WASHINGTON, D.C. — During an historic hearing dedicated to their missing and murdered Native sisters throughout the Americas, Native women and tribal advocates resorted to an international human rights body to raise global awareness on the epidemic of violence against Native women in the United States. Representatives of the United States appearing at the hearing admitted that this level of violence against Native women is “an assault on the national conscience.” Continue reading
Here. An excerpt:
WASHINGTON—Six First Nations of British Columbia have taken to the international legal sphere in an effort to shame the Canadian government into recognizing long-standing land claims. Their rationale is simple: We never gave you the land, you took it, so either give us back the land, or give us some other form of remuneration, for stealing and profiting from the plunder.
The First Nations’ efforts were showcased in the capital of the United States on October 28 at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS). The OAS is billed as the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to 1889, and the IACHR was established in 1960 as a vehicle for the organization to promote and protect human rights.
The unprecedented hearing was granted to the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group (HTG), which is made up of the Cowichan Tribes, Lake Cowichan First Nation, Halalt First Nation, Penelakut Tribe, Lyackson First Nation and Stz’uminus First Nation. The group accuses the Canadian government of violating the human rights of its 6,400 members by failing to recognize and protect their rights to property, culture and religion as recognized under the OAS’s principal human rights instrument, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Canada has been a member of the OAS since 1989.
The Hul’qumi’num Land Claim presentation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights WILL BE WEBCAST LIVE ON THE IACHR WEBSITE on Friday, October 28 and 9am ET, from the Padilha Vidal Room of the Commission, and will also be available for taped viewing after that on the Commission’s website.
Here are additional details, and news about a post-hearing press conference:
Canadian First Nations Secure Hearing before
International Rights Commission in Washington, D.C.
Press release (PDF)
Ladysmith BC – The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group (HTG) will hold a media briefing conference call on Friday, October 28, 2011, following the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) hearing on the merits of their land rights claims. This case is significant because it is the first time that IACHR is considering a Canadian indigenous land rights issue.
“This represents a historic opportunity to address a human rights issue in Canada that could have far-reaching implications for the indigenous movement worldwide,” saidRobert Morales, Chief Negotiator for the HTG.
HTG has had a longstanding petition against Government of Canada for failing to secure, recognize and safeguard the property rights of the Hul’qumi’num indigenous peoples in their ancestral lands.
Morales added: “We are not asking to turn back the clock and investigate historic wrongs; rather urging effective resolution of land rights and consultations with the Hul’qumi’num indigenous peoples regarding the on-going deforestation and development activities by private corporations.”
WHAT: Press briefing conference call following IACHR hearing on Hul’qumi’num land rights case.
WHEN: Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:00 noon U.S. EDT/ 9 a.m. BC time.
WHERE: Dial in to the following conference numbers:
U.S. Toll free: 1-888-529-0347
Canada/International: +1-719-234-7500
Pass code: 283634
WHO: Chief Richard Thomas, Chief Lydia Hwitsum, Robert A. Williams, Robert Morales HTG Spokespersons; Craig Benjamin, Amnesty International; Heather Neun, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada; and, Jody Wilson Raybould, Assembly of First Nations.
For additional details and to RSVP, please contact:
Rosanne Daniels 250-710-2201
Kelly Cross 202-530-4528
Elizabeth Berton-Hunter 416-363-9933 ext. 332
Here is an additional press release from supporting organizations: Continue reading
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The epidemic proportions of violence against Native women in the United States continues to gain global attention. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hold a hearing on Oct. 25, 2011 at 10:15 a.m. at the General Secretariat Building of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C. The Commission is an autonomous organ of the OAS, created by countries to protect human rights in the Americas.
Press Release here. And the text:
Amnesty International, National Assembly of First Nations File Briefs in Support
LADYSMITH, BC, Oct. 5, 2011 /CNW/ – In an unprecedented action, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) will hear a human rights complaint brought by six British Columbia First Nations, charging Canada with the uncompensated taking of their ancestral territory for the benefit of private forestry and development corporations on Vancouver Island. The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group (HTG), comprised of the Cowichan Tribes, Lake Cowichan First Nation, Halalt First Nation, Penelakut Tribe, Lyackson First Nation and the Stz’uminus First Nation, has accused Canada of violating the human rights of its 6,400 members by failing to recognize and protect their rights to property, culture and religion, as recognized under the OAS’ principal human rights instrument, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Canada has been a member of the OAS since 1989.
According to Robert Morales, Chief Negotiator for the HTG, Canada, despite repeated protests, continues to permit widespread clear-cutting, deforestation and environmentally destructive development activities throughout their ancestral territory by three major forestry development companies, TimberWest Forest Corporation, Hancock Timber Resource Group and Island Timberlands. The three corporations are the major successors in interest to Canada’s 1884 grant of over 237,000 hectares of Hul’qumi’num lands containing valuable timber, coal and other resources to the E&N railroad corporation. Today, those companies control nearly 190,000 hectares, roughly 2/3 of the HTG members’ ancestral territory. The HTG has submitted extensive evidence to the human rights body documenting the companies’ clear-cutting operations, which it claims go unregulated by the government, while causing the relentless destruction of the traditional way of life, culture, and religious practices of the HTG communities.
HTG’s human rights complaint charges that under Canada’s Comprehensive Land Claims Policy, relied upon by the government since 1973 in negotiating treaties with First Nations, so-called “private lands” owned by the large timber, mineral and real estate development companies are “off the table.” The government refuses to negotiate over the return or replacement of these lands, and, under its land claims policy, will not discuss compensation at the treaty table. HTG also charges that Canada refuses to consult with HTG, as required under well-established principles of international human rights law, before allowing the forestry companies to permanently destroy their lands and resources, with no benefits provided to the HTG First Nations.
Prominent international human rights groups, including Amnesty International, and over a dozen Canadian First Nations governments and organizations, including the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), have filed briefs supporting HTG. First Nations leaders and human rights experts predict that a victory in the case for HTG could throw the government’s entire process for negotiating and implementing treaties involving land claims with First Nations across Canada into serious question.
Robert A. Williams, Jr., a law professor and Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program of the University of Arizona, is representing HTG as lead counsel in the case. He believes that a favorable decision for HTG in the case “will vindicate the position of First Nations leaders and communities throughout Canada that the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy needs to be scrapped in favor of a process that complies with international human rights standards for the recognition and protection of First Nations’ peoples in their ancestral lands.”
UPDATE: The materials are here:
Read the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights decision and the friend-of-the-court brief by the Indian Law Resource Center and Sacred Circle National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An international human rights body has done something that federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, failed to do — bring justice to a domestic violence survivor.
“This decision is important for Native women who face the highest rates of sexual and physical assault of any group in the United States,” said Jana Walker, Indian Law Resource Center attorney. “Although this case did not originate in Indian Country, it has major implications for an ethnic group who rarely sees their abusers brought to justice.” Continue reading
Here’s a copy of the Petition filed by ENDAUM (Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining) with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to challenge the NRC’s issuance of a uranium mining license to HRI.
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.”
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.
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.”
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