A Girl like a Phoenix

I wasn't sure if this was the appropriate forum to post this thread, so please let me know if it should be posted elsewhere.

A Girl like a Phoenix

A teenager is bullied by her classmates. They hood her head and beat her body. Then they post a picture of their attack on Facebook. Why? Because she is an Indigenous girl, brave enough and curious enough to seek an education at her neighborhood school.

How many civic ordinances, national laws, international edicts, basic human rights, and moral principles are violated when her teachers and local authorities ignore these cruel crimes, the pleas of her parents and aunt, and the injustice before them?

So MADRE brought this girl to the thirteenth annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) to tell her story.

On Thursday, May 15, which on the Mayan calendar is a day devoted to justice, we sat in solidarity with 17-year-old Angelina (not her real name), a Mixteca girl from Mexico, as she chronicled her two years of violations at the hands of her peers and public authorities. Together, we heard her rights and all relevant laws explained at a symbolic tribunal we helped organize, the “Tribunal de Conciencia de Mujeres Indigenas” (The Indigenous Women’s Tribunal of Conscience), which was a side event of the Forum....

MORE at http://www.madre.org/blog/?p=5041