Bufete Para Pueblos Indígenas / Firm for Indigenous Peoples

Bufete Para Pueblos Indigenas (The Law Firm for Indigenous Peoples) is a multidisciplinary space committed to serve primarily Indigenous communities and individuals who fight for the defense and recovery of their land, their ways of life, and against the criminalization they may face as a result of these struggles. Founded in 2017, given the violence Guatemalan Indigenous leaders faced, Bufete has the following agendas in place:

• Promote specialized litigation on behalf of Indigenous women and peoples, in order to re-establish and fully exercise their rights and holistically develop their territories.
• Develop research that contributes to defending the rights of Indigenous women and peoples.
• Hold public and political advocacy actions with key government actors and Indigenous leaders to achieve dignified justice for Indigenous peoples.
• Facilitate educational processes that focus on defending Indigenous territories and the development of dignified justice.

Bufete Para Pueblos Indigenas works with 32 Indigenous communities and recently achieved a legal protection in the constitutional court that suspends the use of traditional designs of Guatemalan Indigenous weavers, by the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism (INGUAT) who uses these designs without granting credit and asking the community for permission.