Yaqui traditional authorities gather in the Guaridia of Pótom,
March 4, 2025, Río Yaqui, Sonora, México
March 7, 2025, Tucson, Arizona: On March 7th, 2025, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), the Traditional Authorities of the Eight Yaqui Pueblos of Rio Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico, and the Water Protector Legal Collective filed a joint submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Urgent Action/Early Warning Procedures, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The submission presents urgent threats to the Treaty and inherent water rights of the Yaqui Nation in Sonora, Mexico, as well as violations of their internationally recognized right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent by the Mexican government’s Plan Sonora. Plan Sonora is described as a “green energy” initiative that includes large-scale lithium mining, which would contaminate and deplete the limited Sonora Desert ground water that provides water for a number of Indigenous Peoples and feeds the Yaqui River, the primary source of water for the Yaqui Nation. The submission requests CERD to call upon Mexico to fully respect its Nation-to-Nation agreements with the Yaqui Nation recognizing their water rights, and to halt all proposed mining activities, which could potentially contaminate or deplete their water sources until the Yaqui Traditional Authorities provide their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
The Mexican government recognized the Yaqui Nation’s water rights in a Presidential Decree adopted in 1940, which guarantees land and water rights to the Yaqui, reserving half (50%) of the Rio Yaqui’s surface flow. These rights have not been honored, and the Yaqui have long struggled to secure their right to water. In addition, the “Plan de Justicia Yaqui” signed by the Mexican President and the Yaqui Traditional Authorities in September 2021, also guarantees water rights. It is documented that lithium mining can contaminate water sources up to 150 miles from the actual mine and for up to 300 years. Lithium mining in the Sonora Desert will use massive amounts of already-limited desert groundwater, which Indigenous Peoples of the region use for drinking and growing food. The lithium extracted in Sonora is intended to be processed in Mexico as well, leaving behind the resulting contamination. Construction of railways to ship the finished lithium to the United States is already forcibly displacing the Opata Indigenous Peoples further inland from Yaqui Nation lands.
Dolores “Tulio” Gonzales Buitimea, vocero (spokesperson) and former 2nd governor for the Traditional Yaqui Authorities of Vicam Pueblo, Primer Cabecera (“headquarters”) of the Eight Traditional Yaqui Pueblos of Rio Yaqui, Sonora Mexico confirmed that “our Yaqui Traditional Authorities have never been informed by the government of Mexico about the Plan Sonora and the dangers it might cause for our future generations. Supposedly the Yaqui Justice Plan that we signed with Mexico in 2021 was intended to restore at least a part of our recognized water rights. But the Mexican government never told us that at the same time they were also developing a plan for lithium mining in Sonora that will contaminate our main water source and our Traditional Authorities never gave our consent for it to go forward.”
Andrea Carmen, IITC’s Executive Director based in Tucson, Arizona and a member of the Yaqui Nation, shared that “we found out about the Plan Sonora for massive lithium mining in the Sonora Desert of Mexico only when the governments of Mexico and the USA held a joint press conference to announce it as a “green energy” development project for “Climate Change mitigation” at the United Nations Climate Change talks (COP 28) in Dubai in November 2023. But it has apparently been in the planning stages for several years, with the Bacanora “exploratory” lithium mine established in 2010. Although this project will contaminate and deplete the ground water in the Sonora desert that feeds the Yaqui River and the Yaqui’s have recognized rights to that water, the Yaqui traditional authorities were never informed, nor have they given their Free, Prior and Informed Consent to this very detrimental plan that will impact them now and for generations to come”.
Natali Segovia, Esq., Executive Director of the Water Protector Legal Collective also confirmed the importance of this submission: “In the search for climate solutions, we are seeing an increase in extraction of transition minerals such as lithium. Lithium mining, however, is a false solution that depletes and contaminates vital sources of water that are central to the existence of Indigenous Peoples who are already on the frontlines of environmental devastation. If allowed to continue, Plan Sonora will impact the water of the Yaqui River and other waters that are vital to the Yaqui and other Indigenous Peoples in the Sonora region for generations. This submission to the CERD is an effort to put an urgent halt to that desecration.”
For more information contact:
Dolores “Tulio” Gonzales Buitimea: [email protected]
Andrea Carmen, + (520) 273-6003, [email protected]
Natali Segovia, +, (602) 796-7034, [email protected]
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Joint submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Yaqui traditional authorities gather in the Guaridia of Pótom,
March 4, 2025, Río Yaqui, Sonora, México
March 7, 2025, Tucson, Arizona: On March 7th, 2025, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), the Traditional Authorities of the Eight Yaqui Pueblos of Rio Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico, and the Water Protector Legal Collective filed a joint submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Urgent Action/Early Warning Procedures, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The submission presents urgent threats to the Treaty and inherent water rights of the Yaqui Nation in Sonora, Mexico, as well as violations of their internationally recognized right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent by the Mexican government’s Plan Sonora. Plan Sonora is described as a “green energy” initiative that includes large-scale lithium mining, which would contaminate and deplete the limited Sonora Desert ground water that provides water for a number of Indigenous Peoples and feeds the Yaqui River, the primary source of water for the Yaqui Nation. The submission requests CERD to call upon Mexico to fully respect its Nation-to-Nation agreements with the Yaqui Nation recognizing their water rights, and to halt all proposed mining activities, which could potentially contaminate or deplete their water sources until the Yaqui Traditional Authorities provide their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
The Mexican government recognized the Yaqui Nation’s water rights in a Presidential Decree adopted in 1940, which guarantees land and water rights to the Yaqui, reserving half (50%) of the Rio Yaqui’s surface flow. These rights have not been honored, and the Yaqui have long struggled to secure their right to water. In addition, the “Plan de Justicia Yaqui” signed by the Mexican President and the Yaqui Traditional Authorities in September 2021, also guarantees water rights. It is documented that lithium mining can contaminate water sources up to 150 miles from the actual mine and for up to 300 years. Lithium mining in the Sonora Desert will use massive amounts of already-limited desert groundwater, which Indigenous Peoples of the region use for drinking and growing food. The lithium extracted in Sonora is intended to be processed in Mexico as well, leaving behind the resulting contamination. Construction of railways to ship the finished lithium to the United States is already forcibly displacing the Opata Indigenous Peoples further inland from Yaqui Nation lands.
Dolores “Tulio” Gonzales Buitimea, vocero (spokesperson) and former 2nd governor for the Traditional Yaqui Authorities of Vicam Pueblo, Primer Cabecera (“headquarters”) of the Eight Traditional Yaqui Pueblos of Rio Yaqui, Sonora Mexico confirmed that “our Yaqui Traditional Authorities have never been informed by the government of Mexico about the Plan Sonora and the dangers it might cause for our future generations. Supposedly the Yaqui Justice Plan that we signed with Mexico in 2021 was intended to restore at least a part of our recognized water rights. But the Mexican government never told us that at the same time they were also developing a plan for lithium mining in Sonora that will contaminate our main water source and our Traditional Authorities never gave our consent for it to go forward.”
Andrea Carmen, IITC’s Executive Director based in Tucson, Arizona and a member of the Yaqui Nation, shared that “we found out about the Plan Sonora for massive lithium mining in the Sonora Desert of Mexico only when the governments of Mexico and the USA held a joint press conference to announce it as a “green energy” development project for “Climate Change mitigation” at the United Nations Climate Change talks (COP 28) in Dubai in November 2023. But it has apparently been in the planning stages for several years, with the Bacanora “exploratory” lithium mine established in 2010. Although this project will contaminate and deplete the ground water in the Sonora desert that feeds the Yaqui River and the Yaqui’s have recognized rights to that water, the Yaqui traditional authorities were never informed, nor have they given their Free, Prior and Informed Consent to this very detrimental plan that will impact them now and for generations to come”.
Natali Segovia, Esq., Executive Director of the Water Protector Legal Collective also confirmed the importance of this submission: “In the search for climate solutions, we are seeing an increase in extraction of transition minerals such as lithium. Lithium mining, however, is a false solution that depletes and contaminates vital sources of water that are central to the existence of Indigenous Peoples who are already on the frontlines of environmental devastation. If allowed to continue, Plan Sonora will impact the water of the Yaqui River and other waters that are vital to the Yaqui and other Indigenous Peoples in the Sonora region for generations. This submission to the CERD is an effort to put an urgent halt to that desecration.”
For more information contact:
Dolores “Tulio” Gonzales Buitimea: [email protected]
Andrea Carmen, + (520) 273-6003, [email protected]
Natali Segovia, +, (602) 796-7034, [email protected]