NEWSBYKATE DARLINGTON

Today is the third anniversary of Ramiro Choc's arrest.

The prominent Guatemalan indigenous leader was detained on February 14, 2008 on bogus charges of kidnapping, land theft, and aggravated robbery. The reason? Among many other things, Ramiro helped to found Encuentro Campesino, a peasant movement that has been agitating for indigenous rights against wealthy land owners and the Guatemalan state.

Today marks the day when Ramiro is finally eligible for parole. But what was supposed to be a day of thoughtful fasting and hopeful petitioning for Ramiro's release will now be spent in a desperate search to locate three other Encuentro Campesino leaders that have disappeared.

"I am Ramiro Choc, kidnapped by the government of Guatemala since February 14, 2008, through today and until who knows when they free me, but what is certain is that I am suffering the worst tortures that they can do to me."

Three years ago, on February 14, 2008, Guatemalan indigenous rights leader Ramiro Choc was pulled off a bus and nearly executed by six armed military soldiers. When plans fell through for his less-than-legal disposal, he was taken to a judge in Guatemala City. He has been detained in a prison ever since and sentenced to six years in prison on unfounded charges of aggravated robbery, land stealing, and kidnapping.

Over a year ago, the British Natural History Museum and the government of Paraguay started planning a scientific expedition into the largely uncharted territory of the Gran Chaco to study the area's biodiversity.

That all sounds lovely until one realizes that such an expedition would put researchers in direct contact with isolated indigenous tribes, putting their lives and territory at risk.

With the help of Jess Leber over on the Environment Blog and hundreds of readers like you, last month the Paraguayan indigenous rights non-profit Iniciativa Amotocodie was able to get the mission suspended. The overwhelming success of the campaign to protect 'uncontacted' Ayoreo Indians from exploitation and foreign disease won it a place on Change.org's Top 10 Victories of 2010.

But apparently no good deed goes unpunished in Paraguay. As a thank you for their work protecting vulnerable indigenous peoples, Paraguayan authorities broke into the offices of Iniciativa Amotocodie and stole their stuff.

Gone are the days when going barefoot in public was just for hippies and trendy athletes on the newest running craze. Now it's for activists too.

Today - International Human Rights Day and the 62nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - is the day to take a (barefoot) stand against poverty.

Barefoot Against Poverty is an international solidarity campaign being organized by Every Human Has Rights. Taking inspiration from Nelson Mandela, the campaign challenges us to walk a mile in someone else's shoes (or in this case, lack of shoes).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that every human being should have the right to a healthy life free from want. Yet over one billion people live in poverty, lacking water, food, basic healthcare and education.

"By going barefoot against poverty, you are taking a first step for human rights," says the group. "Thinking about people who barely have food to put on their table, let alone shoes to put on their feet."

UPDATE: Navid Mohebbi, the youngest blogger ever arrested, was released by Iran on Christmas Day! While governments and mainstream media have paid little attention to Navid's case, A Safe World for Women has led the way, using Change.org to pressure senior UN human rights officials into advocating for Navid's release. Over 600 Change.org members took action to demand UN help in getting Navid released. You can continue to follow Navid's case: just click 'Like' at the top of our Facebook page for occasional updates.

For the past couple years, Navid Mohebbi wrote down some musings about his country.

Every month or so, the Iranian teenager would blog on issues such as gender equality, the shenanigans of his government and the mistreatment of women around the world. Repeatedly, he would return to his site to write a new post only to find that his previous writing had been censored.

Occasionally, the Iranian Intelligence Service would interrogate him about his involvement in women's rights activities, such as organizing an International Women's Day event and the One Million Signatures Campaign.

But Navid was resilient. Each time his blog was tampered with, he would recover its archive and post again. When he suspended his blogging activity in April, it was due to a heavy load of school work, not fear of his government.

On September 18, 2010, eight police officers raided Navid's father's house, beat Navid and placed him under arrest. He was held without charge for two months, mostly in solitary confinement. Navid was refused legal council during a closed-door trial and on November 23, an Islamic Revolutionary Court convicted Mohebbi of acting against national security, propaganda against the state through connection with foreign media, insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic and insulting the current leader of the Islamic Republic - all for defending the rights of women.

Not-So-Breaking-News! Environmental destruction and climate change hurts the poorest and most marginalized portions of the globe most directly and severely.

Chances are that droughts, floods, severe storms, soil degradation and water contamination aren't at the top of the average person's concerns, but poor farmers in places like Indonesia, Sudan and Bolivia deal with these realities daily. The number of people displaced by climate change has risen to nearly 200 million, worse than any migration crisis to date.

Yet developed countries and large corporations have taken over the climate change debate, excluding those most affected from participating in finding a solution. Bigwigs sit in air conditioned conference rooms brainstorming ingenious panaceas to our climate crisis that avoid making us change anything about our production or consumption behaviors.

Via Campesina, the international peasants movement, demands that world leaders take a different approach to climate change - transforming peasants from the victims of the vast problems with our climate to the center of finding solutions. As the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (this year's equivalent of last year's Copenhagen) gathers in Cancun from November 29 through December 10, Via Campesina is devising their own sort of conference. Their campaign, "Thousands of Cancuns" encourages activists from across the globe to push for alternative ways to cut emissions and nurse our planet back to health.

Now that you are sufficiently over-stuffed with turkey and pumpkin pie, it's time to start thinking of America's next gluttonous celebration: the "Holidays." This weekend marks the official start of the holiday season, as mashed potato-fueled shoppers bust down the doors of retail chains in the hope of scoring the greatest deal ever on more cheap plastic stuff from China -- all in the name of holiday spirit (be it the Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah variety).

This year, leave the crowded Walmart parking lot behind. Change.org's Human Rights team has compiled numerous alternatives to the conventional gift-giving mania.

Charity Donations

The classic alternative gift is a donation to a charity in the name of a loved one. With so many different charitable organizations to chose from, the task of giving a charitable gift is almost harder than browsing the mall for the perfect knick-knack. Part of the fun of donations is personalizing your contribution for the recipient in question. For the sister who loves to bicycle, how about Pedals for Progress, an organization that promotes sustainable transportation and grassroots economic development through recycled bikes? For the business-savvy uncle, try a donation to the Acumen Fund, which invests in small-scale entrepreneurs and businesses that make a social impact. My go-to donation is Heifer International. For as little as $20 you can "buy" a flock of chicks that will provide sustainable nourishment and income to a family in Cameroon. A share of the Knitters Gift Basket ("four of our fuzzy friends that are keeping Heifer partner families warm all around the world") is perfect for needle-wielding grandma. If you're not sure which of the thousands of charities to pick, give a Charity Gift Certificate, and let your loved one chose from a list of over 100 different organizations.

Last month Change.org ran a post about African farmers who are rejecting the Gates Foundation's anti-hunger efforts, instead demanding more control over their food system and agriculture research. Comments from Change.org readers got us thinking: why are we still facing this problem in the first place?

There are more than 1.2 billion people worldwide that suffer from hunger. Fortunately, there are thousands of organizations and a Millennium Development Goal devoted to doing something about it.  But why, despite this global effort, haven't activists and aid organizations all over the world made any progress in ending world hunger? Is anyone working on a more 'holistic' solution to hunger?

One way to promote an end to world hunger is to support the food sovereignty movement. The idea, conceived of by Via Campesina and championed by the folks at the Institute for Food & Development Policy (also known as Food First), is that all peoples have the right to define and control their own food and agriculture systems. Food sovereignty goes way beyond the concept of food security (making sure everyone has enough to eat) and tries to dismantle the unjust systems that create food insecurity in the first place.

Food sovereignty posits a critique of the many anti-hunger advocates and organizations still organizing their policies and projects around a faulty understanding of hunger. The Gates Foundation, which we wrote about last month, is a prime example.

Mud masks and foot scrubs may make you feel more gorgeous, but there is nothing beautiful about stealing resources and breaking international law. High-end Israeli cosmetics manufacturer AHAVA Dead Sea Laboratories has been doing exactly that in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Partnering with the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace, the women-initiated peace movement CODEPINK claims that AHAVA has violated numerous international laws and supported Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories with their profits. The company's factory and visitor center are located in and partially owned by Mitzpe Shalem, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the exploitation of occupied natural resources for the occupying power's profit, yet the company continues to excavate Dead Sea mud and minerals from within occupied Palestinian territory. Not only does Ahava profit off stolen resources, their profits subsidize Israel's settlement policy, which is illegal by international law and seriously jeopardizes efforts at peace in the region.

AHAVA also markets its products as 'Made in Israel.' But according to international public law the West Bank is not considered part of the State of Israel, and such marketing breaks labeling laws and hides the true nature of their AHAVA products' origins.

In 2009, CODEPINK launched Stolen Beauty, a campaign to protest and boycott AHAVA's actions in the West Bank. Part of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the campaign seeks to use non-violent measures to pressure Israel to end the occupation. By taking away the economic incentives of settlement, BDS advocates hope that support for the occupation will wane.

Malnutrition affects 195 million children worldwide, and kills 3.5 million people a year.

The unspoken reality, though, is that it's largely preventable, and food aid programs from developed nations like the U.S. just aren't cutting it.

That's not to say they aren't trying. The United States gives around 4 million metric tons of food per year to help feed the hungry.

Most of it comes in the form of Fortified Blended Flour (FBF). But while babies in Africa and South Asia might be filling their bellies with this blend of corn and soya flours, the mix lacks crucial nutrients - among them animal protein, minerals, and vitamins - and isn't doing much to improve their chances of survival.

In 2008, the World Health Organization's (WHO) panel of nutritional experts deemed Corn- and Soy-based (CSB) flours an inappropriate treatment for childhood malnutrition. In fact, CSB flours might even induce malnutrition by interfering with the body's ability to process other proteins and nutrients.

Earlier this year, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF aka Doctors Without Borders) launched "Starved for Attention," a campaign aimed at changing the nature of food aid. For months MSF activists and supporters have been sending letters to government officials, debuting a collection of short documentaries, and hosting events to highlight the insufficiency of the current global food aid regime.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a paste of processed corn flour isn't sufficient to feed a starving 2-year-old, or to reason that shipping corn and soy around the world disrupts local food markets and creates dependency. But there are powerful policies and interests propping up the "wildly inefficient" US food aid system.