I. COICA
We are an international indigenous organization with a private rights legal status, governed by the corresponding norms of the countries of the region and the ancestral norms of Amazon Indigenous Peoples. We exist with the purpose of defending our ideals and with the hope of continuing being part of the world and of nature, since March 14th, 1984, with indefinite duration. We are located in the city of Quito-Ecuador. We keep a legal inscription register at the Ministry of Social Welfare of Ecuador, with the #1255 of August 24th, 1995. From 2002, we are an entity of Consultation at the Working Table on Indigenous Peoples Rights of the Andean Community of Nations (ACN) and since 2003; we have acquired the Consultative Status at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations Organization (UN) and in 2004 of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Our communities are located throughout the Amazon, organized in the Inter-ethnic Association of Development of the Peruvian Jungle- AIDESEP, in Peru; the Association of Amerindian Peoples of Guyana-APA, in Guyana; the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia, CIDOB in Bolivia; the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, COIAB in Brazil; the Confederation of Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, CONFENAE, in Ecuador; the Federation of Native Organizations of the French Guyana, FOAG, in French Guyana; the Indian National Council of Venezuela, CONIVE in Venezuela; the Indigenous Organization of Surinam, OIS, in Surinam; and the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon, OPIAC, in Colombia. We inhabit in a geographical extension of 10.268.471 Km2, with a total population of 2.779.478 inhabitants of the 390 Peoples found throughout the Amazon region.
Our general OBJECTIVES are: a) Promote, develop and boost the necessary mechanisms for the interaction of peoples and indigenous organizations members of COICA; b) Defend the territorial claims, the self determination of indigenous peoples and the respect to the human rights of its members; c) Coordinate with member organizations, before diverse inter-governmental and non governmental organization of international level, the different actions within the Amazon Basin; d) Strengthen the unity and mutual collaboration amongst all the indigenous peoples of the region; and e) Promote the re-valorization and cultural claims of its members.
Our viewpoint is that we are an entity where different efforts converge for the promotion, protection and security of our territories, with our forms of living, principles and social, spiritual, cultural, political and economic values. Our pre-existence as differed peoples is based on the defense of life and of the Amazon, as a free and peaceful space, affirmed and determined to continue acting as a seed in the earth. Our organization’s mission is to generate our own policies as indigenous peoples in the Amazon, identifying and consolidating our common objectives so as to develop joint actions from our own viewpoint, to attain human, environmental and economic sustainability.
Our actions are given at the global, regional, national and local level, under the collective orientations defined within the Amazon Indigenous Agenda, as a guiding framework to our policies and on the policies granted towards us. The Trust Fund, an instrument that generates our financial autonomy and the KUAMOTE, “architect of all the creation”, is the recognition to our organizational work. Both internally as externally, we’ve established structures and thus, have consolidated our participation at the World Alliance on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests and the Commitment to Life; this latter one, has been assumed jointly by COICA and its members with the America Center (CICA) and the ONIC of Colombia. The construction process of the AIA, which started in the year 2002, has been constituted with a commitment assumed by each member organization and with the responsibility of the Directive Council.
