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United Nations Declaration Rights of Indigenous Peoples CENTRO DE RECURSOS JURÍDICOS PARA LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS

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United Nations Declaration Rights of Indigenous Peoples CENTRO DE RECURSOS JURÍDICOS PARA LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS United nations declaration rights of indigenoUs PeoPles CENTRO DE RECURSOS JURÍDICOS PARA LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS Justice for Indigenous Peoples The Indian Law Resource Center is a non-profit organization established and directed by American Indians. We provide legal assistance without charge to Indian and Alaska Native nations that are working to protect their lands, resources, human rights, environment, and cultural heritage. Our principal goal is the preservation and well-being of indigenous nations and tribes in North, Central, and South America. For more information, please visit us online at www.indianlaw.org or Justice for Indigenous Peoples www.facebook.com/indianlawresourcecenter. Indigenous People, Jane Ash Poitras © table contents We, as indigenous nations, now have a Permanent Place “ . A Powerful Affirmation of Our Rights, 1–2 We are no longer the curiosity Robert T. Coulter we were when we first A Critical Moment in Indigenous Human Rights History, 3–4 arrived in Geneva in 1977. Armstrong A. Wiggins We are Reflections from Native Leaders 5–6 ParticiPants. United Nations Declaration on the 8–26 Rights of Indigenous Peoples And we have rights Reference Guide 27–38 . Now we have legal arguments based on the UN Declaration that support our quest for justice. —Darwin Hill, Chief of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians and Member of the Board of Directors of the Indian Law Resource” Center a PowerfUl affirmation of oUr rights The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is one of Native nations are already implementing the Declaration in many the most significant developments in international human rights ways—using it to creatively protect their lands and resources. law in decades. It recognizes that indigenous peoples throughout They are seeking fundamental changes in federal laws, regulations, the world have a permanent right to exist as peoples, nations, policies, and practices to improve the lives of their citizens. The cultures, and societies. Declaration is a very useful guide in framing what better laws and policies should look like. It contains 46 articles covering rights The UN Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly to lands, territories, resources, enhanced tribal jurisdiction, on September 13, 2007. Only four countries opposed the consultation, economic development, culture, and language, Declaration—the United States, Canada, Australia, and New among others. Zealand. Since then, each of these countries has reversed its position and endorsed the Declaration, including the United States, It is an exciting time for the advancement of the rights of the last to do so, on December 16, 2010. indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples have always known these rights to be theirs, but now the countries of the world The endorsement by the United States marked the culmination of also recognize this. Indigenous peoples can and should use the decades of work by indigenous peoples and other members of the Declaration as a powerful affirmation of our rights. Only through international human rights community. When the Haudenosaunee continued use will its provisions become reality. (Six Nations Confederacy) and I began drafting and proposing a declaration to the UN more than thirty years ago, we did so on Chi Megwetch, the premise that domestic law was terribly inadequate to protect Robert “Tim” Coulter indigenous peoples’ rights. We turned to the international arena primarily because of the need to overcome and improve national Tim Coulter (Potawatomi) is the founder and executive director of the Indian Law laws and practices and because of the desire to regain a place for Resource Center in Helena, MT and Washington, D.C. and has practiced federal indigenous peoples in the international community. Indian law and human rights law for more than thirty-five years. Our work to ensure justice for indigenous peoples in the U.S. begins in earnest with the United States’ endorsement of the UN Declaration. To see the promise of the Declaration become a reality, we must continue to fight for laws, policies, and relationships that take into account the permanent presence of indigenous nations in the U.S. and throughout the world. a critical moment in indigenoUs hUman rights history In December, 2010, the United States at last gave its support to Our extensive collaboration with indigenous leaders, advocates, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This, on and others to win acceptance of the Declaration leads us to believe the heels of endorsements by New Zealand and Canada earlier in the time is right to tackle some of the big legal and political issues the year, means there is now worldwide acceptance of indigenous that have hindered indigenous nations for generations. With peoples and our governments as a permanent part of the world worldwide acceptance of the rights in the Declaration, indigenous community and the countries where we live. We worked on the peoples have been provided a tremendous opportunity to push for Declaration for more than 30 years, and we are eager to see the recognition of our rights and demand that colonial governments promise of the Declaration become a reality. respect our existence. Many perceive the human rights era as a new phenomenon, a Let me close by thanking the many indigenous leaders and our modern movement, of indigenous peoples petitioning the United colleagues in the Americas and throughout the world for all of Nations for justice that states failed to provide us. However, your work and sacrifices to achieve acceptance of the Declaration. this type of international advocacy is recorded as early as 1923, Your efforts on the Declaration have advanced indigenous rights when Deskaheh (Levi General), of the Cayuga Nation of the in a historic way, and will enable future generations to survive Haudenosaunee Confederacy, traveled to the League of Nations and thrive well into the future. This is a critical moment in human in Geneva to request international action against Canada, rights history for the world’s indigenous peoples. The next step is which was violating the inherent right of self-government of to implement the Declaration everywhere. the Haudenosaunee. And it was in 1977 that indigenous leaders from throughout the Americas and the world traveled to Geneva Yamni sut ra, and began to demand that the international community hold Armstrong A. Wiggins countries accountable for taking our lands, resources, children, Armstrong A. Wiggins (Miskito) is the Director of the Washington, D.C. Office of the and languages, and for violating rights of self-government and self- Indian Law Resource Center. He was a political prisoner in Nicaragua during the determination. It was during this period that the UN Declaration Somoza and Sandinista regimes, and was later exiled because of his leadership in was born. I, as a Miskito Indian leader, was among the many promoting human rights in Nicaragua. Armstrong has more than thirty-five years indigenous leaders who met in Geneva in 1977; my people were experience working in the field of human rights. facing serious human rights violations and Nicaragua was hiding this from the international community. reflections native leaders “The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has elevated the “The legal standards succinctly recognized by UNDRIP have always been vision we as Native peoples have for ourselves and how others see us.” exercised by indigenous peoples like Navajos. The challenge the Navajo —LaDonna Harris (Comanche), President of Americans for Indian Opportunity Nation Human Rights Commission faces today is re-asserting pre-colonial Navajo standards in a post-colonial Navajo world.” “The Declaration is proving to be vitally important in securing the rights —Leonard Gorman, Executive Director for the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission of indigenous peoples in the United States. For example, the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission is urging the Navajo Nation Water “…[W]e call on the President to fully implement the United Nations Rights Commission to adopt the Declaration as its standard in seeking Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We specifically call for approval of a water rights settlement with Congress. Other tribes a review of all existing federal law to ensure they are in alignment with should also begin using the Declaration as the international standard for the Declaration.” the protection and advancement of indigenous rights.” —Jefferson Keel (Chickasaw), President of the National Congress of American Indians —Martin Avery (Navajo), Member of the Board of Directors of the Indian Law Resource Center and Managing Attorney for the State of New Mexico Public Defenders Office in Gallup “The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets the agenda for changing the future relationship between indigenous people “Our Tribe, along with our sister Patwin tribe, was able to use many of and the United States; where our values, our teachings, our culture, our the principles embodied in the Declaration to find a peaceful solution concept of the sacred, shall have more validity in negotiations.” to a problem that threatened the integrity of sacred burials on our —Jewell James, Policy Analyst for the Lummi Indian Business Council ancestral lands. We negotiated with the City that owned these lands a cultural easement that enabled the City's planned development to “The Declaration is recognition of our unique language, heritage and proceed, while ensuring that our sacred sites in our aboriginal territory culture, and that we have a place in this world.” would forever be protected from discovery and desecration by others. —Ed Alexander, Second Chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in Tribal Government This easement gives the tribes the legal, judicially-enforceable right to and Gwich’in Language Coordinator of the Yukon Flats School District protect these sites for all time.” —Marshall McKay, Chairman of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation “The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples represents a definite change in the direction of history.
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