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On August 4th, 2016, 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. Standard 7 on Indigenous Peoples is the policy that sets up standards that borrowing countries are expected to follow to protect indigenous rights.“We wanted...

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. “Terri is an excellent choice to serve in this important role,”...

By Armstrong Wiggins The adoption of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the Organization of American States (OAS) has been a lengthy process – nearly 30 years in the making. It is often the case that good ideas become much stronger when we give them the time they need to take root, and that was certainly...

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. “Indian nations have historically been international actors and a part of the world community...

The UN Human Rights Council held its 33rd session on September 13-September 30 in Geneva, Switzerland. Center staff attending called for concrete measures to address the extreme rates of violence against indigenous women and girls around the world, including American Indian and Alaska Native women. On September 20th, during its annual half-day discussion on indigenous peoples’ rights, the Council held...

The implementing and monitoring body for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples would encourage compliance with the obligations expressed in the Declaration. The body would have a mandate to receive relevant information, to share best practices, to issue reports, to make recommendations, and to otherwise work toward the objectives of the Declaration. An Implementing and monitoring body...

Create a permanent and regular status for indigenous peoples’ governing institutions within the United Nations system. Such a status would ensure indigenous governments are able to participate, at the very minimum, in all meetings of relevant UN bodies in a manner comparable to that exercised by non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. Whether the General...

The Commission on the Status of Women, when it addresses “empowerment of indigenous women” as a focus area at its sixty-first session in 2017, should ensure that both the selection of panelists for the discussion and the preparation of issue papers by the Secretariat are done in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, including indigenous women’s organizations and women. The...

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) affirmed claims that the land rights of seven communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, were being violated by a Bank-funded wind power project. The Indian Law Resource Center filed a complaint on behalf of the communities in December, 2012, because the IDB failed to secure the indigenous communities’ full participation in the design of the project. “The...