(New York City, NY) — Indigenous leaders from across the United States and the world gathered in New York December 14-15, 2016, to participate in a consultation with the United Nations General Assembly on how to strengthen the participation of indigenous governments at the United Nations.
The Indian Law Resource Center is working to include indigenous peoples’ collective rights and the human rights obligations of public sector financial institutions in a new treaty to govern transnational corporations and other business entities. Center staff, Chris Foley, delivered a statement to the UN Working Group on Oct. 24, 2016, in Geneva. The future international legally binding instrument is meant to address gaps in international law and in the voluntary guidelines of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The UN Human Rights Council held its 33rd session on September 13-September 30 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will help protect our self-determination rights, our rights to our territories and natural resources, our right to sustainable development and to the healthy environment on which indigenous peoples physical and cultural survival depends. It will also help to ensure respect for the practices, traditions, laws, and cultural values of indigenous people.
Tribal leaders from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and other Minnesota Indian Affairs Council representatives met with Indian Law Resource Center lawyers August 4, 2016, for a high-level workshop about how to engage in the United Nations system to protect tribal lands, sovereignty, and cultures.
Terri Henry, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Secretary of State and chairwoman of the Indian Law Resource Center board of directors, is one of 16 experts tapped to serve on the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She will begin her three-year term on January 1, 2017.
This month, the World Bank’s board of directors approved a new Environmental and Social Framework, modernizing a decades old set of policies aimed at preventing Bank-funded development projects from harming the environment and people.
Multilateral development banks play a key role in financing large-scale development projects, such as dams and forestry initiatives, that have often had devastating impacts on indigenous people and their communities. The Center led a workshop on the United Nations System and multilateral development banks for the traditional and ancestral authorities of the Mayan Nation.
The United States Supreme Court released its decision June 23, 2016, in favor of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians in a 4-4 tie. The decision in Dollar General Corporation v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians affirms the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which upheld the Mississippi Band of Choctaw tribal courts’ civil jurisdiction. The decision affirms that tribes have inherent civil jurisdiction over non-Indian defendants who sexually assault Native women and children on tribal lands.
Armstrong Wiggins, director of the Center's Washington, D.C. office, appealed to the OAS General Assembly in Santa Domingo June 13, 2016 to work towards the implementation of the newly adopted American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Center staff attending the UN Human Rights Council’s 32nd session (June 13-July 1) in Geneva are calling for concrete measures to address the epidemic of violence against indigenous women and girls around the world, including American Indian and Alaska Native women.
After nearly 30 years, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on June 15, 2016.
On June 16th, the National Congress of American Indians, the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, and the Indian Law Resource Center are co-sponsoring a Congressional Briefing, to share information about the findings in The Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men: 2010 Findings from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
The Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Tribe was dealt another setback last week in its ongoing efforts to preserve its constitutional government in the face of persistent federal interference. This is a familiar story. The United States government claims to support tribal sovereignty and to respect self-government, but when it wants to overrule or take over a tribe it simply does so. It is rarely stopped or restrained by the courts.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced May 27, 2016, that due to a financial crisis it would be severely limited in its ability to fulfill its mandate by the Organization of American States (OAS) to promote respect for human rights in the region. We ask you to join us in creating awareness about the value of the IACHR and call for steps necessary to fund the Commission. #savetheIACHR #SalvemosLaCIDH
The Center’s Executive Director Robert T. Coulter helped kick off the Breaking Through Power event May 23, 2016. in Washington, D.C. Speaking under the theme Breaking Through Power: How it’s Done, Coulter shared the challenges facing indigenous peoples today and what can be done to make sure the rights of indigenous peoples are protected.
On Wednesday, May 18, 2016, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on two bills concerning tribal justice systems, the protection of Native women and children, and public safety in Indian Country:
The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been approved to go before the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in June, 2016. The OAS is a regional intergovernmental human rights organization of 35 member countries of the Americas including the United States. The American Declaration is a comprehensive, regional human rights instrument that promotes and protects the rights of indigenous peoples in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean. It improves on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in part by incorporating a stronger and more thorough treatment of treaties and gender equality.
Indian nations have historically been international actors and a part of the world community of sovereign nations, and this is shown by their treaties with the United States and other nations. Today, tribes are seeking to rejoin the international community in order to protect their lands, sovereignty, and cultures, and to benefit their communities, according to experts who spoke at the “Indian Nations in the United Nations” workshop hosted by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the Indian Law Resource Center on April 22, 2016 in Shawnee, Okla.
A capacity crowd converged at the Church Center for the United Nations chapel on Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in New York City for Together We Are Stronger: Indigenous Women’s Movements to End Violence Against American Indian, Alaska Native, and Aboriginal Women. This event was intended to recognize, strengthen, and honor the growing global movement to end the human rights crisis of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
March 16, 2016| New York, NY — Speakers from American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Canadian national indigenous organizations are set to converge for a critical panel discussion on violence against indigenous women and girls.
Armstrong Wiggins, director of the Center’s Washington, D.C. office and a Miskito Indian, says the escalating violence in Nicaragua must stop. He encourages the international community to join in solidarity with the Miskito people calling for an end to military attacks against indigenous leaders.
The 2013 Violence Against Women Act affirmed tribes' ability to exercise special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction (SDVCJ) over non-Indian defendants within Indian country for domestic or dating violence against Native women, and violations of protection orders. A congressional briefing, Violence Against Women and Implementation of VAWA 2013 Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction, scheduled on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, from 2–3 p.m., in the Cannon Building Room 121, will give updates on tribal implementation of this life-saving legislation.
On Wednesday, December 2, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held an oversight hearing: “Tribal Law and Order Act – 5 Years Later: How have the justice systems in Indian Country improved?”
On September 22, 2015, the Human Rights Council held a half-day panel discussion on follow-up to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.
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.
Armstrong Wiggins, director of the Center’s Washington, D.C. office and a Miskito Indian, says the escalating violence in Nicaragua must stop. He encourages the international community to join in solidarity with the Miskito people calling for an end to military attacks against indigenous leaders.
Our Law Reform project is directed at increasing understanding and support for the sovereign rights of Indian and Alaska Native nations and assisting them in winning needed improvements in federal law. The law affecting tribes is terribly antiquated and unfair.
The Indian Law Resource Center, in a joint statement with Americans for Indian Opportunity, the Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, National Congress of American Indians, and the Native American Rights Fund, called on the UN to address the epidemic of violence against indigenous women by following up on the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples Outcome Document.
