Lorie Graham has posted “Trade Trumps Basic Human Rights?: Why the United States Should Endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” on SSRN.
Here is the abstract:
The recent uprising in the Peruvian Amazon highlights why the time is right for the United States to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. One might wonder how the endorsement of this Declaration by the United States could affect a crisis thousands of miles away in the Peruvian Amazon.
The latest crisis results from investment concessions made by Peru to various extractive industries without any consultation or consent from the Indigenous Peoples of the area. The Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recently issued two emergency statements expressing her “deep concern” on “the reports of atrocities committed… against indigenous peoples in the Amazon region.” The Chair noted in particular the Peruvian Government’s obligations under international human rights law to consult and respect indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands and resources. As reported by the New York Times on June 12th, Peruvian officials attributed their recent concessions without consultation as a necessary step to bringing “Peru’s rules for investment… into line with the [U.S.-Peru] trade agreement.”
Turtle Talk 