international law

Navajo Group Petitions Human Rights Commission in Effort to Halt Uranium Mining

Singel

This story was filed in May in the NYTimes (here’s the link), with televised news coverage on KRQE News (link here).

An excerpt from the NYTimes coverage:

In a last attempt to deep-six a controversial project to mine uranium near two Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico, a Navajo environmental group is taking its fight to the global stage.

Tomorrow, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, with the help of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, will submit a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights arguing that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant Hydro Resources Inc., a license to mine uranium ore near Churchrock and Crown Point, N.M., is a violation of international laws.

The groups contend the mines, first permitted by NRC in 1999, could contaminate drinking water for 15,000 Navajo residents in and around the two communities, which lie just outside the Navajo Nation. In 2005, the Navajo’s tribal government passed a law prohibiting uranium mining within its borders.

“By its acts and omissions that have contaminated and will continue to contaminate natural resources in the Dine communities of Crownpoint and Church Rock, the State has violated Petitioners’ human rights and breached its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man,” the petition reads.

“We’re very hopeful,” said Eric Jantz, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center who is filing the petition on behalf of ENDAUM. “I think we have very solid claims. It’s always been our client’s position that clean water is a human right.”

Chickaloon Invites United Nations to Investigate Water Pollution

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here is the press release: Press release chickaloon communication

An excerpt:

Chickaloon Native Village, a federally-recognized Athabascan Indian Tribal government in Alaska, filed a communication to the United Nations Independent Expert on the human right to water and sanitation in conjunction with her first official visit to the United States, which began today.

Chickaloon Village’s submission asserts that the new open-pit coal strip mine in its traditional territory proposed by the Usibelli Corporation would contaminate local drinking water sources as well as rivers, streams and groundwater that support salmon, moose and other animals and plants vital for subsistence, religious and cultural practices. The US Federal Government and the State of Alaska have, to date, not responded to Chickaloon’s firmly-stated opposition to the mine.

The visit to the US by the Independent Expert, Mrs. Catarina de Albuquerque, a Portuguese human rights expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, includes stops in Washington DC, Boston Massachusetts and Northern California, where she will meet with the Winnemem Wintu and other Indigenous representatives. Her US visit will end on March 2, 2011.

During her visit she will meet with the US State Department and relevant Federal agencies as well organizations, communities and experts to receive information regarding the human right to water and sanitation and the federal and state policies and practices that affect this right. She is expected to make recommendations to the US government at the conclusion of her visit.

Lillian Aponte Miranda’s article “Indigenous Peoples as International Lawmakers” has been published

Ann Tweedy

She previously presented the article at MSU and several other places. The cite is 32 U. Penn. J. Int’l L. 203 (2010). Here’s the abstract:

“Through a transnational social movement that has capitalized upon the politics of difference, local communities of indigenous peoples have significantly participated in the construction of a distinctive international legal identity and derivative framework of human rights. The ability of a traditionally marginalized community to succeed in strategically facilitating the recognition of an international legal identity and substantive reconstitution of human rights precepts is a unique phenomenon that merits attention. To that end, this Article addresses the role of indigenous peoples in international human rights lawmaking. It argues that indigenous peoples have played a significant role in changing the legal landscape of human rights in ways that are not necessarily captured by mainstream accounts of non-state actor participation *204 in international norm-building and decision-making. It further proposes, however, that the participation of indigenous peoples in international human rights lawmaking continues to operate within certain discursive and structural limitations. While indigenous peoples’ participation may serve to lend greater legitimacy to international human rights law and lawmaking processes, such participation may not effectively deliver material gains. As a result, continued advocacy on behalf of indigenous peoples must acknowledge and respond to these challenges.”

Ecuadorean Judge Orders Chevron to Pay $9B in Damages for Polluting Lands of Indigenous Peoples

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the permalink to the NYTs article.

An excerpt:

a judge in a tiny courtroom in the Ecuadorean Amazon ruled Monday that the oil giant Chevron was responsible for polluting remote tracts of Ecuadorean jungle and ordered the company to pay more than $9 billion in damages, one of the largest environmental awards ever.

The decision by Judge Nicolás Zambrano in Lago Agrio, a town founded as an oil camp in the 1960s, immediately opened a contentious new stage of appeals in a legal battle that has dragged on in courts in Ecuador and the United States for 17 years, pitting forest tribes and villagers against one of the largest American corporations.

The award against Chevron “is one of the largest judgments ever imposed for environmental contamination in any court,” said David M. Uhlmann, an expert in environmental law at the University of Michigan. “It falls well short of the $20 billion that BP has agreed to pay to compensate victims of the gulf oil spill but is a landmark decision nonetheless. Whether any portion of the claims will be paid by Chevron is less clear.”

Both sides said they would appeal the ruling, setting the stage for months and potentially years more of legal wrangling in the closely watched case, which has already been marked by claims of industrial espionage and fraud, and remarkably bitter disputes among the various lawyers involved. Legal experts said that the size of the award and the attention the case has focused on environmental degradation were likely to encourage similar suits.

The 188-page ruling found Chevron responsible for damages of about $8.6 billion, and perhaps double that amount if Chevron fails to publicly apologize for its actions within 15 days. The judge also ordered Chevron to pay $860 million, or 10 percent of the damages, to the Amazon Defense Coalition, the group formed to represent the plaintiffs.

 

 

COMMENTARY: Restoring Respect For the First Women of this Land

Kirsten Matoy Carlson1 Comment

by Terri Henry*

Terri Henry is Councilwoman for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and co-chair of the National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Women.

CHEROKEE, N.C. — It was with great honor that my nation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, hosted the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Ms. Rashida Manjoo.  Her visit to Cherokee was spurred by the concern that American Indian and Alaska Native women are victimized at more than double the rate of violence of any other population of women in the United States.  Fortunately, there is a growing global awareness of the voices of Native women calling for safety and justice.

With great pride we welcomed Ms. Manjoo to the Qualla Boundary to listen to our community: people that respond to the medical needs, to the 911 calls, those that investigate and prosecute, and to the Cherokee Court where women seek justice in the hope that the violence will end.  While Cherokee does not have a perfect response to these crimes we are outraged by the rape or beating of any woman, and we are committed to increasing the safety of all women who reside within our tribal community.  Most importantly we understand Cherokee women have the right as citizens of the Eastern Band to the protection of their government. Continue reading →

UN Special Rapporteur Investigates Epidemic of Violence Against Indian Women in the United States

Kirsten Matoy Carlson2 Comments

CHEROKEE, N.C. — At 64 years-old, Matilda Black Bear, better known as Tillie, refers to herself as a “classic case” in regards to her story of domestic violence. She was 26 years old when she entered into a relationship that turned violent. She knew after the first week that she had to get out, but it took her three years to leave.

Photo of Matilda "Tillie" Black Bear
Tillie Black Bear is Public Outreach Coordinator with the Sacred Circle National Resource Center and a long-time advocate for women's rights.

“In the ’70s there were no services for victims, let alone any laws to hold perpetrators accountable,” recalls Tillie. “I went to the police and to the judges and they didn’t know what to do with me.”
According to U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, not much has changed in nearly 40 years. Tillie’s story is shared by thousands of Native women in the United States. One out of three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and three out of four will be physically assaulted.

These staggering statistics were presented, along with a plea for help, to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Ms. Rashida Manjoo. Manjoo visited the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, North Carolina on Jan. 28-29, 2011. Continue reading →

Blake Watson on the Doctrine of Discovery

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the article, published in the Seattle University Law Review.

UN Expert to visit Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to study the epidemic of violence against Native women in the United States

Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Press Release from Indian Law Resource Center and the Easter Band of Cherokee Indians:

January 21, 2011

CHEROKEE, N.C. — A United Nations expert on women’s human rights is investigating why Native women face the highest rates of sexual and physical assault of any group in the United States.

Ms. Rashida Manjoo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, will visit the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, North Carolina on January 27-28, 2011. Manjoo will meet with tribal leaders and advocacy organizations to learn more about the epidemic of violence against Indian women and what the United States can do to safeguard the human rights of Indian women.

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, one out of three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and three out of four will be physically assaulted. Indian women are stalked at a rate more than double that of any other population. These statistics are linked to legal barriers that prevent Indian nations from adequately responding to crimes.

Continue reading →

Official Announcement of U.S. Support for the UNDRIP

Peter Scott Vicaire2 Comments

Here it is.

Thanks to Brent Leonhard for sending this our way!

UN Declaration Sets New Agenda for US-Indian Relations

Kirsten Matoy Carlson4 Comments

Op Ed by Robert T. Coulter

Today, the United States government at last officially endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and joined the international community in recognizing that American Indians and other indigenous peoples have a permanent right to exist as peoples, nations, cultures, and societies.

The United States is the last of the four countries that voted against the UN Declaration in the UN to reverse its position. This endorsement reflects the worldwide acceptance of indigenous peoples and our governments as a permanent part of the world community and the countries where we live. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the most significant development in international human rights law in decades. International human rights law now recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples as peoples, including rights of self-determination, property, and culture.

Continue reading →