User:Cocoa06murphy/sandbox

= Patricia Gualinga = Patricia Gualinga is a Woman human rights defender and indigenous rights defender of the Pueblo Kichwa de Sarayaku (Kichwa People of Sarayaku), an indigenous community based in the Ecuatorian Amazon.

She works to defend rights related to land, territory and the environment in the context of extractive projects in the Ecuadorian Amazon, including oil concessions in the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples such as of the Kichwa of Sarayaku, the Sápara, Achuar Shuar, Shiwiar, the communities of Santa Clara, San Jacinto and the cities of Puyo and Shell-Mera. Many Indigenous leaders and human rights defenders are concernse dregarding the effects that oil exploration and extraction could have on their lands, territories and water sources, such as the Villano and Curaray river basins.

Activism
Patricia Gualinga is the International Relations Director for the Kichwa First People of Sarayaku. She is described as being an  'eloquent spokeswoman for grassroots, indigenous-led solutions to climate change, including keeping oil in the ground, the “Living Forest” (Selva Viviente) conservation concept, and “Plentiful Living” (Buen Vivir)..and a tremendous and effective force for indigenous rights, advocating tirelessly before multinational oil company CEOs, judges at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Ecuadorian congress, and many other high-level decision-making spaces.'

Patricia Gualinga has played an imperative role in the fight for indigenous rights. In addition,Gualinga is also a spokeswoman for many environmental projects, spreading and making her passion for the rights of indigenous people known across the globe. She describes the work as follows ' ''We are an Indigenous People who re-claim rights and propose solutions, and who are consistent in our fight not only to save our territory, but for something bigger that benefits all of humanity. And so we cannot be isolated, we have to unite forces, fight, because it is already one global fight to avoid so much environmental disaster—which is a consequence of an obsolete model of being and relating with Mother Earth. We have to understand that we fight for the life of every human and living being, and that is why we name our call, ‘Selva Viviente’, the Living Forest.'''

She led the women's group of the Pueblo for six years to strengthen the organisation of women in the community; organised workshops and childcare for women attending the workshops and to learn how to be spokespeople for the community, respond to media and be able to respond to the arguments of industries and governments.

In 2018, by joining the Climate Change Summit of COP23, Gualinga had the opportunity to speak about the Amazonian communities in Germany, stretching her connections and cause.

Patricia Gualinga is currently working to protect the Kichwa People of Sarayaku community from human rights violations resulting from oil extraction projects by Chinese companies on their land.

Inter - American Court of Human Rights
In 2012, Gualinga was one of the representatives in a case presented to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). The community won this case. The Ecuadorian government was found to have violated the community's right to prior consultation before authorising oil exploration and militarisation of Sarayaku’s lands as well as well as their community property rights and their cultural identity. The decision is have said to have included the most detailed and binding language to date on indigenous peoples’ right to prior consultation. The Court also concluded that he life and physical integrity of the Sarayaku was put at grave risk, after the oil company placed more than 1,400 kg of highgrade explosives on the Indigenous People’s territory. Ecuador has not yet fully complied with the judgment.

Threats
On 5 January 2018, her home was attacked by an unknown individual. The person threw rocks at her home, broke windows, and shouted death threats.

“‘The next time I will kill you,’ he told me several times,” Gualinga said in an interview with Mongabay. Her husband and parents were also there. “I was shocked, nobody had threatened me during my leadership.” She and her husband are now required to be under Ecuador's Witness Protection Program, meaning she is being watched by the police, yet no work has been done to investigate the person responsible for the attack. In response to this threat, Patricia Gualinga said  '“They can’t intimidate us, what I did is what I had to do, defend what was right, that gives me strength, the indignation that makes us fight again.”

Many Indigenous rights defenders have previously reported threats and harassment as a consequence of their human rights work.