Saturday, December 18, 2010

President Obama Announces Endorsement of UN Declaration; Will POTUS address issues of Human Rights Abuses in INDIAN COUNTRY?

It's a good move for our President to lend his endorsement, but will it be wind through rotted sails? We have so many human rights issues here in Indian Country that many tribal leaders should be EMBARRASSED.

During the second annual Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, DC this morning, President Obama announced that the United States will lend its support to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Prior to this morning's announcement, the United States had been the lone holdout of the original four nations to vote against the adoption of the Declaration by the UN General Assembly in 2007; the other three (Australia, New Zealand, and Canada) have all since reversed their position.

AIRRO held listening sessions on the abuses in Indian Country, that we wrote about in April:


Indians from various parts of Indian Country recently participated in several listening sessions hosted by the American Indian Rights and Resources Organization ("AIRRO"), a Native American civil rights group.

The sessions were held to allow individuals, groups and tribes an opportunity to testify regarding violations of basic human and civil rights in Indian Country. The testimony and recommendations given at each of the sessions will be used by AIRRO to prepare a report which will submitted to the United Nations for use in the Universal Periodic Review of rights issues within the United States.

"The sessions were important for the simple fact that they allowed individuals and groups the opportunity to provide information regarding an issue, that up till now, had gone unreported," stated AIRRO President John Gomez, Jr. "Many people are unaware that tribal officials have committed gross human rights violations against their own citizens. And many more would be surprised to hear that the United States government is largely responsible for allowing the violations to occur and continue."

Please see:   Apartheid at Pechanga    Genocide in Indian Country       Pechanga's ICRA Violations    Temecula Massacres

The United States has created an environment for human and civil rights abuses in Indian Country. As long as tribal officials can invoke immunity to escape prosecution and individuals are denied redress for violations of their rights, the number of human rights victims in Indian Country will continue to grow," added Gomez.


The attendees at each of the sessions provided recommendations to address the rights abuses in Indian Country. Well some stated that federal courts should have the authority to review tribal actions that allegedly violate the rights of individuals, most said that the federal government must provide meaningful enforcement of existing laws enacted to protect individuals from abuses by tribal officials.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

President Obama Sir,

Watch this youtube video these are pechanga warriors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92v3O0t0EfU

Michael said...

Mr. President,

It's NOT only Pechanga Tribe that embarrasses Indian Country.

Picayune Rancheria in Coarsegold terminated 50% of the tribe.

Shouldn't they have to pay the government back for ALL they have stolen? Grants based on population?

Redding Rancheria also is an offender.

PLEASE have your staff look into this.

LA times said...

Nice youtube video,actions speak louder then words!

Erick Rhoan said...

Constitutional Law Prof Blog has an interesting post on this: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2010/12/us-to-support-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html

Basically, UNDRIPS contains rights that exceed those given by the US Constitution and given the Declaration's non-binding status, Obama and Congress can only do so much to implement the Declaration's provisions.

For Obama it's a good thing to put out there and a great gesture of good will. However, the real solution is beef up the Indian Civil Rights Act and perhaps to fold tribal sovereign immunity into the Federal Tort Claims Act, which is a limited waiver of sovereign immunity but allows access to federal courts.

This might give disenrolled Indians a chance to get past lack of subject matter jurisdiction defenses and immunity defenses.

Anonymous said...

Thank you,white house staff for looking at that youtube video.

Phil Cuevas said...

The answer is no. Indians are Americans and Obama doesn't care about Americans.

Anonymous said...

I went to the white house home page and watched the video on the weeks events and it took two seconds on the Indian conference haha.

Are you serious the U.S see,s fool indians getting per cap ,getting high ,drunk and stupid.

Anonymous said...

what has happened with Liska??

Anonymous said...

He lost his case,and moved on.

Anonymous said...

Liska does not quit. What was settlement amount?

Magee sisters are imposters.

Anonymous said...

5 million swiss account sw00231156.
routing number 083411124.

Anonymous said...

(wiseman say,Federal law cut and dry)

Futile : abortive, barren, bootless, empty, fruitless, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, otiose, profitless, unavailing, unproductive, unprofitable, unsuccessful, useless, vain, in vain, no dice, not worth the candle, of no avail.

Anonymous said...

"The reality of life is that your perceptions -- right or wrong -- influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place." - Roger Birkman

Anonymous said...

For realists, the world is a set of definite facts, which exist independently of human perceptions ("The world is all that is the case" — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus), and these facts are the final arbiter of truth.

Like that Cosmic poet?

Anonymous said...

Merry christmas to my family!

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