Village Rights International

Village Rights International Village Rights International is a nonprofit corporation working with rural indigenous communities in Latin America to achieve their goals.

Village Rights International was founded by director Benjamin Goodman after he studied and witnessed firsthand the legal issues faced by indigenous communities in Latin America. As a child of missionaries, Benjamin also spent his childhood in close contact with the Kuna community of Morti in the Darien rainforests of Panama. As an adult, Benjamin studied indigenous rights and international develop

ment issues in pursuit of a Master of Arts in Development and a J.D. from the University of Florida. He successfully completed these degrees in May of 2012. Benjamin's Master's Thesis was based on ethnographic field research in Panama. The research focused on legal and institutional issues in the case of a USAID funded community-based forest management development project in the Kuna indigenous community of Morti. While pursuing his JD, Benjamin focused on international law and indigenous rights issues. Rooted in this unique experience, Benjamin founded VRI in order to encourage indigenous communities to "take the law into their own hands" - in a good way. VRI works with indigenous communities to assist them in harnessing the power of the law in order to achieve their own vision for conservation and development.

No sabe el Ministerio que en Wargandi se usan la "K"?
05/07/2026

No sabe el Ministerio que en Wargandi se usan la "K"?

La Comarca Guna de Wargandí espera su nuevo centro de salud Autoridades tradicionales de la Comarca Guna de Wargandi, encabezadas por el Cacique Arnulfo López, llevó a cabo una visita a la Coordinadora General del Plan de Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas UCP-MINGOB, Mayelín Palacio, dándole...

Que dicen los Congresos Generales de Guna Yala y Wargandi?
01/23/2026

Que dicen los Congresos Generales de Guna Yala y Wargandi?

A nice note of gratitude for one of the many ways VRI supports indigenous communities.
01/12/2026

A nice note of gratitude for one of the many ways VRI supports indigenous communities.

Indigenous communities from Bocas del Toro, Alto Bayano, and other regions of Panama presented evidence before the Inter...
11/21/2025

Indigenous communities from Bocas del Toro, Alto Bayano, and other regions of Panama presented evidence before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Nov. 19, 2025, documenting state violence, mass detentions, and the closure of civic space in Indigenous territories.

Watch the full hearing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEgFrEq1QT4

Panama: Situation of indigenous territories

Join in supporting representatives from who will be travelling to to attend a hearing before the (Inter-Americ...
10/27/2025

Join in supporting representatives from who will be travelling to to attend a hearing before the (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights). See details in link.

The Movement for the Defense of Territories and Ecosystems of… Richard Constantine Arghiris needs your support for Help Indigenous Leaders Defend Civic Space and Human Rights

VRI is proud of its volunteer Panama Director Teobaldo Martinez who recently graduated from a certificate program from t...
10/23/2025

VRI is proud of its volunteer Panama Director Teobaldo Martinez who recently graduated from a certificate program from the Ministry of Education for Directors of local schools.

Recently, Teo became the Director of the state-operated school in his remote home village of in the indigenous territory of .

Teo has come far in the last 10 years, and VRI is proud to have worked with him and supported him along the way.

Más de 690 directores de escuela y supervisores regionales son certificados como ‘líderes educativos’ por el Meduca - Ministerio de Educación https://share.google/vt9J4Ik1nhdu4zism

10/14/2024

Today is US . Here, as in many parts of the 🌎, have resisted displacement, assimilation & discrimination. But their survival demonstrates their resilience and strength, and we acknowledge their struggles & honor their enduring cultural diversity.

Photo: Traditional pipe ceremony at Heart Mountain, Wyoming, a sacred site for the Crow Tribe.
Photo credit: Russell Schnitzer, MyShot.

VRI is pleased to announce that it has recently started collaborating with the nonprofit Friendly Law as they both seek ...
03/13/2022

VRI is pleased to announce that it has recently started collaborating with the nonprofit Friendly Law as they both seek to make legal education and advocacy more accessible to underrepresented communities. Check out VRI's page on their website and while you're there, take a minute to see what else this promising new organization is up to.

Welcome to Village Rights International! The vision of VRI is to put indigenous rights into action in local indigenous communities. We are now working with Friendly Law towards realizing this vision by providing legal education and advocacy to and about rural indigenous communities in Latin America....

10/11/2021

By Dev Kumar Sunuwar The UN high-level event organized in Los Pinos, Mexico City was a formal closing of the International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019 (IYIL) and concluded by endorsing a strategic outcome document, a road map for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. On December 18...

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Sanford, FL

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