Work-in-progress Film: "DISCUSSIONS ON THE UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES".

Screened on the opening day of the 14 May 2007 at the United Nations .

We are glad that an interview made with our friend and colleague Michu Uaiyue (Akha) made a part of the movie.

Thank you Rebecca!

Rebecca Sommer is a New-York-based and German-born human rights advocate, journalist, artist and filmmaker, founder of Earth Peoples (www.earthpeoples.org) and the representative for the NGO Society for Threatened Peoples International (www.gfbv.de).

Rebecca Sommer has earned a reputation as an outstanding personality in many fields. She was editor at large for Madison magazine (NYC), Spirit and Scene magazine (London). While she earns her living as an artist, she devotes most of her time to the support of Indigenous Peoples. During the recent Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues PFII (May 2006) in New York, she premiered her documentary film The United Nations and Indigenous Peoples on the plight of many indigenous peoples from around the world. This awareness-raising film was commissioned by the United Nations PFII, and received the New York Festivals International Film & Video Award, International Affairs, 2007.

Rebecca Sommer grew up in the Harz forest of Germany, and on the North Sea island of Langeoog. She later lived and worked in India, South Africa, Peru, Brazil, England and the United States. Focused on environmental and human rights issues, Rebecca visits remote places and indigenous communities from around the world, often under very harsh conditions.

Since 2005, Rebecca Sommer has been particularly engaged with the plight of the indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. While continuing her ongoing work “UNtruth,” an educational 12-hour documentary series on the rights of indigenous peoples at the UN and OAS for Earth Peoples, Rebecca finalized two documentaries on human rights violations committed against indigenous peoples in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, and one short film on an indigenous child in Southern Vietnam. She is currently finalizing several shorts and documentary films; a 5-minute series on indigenous children in Southeast Asia, one documentary on the impact of tourism on Mien women in Viet Nam, one feature film on the life of a 12-year-old Black Hmong girl from northern Viet Nam, and an awareness-raising film on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.