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Within the framework of the 110th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Indian Law Resource Center, the Alaska Native Women's Resource Cetner, the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (together with its project STTARRS Indigenous Safe Housing Center), and Pouhana O nā Wāhine submitted a joint report to the CERD, evaluating the measures taken by the United States to implement Paragraph 50(e) (concerning indigenous peoples and missing and murdered indigenous peoples) of the Concluding Observations, which was selected by CERD for a one-year fol

August 9, 2023 – Today marks the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. While it is a day for celebration, it is also a day to acknowledge the hardships overcome and the ongoing rights violations endured by indigenous peoples around the world, including violations of the right of self-determination, criminalization of indigenous leaders, violence against indigenous women and girls, missing and murdered indigenous relatives, land invasions and land grabbing, environmental degradation, systemic discrimination, and unjust laws and legal frameworks.

The Indian Law Resource Center is thrilled with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The constitutionality of ICWA was challenged on equal protection, congressional authority, and anti-commandeering grounds. A long history of case law, legislative intent, and course of dealing with tribal nations support the decision to uphold the law.

The National Partners Working Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and the MMIW Family Advisors have organized a National Week of Action (May 1-May 7, 2023) as a call to action in honor of missing and murdered Indigenous women. This week-long campaign provides a space for inspiring public healing and compelling accountability for this injustice and honors those who have gone missing or have been murdered. It is essential on the broadest level to acknowledge the historic and ongoing, current human suffering and death that global colonization has brought to Indigenous women.

July 28, 2022 -- The United Nations General Assembly made an historic, groundbreaking move, declaring that everyone on this planet has the right to a healthy environment. 

President Biden proclaimed May 5, 2022, as Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day calling on all Americans and asking “all levels of government to support Tribal governments and Tribal communities’ efforts to increase awareness of the issue of missing or murdered Indigenous persons through appropriate programs and activities” and to “commit to working with tribal Nations and communities to achieve j

As part of the 2022 National Week of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, our webinar will discuss the international legal frameworks applicable to MMIW and other forms of violence committed against Indigenous women. We will also discuss the work that Native women, Tribes, and organizations are engaging in and offer information about how you can get involved in these efforts.

Indigenous women will discuss how climate change may increase and fuel violence against them, and the strategies they are pursuing to restore safety in their communities.

The Center is accepting proposals from strategic communications/public affairs firms that can help us create and implement a robust communications strategy to raise awareness and the profile of our Indigenous land rights case against the government of Guatemala that is now before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.  The selected Firm will help create clear, jargon-free, and moving messages (in English and Spanish) about the case and about Indigenous lands and will help create powerful written and graphic materials secure earned media, and develop public affairs tactics to reach audien

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, highlighting a critical issue for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN), and Native Hawaiian women who experience domestic violence at significantly higher rates than other women.

The Indian Law Resource Center was named as a finalist in the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Indian Law Resource Center and the nine other finalists were each awarded a grant of $1 million to further develop their proposals as they compete for three grants of $20 million and two grants of $10 million to be awarded next year.

Take Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls!

Join us in a National Week of Action (April 29-May 5, 2021) to call the nation and the world to action in honor of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). Take action by participating in these virtual events and organizing additional actions in your communities on or around May 5th.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

An Interview with Armstrong A. Wiggins published in IdeAs Journal

https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/11159

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Carrie Dann.  She was a great champion of Western Shoshone land rights and the rights of all indigenous peoples.  Her inspiration and vision will live on for generations.

On October 10, 2020, two bills were signed into law to help address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women in the United States.  The bills, which were presented to the President on September 30, 2020, follow years of advocacy by indigenous women, tribes, and Native organizations calling for firm action to combat this human rights issue. 

The U.S. Supreme Court held that land in eastern Oklahoma that had been reserved for the Creek Nation in the 1800s remains a reservation today

The Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the Indian Law Resource Center (the Center) denounce the violation of the human rights of indigenous peoples in isolation and recent contact within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

On April 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear the oral arguments in ten cases by telephone conference on May 4,5,6,11,12, and 13.  The Justices and counsel will participate on the call, and live audio feed is expected to be provided to the news media. The Court previously postponed the hearings in these cases due to the coronavirus.  The specific argument dates will be assigned at a future date.

[Helena, MT, July 2, 2019] - The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has recommended that the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States, in cooperation with UN entities, “organize an international expert group meeting, by 2021, on ongoing issues of violence against indigenous women and girls in the region, including trafficking as well as the continuing crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.” The Permanent Forum made this recommendation in response to the voices of countless indigenous advocates and allies who have done so much work to bring awareness to

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held a public hearing on 13 February 2019 to discuss the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in Brazil

Earlier this week we marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The UDHR became a benchmark in international human rights when it was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 – explicitly recognizing the inherent and inalienable rights and freedoms we all are entitled to as human beings, regardless of our sex, race, religion, or other status.

The United States played a leadership role in drafting the Universal Declaration.

In October, the Indian Law Resource Center, the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center, and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, bringing international attention to the high rates of violence against Native women in the United States and the unworkable, discriminatory criminal jurisdictional scheme that limits Tribes’ authority and ability to address this crisis in reservation communities. The Commission, astonished by what they heard, pledged to continue monitoring the situation and to assist in any way. (More ...)

Tribes are governmental and political entities, not racial groups. This is a principle embedded in U.S. law from the very beginning and explicitly recognized by the Supreme Court in Morton v. Mancari in 1977. This is the law of the land.

Urging action to stop violence against indigenous women is a top priority for Center staff attending the UN Human Rights Council's 29th session from June 15 to July 3, 2015 in Geneva.

Negotiations continue through May 2015

Four years ago, on December 16, 2010, when the United States issued its statement of support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it joined the world community in welcoming a new era of human rights.