of Chile to respect the territorial limits of the Mapuche Nation, agreed with the Spanish Crown in 1641 through the Treaty of Quilín, and subsequently with the State of Chile in 1825 through the Treaty of Tapihue, instruments that are still in force and that clearly establish the Mapuche ancestral territory and the terms of the relationship between the native people and the State of Chile. To date, the State of Chile has not pronounced itself either favourably or unfavourably, ignoring the request for arbitration, thus failing to comply with the international right to petition.
The State of Chile continues to violate these international treaties, in addition to the American Convention on Human Rights, Convention 169 of the INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO), as well as other international instruments designed to protect human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).
On the contrary, the current government has increased repression of the Mapuche people through the application of the State of Constitutional Exception, which has been maintained without interruption since 16 May 2022. This allows it to imprison Mapuche community members, suspending their ancestral and territorial rights, applying the Anti-Terrorism Law and the Internal Security Law to Mapuche authorities in trials with faceless witnesses, imposing exemplary sentences without direct evidence or solid proof, based exclusively on circumstantial expressions and evidence.
On the other hand, the Chilean state has enacted and published new laws that apply especially to the Mapuche people (Nain Retamal Law or ‘trigger-happy law’, Usurpation Law, Intelligence Law), which leads to repeated raids on Mapuche communities with violent attacks on children, the elderly and women; an increase of Mapuche political prisoners in pre-trial detention without trial or evidence or long sentences for racist acts. To date, hundreds of Mapuche political prisoners remain incarcerated with the application of these new laws.
We still have a lot to do. We need your support to carry out new legal actions in the international arena and to cover the associated costs, for the restitution of the Mapuche ancestral territory (Wallmapu) and to put a definitive end to the dispossession and violations of human rights and the destruction of the environment against our People.
We thank you in advance for your support and solidarity. We are convinced that together we can achieve the justice and peace that our Mapuche Nation People yearn for.
Make your financial contribution here
Name of the Bank: POSTFINANCE
Account Holder: Mapuche Human Rights Commision
IBAN: CH14 0900 0000 1571 4299 8
BIC: POFICHBEXXX
Subject of the transfer: CKDDW