Indigenous Issues

Indigenous Issues in 2013

United States views on international law [1] in relation to Indigenous Issues: On May 21, 2013, Terri Robl, Deputy U.S. Representative to ECOSOC, delivered a statement at the discussion on indigenous youth in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (“PFII”). That statement is excerpted below and available at (link resource) usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/209773.htm.

Some Aspects of Indigenous Issues

…[T]he United States appreciates very much the opportunity to address this forum and to highlight actions taken in 2012 and 2013 in favor of indigenous peoples and their communities, which also benefit indigenous youth. At the 2012 White House Tribal Nations Conference, high-level U.S. consultations with indigenous tribal leaders that were started in 2009, President Obama addressed attendees and Cabinet Secretaries participated in breakout sessions with conference participants. The breakout sessions allowed for frank discussion on areas that indigenous peoples identified as important, including economic development, housing, energy, law enforcement, disaster relief, education, and strengthening the government-to-government relationship. We invite you to review the report released in connection with the conference, entitled “Continuing the Progress in Tribal Communities”, for details about U.S. government policies and actions in favor of indigenous peoples and indigenous youth in the United States. I will highlight just a few initiatives here.

Developments

First, in the area of education, the U.S. Government supports science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in tribal colleges and universities, as well as the preservation of Native languages in schools while advancing proficiency in English. For health, U.S. government-funded community health centers provide services to hundreds of thousands of American Indians and Alaskan Natives. We fund numerous substance abuse and mental health programs, including some devoted to suicide prevention. On improving living conditions in communities, the President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request includes $650 million for the Indian Housing Block Grant. The Safe Indian Communities Initiative aims to support the prevention of violent crime in tribal communities. And in favor of environmental and cultural preservation, we support programs to introduce Native American students to career opportunities in the field of conservation. The Obama Administration has worked to resolve longstanding Native American legal trust claims against the United States and private entities related to land, water, natural resources, and other issues. Between January and November 2012, the Administration settled the trust accounting and management claims of 59 individual tribes. Since taking office in 2009, the Obama Administration has processed successfully over 1,100 tribal applications for taking lands into trust on behalf of tribes. The tribal lands in the United States have grown by more than 200,000 acres in this timeframe.

Details

In July 2012, President Obama signed the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act (HEARTH Act) into law. Under the HEARTH Act, tribal governments have the ability to enact regulations to govern the leasing of tribal lands, which enhances tribal control over these lands. The Act also reduces the time it takes to get a lease of tribal lands approved, thereby promoting economic development of Indian lands. We are now past the two-year anniversary of the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA), which has steadily improved the federal government’s ability to work with Indian tribes in investigating and prosecuting crimes affecting indigenous communities. The TLOA gives tribes greater sentencing authority; strengthens defendants’ rights; helps at-risk youth; establishes new guidelines and training for officers handling domestic violence and sex crimes; improves services to victims; helps combat alcohol and drug abuse; expands recruitment and retention of Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal officers; and gives officers better access to criminal databases.

More

The U.S. Congress passed a third extension of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in February 2013, and President Obama signed the extension into law on March 7. This latest reauthorization contains an important new provision that allows indigenous tribes to prosecute non-Native perpetrators of violence against indigenous women for acts that occur on tribal lands. This is particularly important, given that indigenous women in the United States, including adolescent girls, face disproportionately high rates of domestic violence. The Act also continues effective programs and expands the protections and services available to survivors of violence. Also, the Departments of the Interior, Energy, Agriculture, and Defense have recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Sacred Sites, and developed an Implementation Plan to continue to work toward appropriate access to, and protection of, these significant places. Finally, in 2012 the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fish and Wildlife Service worked with the State of Montana and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes to successfully return genetically pure bison to their historic rangelands on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

More

The United States delivered a statement at a panel discussion on indigenous peoples at the 24th session of the HRC in September in which it expressed support for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples planned for 2014. See this world legal encyclopedia (in relation to issues that took place in the year 2012) at 20002 for a discussion of previous U.S. statements on the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. The U.S. statement delivered September 17, 2013 follows and is available at (link resource) geneva.usmission.gov/2013/10/02/item-3-half-day-panel-discussion-indigenouspeoples/.

Indigenous Issues in 2013 (Continuation)

United States views on international law [2] in relation to Indigenous Issues: The U.S. government places importance on the high-level UNGA meeting known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, consistent with our policy to strengthen our relationship with Indian tribes and include indigenous peoples’ concerns in our broader policy objectives. We support an inclusive preparatory process for the World Conference. The United States will hold a listening session with U.S. indigenous representatives on October 11 in Washington, so that we can hear their suggestions and expectations for the Conference. As the World Conference would be enhanced by consideration of a wide range of views, broad indigenous input is essential. In consultations prior to the high-level meeting, the concerns of all indigenous peoples must be heard, with no groups being marginalized. Throughout the world, including in my own region of North America, indigenous peoples have leaders who are either elected through a democratic process or appointed through traditional processes to represent their peoples. The preparatory process would benefit from the observations of these leaders along with other persons.

More about Indigenous Issues

Concerning the outcome document from the June 2013 preparatory meeting in Alta, the United States does not think that text should be the starting point for negotiations on an outcome document for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Rather, the recommendations contained in the Alta document should be considered during negotiations on the high-level meeting outcome document. The participants to the World Conference should include representatives designated by indigenous peoples, including representatives of tribal governments. Civil society partners— including non-governmental organizations that represent indigenous women and youth and indigenous persons with disabilities—should also have the opportunity to participate in the Conference. All processes for selecting credible representatives of indigenous governments must be completely transparent. The PFII Secretariat, working with the seven indigenous regional caucuses and the two thematic caucuses on youth and women, are involved in identifying the indigenous representatives who will participate in the World Conference. We appreciate the briefing the Secretariat provided to member states several months ago, and we welcome continued dialogue on this issue.

Development

The World Conference’s roundtables, with their interactive format, will allow for indigenous peoples’ meaningful participation. The roundtable themes do not need to refer only to individual Declaration articles, but can also focus on current best practices for issues that cut across multiple Declaration articles. Possible topics could include “Lands, resources, the environment, and economic development;” “Cultures of indigenous peoples, including information about Indian cultures in their educational curricula and teaching Native languages;” and “Business and its impacts on indigenous peoples.” The General Assembly resolution on the World Conference calls for a concise, actionoriented outcome document. Such a political statement with recommended actions to improve the status of indigenous peoples is an appropriate product of the high-level meeting. It would also be useful to have a longer Chair’s text, which would give a thorough account of the substantive roundtable and panel discussions. We also recommend that arrangements be made to receive input—including in written, electronic, pre-recorded, or telephonic format—from indigenous peoples and others who are unable to attend the World Conference in person. We welcome the panelists’ views on appropriate topics for the World Conference’s roundtable discussions, as well as their suggestions on what the outcome document could contain.

Details

The United States co-sponsored a resolution on human rights and indigenous peoples at the 24th session of the HRC. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/24/10. The U.S. statement on the resolution, delivered on September 26, 2013, appears below and is available at (link resource) geneva.usmission.gov/2013/09/26/general-statement-on-human-rights-andindigenous-peoples/. The HRC adopted an additional resolution on indigenous peoples on the same day, which extends the mandate of the special rapporteur. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/24/9.

More

The United States is pleased to co-sponsor the resolution on “Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples.” Indigenous peoples throughout the world face grave challenges, and the United States is committed to addressing these challenges both at home and abroad. The United States echoes the resolution’s commendation of the efforts of the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In order to further improve the situation of indigenous peoples, the United States believes that we must focus on the promotion and protection of both the human rights of indigenous individuals and the collective rights of indigenous peoples, and is pleased that the resolution covers both these topics in various ways. For example, operative paragraph 12 highlights the role of treaty bodies in promoting human rights, and we commend other sections of the resolution that highlight the importance of protecting the human rights of indigenous women and children and indigenous persons with disabilities.

Property Rights and Indigenous Rights

The worldwide indigenous population is estimated to be between 220 million and 350 million, spread across all inhabitable stretches of the earth. Land and the natural resources provided by the earth are central to many indigenous cultures and beliefs. The land provides identity, nourishment, home, and often very significant religious or spiritual significance.

Despite this central importance of land, indigenous peoples have historically been deprived of their rights to land by colonization – both political and economic. Communal understanding of ownership and the absence of the concept of land ownership left the door open to such abuses. However, as indigenous rights are becoming more widely recognized and celebrated, many countries are taking important steps to ensure respect for these rights, in order to improve the opportunities and well-being of their indigenous citizens.

In 1989, the International Labor Organization passed convention 169, better known as the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, which enumerates specific rights that indigenous peoples possess – including the rights to consultation and participation in political decision making. The convention has been ratified by 22 countries, 15 of which are in the Americas.

In many parts of Latin America, indigenous people are protected by prior consultation laws, many of which are included in the constitution. These laws require local authorities and national governments to consult with indigenous groups before beginning extraction of any natural resources or new infrastructure projects on historically identified indigenous lands – at least on paper. Such laws are routinely skirted or outright broken by both national interests and foreign corporations seeking to extract natural resources from lands historically identified as pertaining to indigenous peoples.

These extractive processes, in their nature illegal because of failure to acquire prior consultation, often result in significant pollution with disastrous effects on the local population. In Ecuador for example, some towns are rife with cancer, skin rashes, and issues with pregnancy after oil pipelines leaked and many petro-companies failed to properly line their waste pits or even clean them up after their exit; a problem that persisted for five decades and whose responsibility is still being debated in Ecuadorian and U.S. courts.

Not unique to Latin America, textile factories in Indonesia routinely expel toxic water into local rivers, causing significant neurological disorders at birth and various forms of cancers. These types of pollution render waters unfishable, land unfarmable, and even kill small and large livestock – effectively robbing indigenous peoples of their means of economic production and placing their health and well-being in extreme risk.

Access to and ownership of ancestral lands is an important right for indigenous peoples around the world. In addition to the cultural importance this land signifies, indigenous peoples form an important sector of the economy as they contribute both raw materials and services related to their lands – often incorporating practices that value the conservation of resources and, in the long run, more sustainable economic growth. As more and more people grow to depend on their states’ populist policies to meet their basic needs, self-sufficiency and sustainable economic growth are ever more required, particularly in Latin America. By ensuring that indigenous Latin Americans can use their healthy land, the economic opportunities for better education and nutrition are ensured.

Enforcing the prior consultation laws that are already on the books should be a simple thing to do; however, rule of law is often challenged by the desire to achieve short-term gain through extractive industries, neglecting long-term and sustainable growth that prioritizes the health and well-being of the most at-risk citizens. Overall, societies will be better off if indigenous peoples’ rights are upheld – it is a victory for democracy, rule of law, and property rights, all of which benefit countries’ economic future in the long run.

Author: Laura Boyette, CIPE.

Indigenous Issues

In relation to the international law practice and indigenous issues in this world legal Encyclopedia, please see the following section:

Human Rights

Note: there is detailed information and resources under these topics during the year 2013, covered by this entry on indigenous issues in this law Encyclopedia.

Resources

Notes

1. Indigenous Issues in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law
2. Indigenous Issues in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law