Monica Alemán Cunningham Program Director, MADRE, An International Women’s Human Rights Organization Coordinator, International Indigenous Women’s Forum Monica Alemán, an Indigenous Miskito from Nicaragua, is a dynamic and visionary women’s and Indigenous Peoples’ human rights activist. While still only in her early 30s, during her short tenure as MADRE’s Program Director, Ms. Alemán has significantly expanded the breadth and depth of MADRE’s international programs and partnerships with community-based women’s groups worldwide. She currently conducts seminars on human rights, women’s human rights, and United Nations agencies, as well as leadership trainings for women and youth in countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. As Coordinator of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (FIMI/IIWF), Monica Alemán facilitates an international network of Indigenous women activists. She recently spearheaded a report, Mairin Iwanka Raya: Indigenous Women Stand against Violence, and has initiated inter-movement dialogues on issues such as sexual rights, feminism, and Indigenous Peoples’ collective rights. Ms. Alemán represents MADRE and FIMI/IIWF in the international arena and coordinates MADRE’s work at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Commission on the Status of Women, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and the General Assembly regular sessions. Ms. Alemán played a key role in the Youth Caucus at the UN World Conference against Racism in South Africa in 2001 as a Coordinator of the International Youth Committee that organized the International Youth Summit in Durban. As FIMI/IIWF coordinator, she facilitated the participation of Indigenous women from around the world in the Beijing + 5 and Beijing +10 Review and Appraisal Process in New York in 2000 and 2005. Ms. Alemán was recently selected by the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs as a 2005-2006 Carnegie Young Leader. She is also serving on the International Planning Committee of the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum. Ms. Alemán recounts the inspiration for her human rights work best in her own words: “The war in Nicaragua in the early 1980s was the impetus for my human rights involvement in human rights work at local and international levels. I was born in a small Indigenous community in Nicaragua on the Coco River, which forms the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. I come from an Indigenous nation called the Miskitos that, like all Indigenous nations, has its own language and cosmovision. In 1983, we were displaced from our homes and taken to foreign lands. “I can still remember deep inside the color of the house where I once lived, the colors of the landscape, but I also remember going away in that car and losing sight of my community. This experience instilled in me the certainty that every human being has the right to self-determination, that every Indigenous nation has the right to remain on its own land and live according to its culture and traditions. “In the middle of a war, I was honored to be part of a group of young people who came together to seek alternatives to violence and, most importantly, to provide some sense of hope and meaning to our lives. During high school, I was deeply involved (with all of my friends) in the peace negotiations. We were a group of 60 young people between the ages of 8 and 15. Our method of transmitting our message was to tour Indigenous communities, dancing our traditional dances, and in that way, to call for an end to the war. This is how we realized that another world was possible. “I recall the day that the peace agreements were signed in a community that in Miskitu, our language, we call Yulu. We were there, we had been part of history, part of our People actively proposing solutions. I recall the day that the first group of refugees returned to my country. We were there to welcome the other children, to make them feel that they were coming back home. I recall the day that I first went back to my community with friends and families from all political sectors. Nothing was there, the houses were completely destroyed, but our trees and beautiful rivers and the elders were there. “Until today, this history remains close at hand. In my work with MADRE and with FIMI in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, I am encouraged by the belief that reconciliation is truly possible, that one day we will learn to respect one another, and that we will be successful in demanding that governments fulfill their obligations to uphold women’s and Indigenous Peoples’ human rights worldwide.”