The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) included several recommendations focused on discrimination against Native Americans in its concluding observations on the latest periodic report submitted by the United States. It expressed particular concerns about persistent sexual violence against Native American women, the failure of the U.S. to consult with indigenous peoples before taking actions on lands of cultural and religious significance to them, and the lack of follow up on its earlier recommendations on the situation of Western Shoshone indigenous peoples and their lands. Its recommendations included:
Author: Kirsten Matoy Carlson
Apology Means You Won’t Do It Again
From SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER:
ROBERT T. COULTER
GUEST COLUMNIST
Congress is considering an apology to Indians and other native people for the wrongs done by this country — forced relocations, takings of lands, violating treaties, destruction of sacred sites and outlawing native religions and languages, to name a few. But a real apology means you won’t do it again, and there is the problem. Congress needs to stop doing the things for which it is apologizing.
Congress insists it may freely violate treaties made with Indian nations, and, sad to say, it does this regularly without making amends. Indeed, Congress maintains a range of laws and practices that are so discriminatory and racist that they should have been discarded generations ago.
The federal government still takes Indian land without paying for it. The Constitution says Congress may not take anyone’s property for a public purpose, except with due process of law and with fair market compensation. But these rules are not applied to most land and resources owned by Indian tribes, and the government takes the land and resources at will.
The Interior Department still does not account for billions in Indian funds that it holds. The United States still insists that Indian tribes are in a state of permanent, involuntary trusteeship, with the federal government as trustee. No one else in the United States is subject to such unaccountable “trusteeship.”
Inter-American Commission Hears Concerns over Indigenous Property Rights in Guatemala
WASHINGTON, D.C. At Mondays hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, representatives from the Indian Law Resource Center, Defensoria Qeqchi, and Maya communities told commissioners that establishing environmental protection areas in Guatemala without indigenous involvement violates human rights and environmental norms.
Plans to create the Sierra Santa Cruz protected area raised concerns that indigenous lands would be managed and controlled by a private institution on behalf of the Guatemalan government. The proposed project is one of many that seek to gain control of the land and resources which indigenous peoples have traditionally used and occupied in Guatemala.
At the hearing, Leonardo Crippa and William David, attorneys for the Indian Law Resource Center, were joined by four representatives of the Defensoría Qeqchi Arnoldo Yat Coc, Maria Santos Ax Tiul, Carlos Antonio Pop Ac, Alfredo Cacao Ical and an indigenous leader, Elias Israel Pop Cucul, who represents 43 indigenous communities affected by the proposed protected area.
Turtle Talk 