MADRE Statements

MADRE Partner Awarded Women's Order Of Merit

Posted on: Friday, March 5, 2010

Keywords: Peru, Latin America and Caribbean, Human Rights Advocacy, Indigenous Rights

MADRE congratulates Tarcila Rivera Zea, president of CHIRAPAQ, our partner organization in Peru, on being awarded the 2010 Women's Order of Merit by the Ministry of Women and Social Development in Peru. The award is being given in recognition of her longstanding commitment to the defense of Indigenous and women's rights and will be delivered at a ceremony on March 8, International Women's Day, in Lima.

Tarcila, an Indigenous Quechua born in Ayacucho, Peru, has been working defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples and women for the past 25 years.

In 1986, Tarcila founded CHIRAPAQ (The Center for Indigenous Peoples' Cultures of Peru), an organization committed to increasing cultural representation of Indigenous Peoples, defending Indigenous rights and strengthening Indigenous identities in their communities.

Since 1987, Tarcila has participated in the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples in the formation of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations (UN) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

She also participated in the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (Egypt, 1994), the World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) and the Declaration and Program of Action of Durban (adopted at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, South Africa, 2004), and she has provided input into policies concerning intercultural education, empowerment and visibility of Indigenous women.

During the past 20 years, she has contributed to the creation of the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMI), the International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI) and the International Indigenous Press Agency (AIPIN).

Tarcila is also a member of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace led by Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), the Commission on Intellectual Property Commercialization of the Continental Indigenous Women's Movement, the Commission on Intellectual Property Commercialization of the Continental Indigenous Women's Movement, the Consultative Committee of the Peruvian Committee of Women Parliamentarians, and she's a board member of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID).

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