The U.S. continues its' imperialism. Found this
on the ROL website. I noticed two huge points of
interest in this U.N. report by International Indian
Treaty Council and the Indigenous Environmental
Network that you can read as follows, but first these
two points:
1- "The Sheriff of Charles Mix County and the South
Dakota Highway Patrol have initiated a police
occupation of Indian land on the Yankton Reservation.
More than 70 county, state and federal law enforcement
officials, including homeland security officers, with
armed swat teams and dogs, snipers with automatic
weapons and helicopters are being used to contain a
peaceful non-violent action with women and children
present. In the last week, thirty eight people have
been arrested including minors and elders. The state
of South Dakota does not have jurisdictional authority
on federal trust land and is therefore violating the
sovereignty of the Yankton Sioux Tribe within its own
borders."
2- "The United States joined with only 3 other
countries at the General Assembly last year to vote
against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples and on that basis has attempted to maintain
that the Declaration does not apply to them. We remind
the US government that their own Constitution, Article
6 states that 'Treaties are the supreme law of the
land'."
woods,
SA
Here's the report:
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Seventh Session, New York,
April 21 to May 2, 2008.
Joint Statement Submitted by the International Indian
Treaty Council and the Indigenous Environmental
Network
Item 4: Implementation of the six mandated areas of
the Permanent Forum and on the Millennium Development
Goals, f) Human Rights
Thank you Madame Chair and Respectful greetings to all
Delegations. We join with all other delegations to
congratulate the world community and the 144 member
states who voted to finally recognize Indigenous
Peoples as full members of the family of Nations on
September 13th 2007. We now have a solid floor and a
universally recognized minimum standard for the,
promotion and defense of Indigenous Peoples human
rights, to which all UN member states are accountable.
The Declaration reaffirms Indigenous Peoples' right to
free prior and informed consent in all matters
affecting our lives, lands and ways of life. The
Declaration also affirms the obligation of UN member
states to uphold the rights affirmed in Nation- to-
Nation Treaties they have signed with Indigenous
Nations and calls upon the International community to
take responsibility to ensure this is carried out.
We call your attention to an urgent situation in which
the human rights of the Dakota Indigenous Nation is
being violated in South Dakota, United States. Various
provisions of the UN Declaration including Treaty
Rights, rights to own control and use traditional
Lands, territories and resources, and the Right to
Free Prior Informed Consent over development actives
are being violated.
At this time, the Ihanktowan Dakota, known as the
Yankton Sioux Tribe based in Marty, South Dakota is
protesting violations of human rights and the Tribes
sovereignty including violations of the 1851 Treaty
between the U.S. Government and the Dakota Nation
(Sioux). On April 15, Yankton Sioux Tribal members
began a peaceful protest against the construction of a
large scale corporate hog farm which will be operated
by Long View Farms based in Hull, Iowa.
Tribal members are calling attention to the
environmental degradation the hog farm will bring to
the reservation and surrounding communities. The air
quality in the community will be impacted and the
threat of contamination to surface and ground water
due to shallow aquifers in the area, posing serious
threats to community health.
The proposed hog farm site, projected to permanently
house more than 3000 sows and produce 70,000 pigs each
year, is located within Treaty lands recognized as
belonging to the Dakota (Sioux) Nation and is
surrounded by Indian reservation land. Tribal and
local community members are blocking an access road to
the site which is under the jurisdiction of the
Yankton Sioux Tribe. The Yankton Sioux Tribe has filed
a lawsuit opposing the construction of this facility
which will use approximately one million gallons of
water and produce over 7 million gallons of liquid hog
waste a year. Its proposed location is only four miles
from the Missouri River, a major source of water for
many communities and home to many endangered species.
Parents of a pre- school located less than three miles
from the proposed site have also filed a lawsuit based
on the health threats to their children. US federal
laws mandating an Environmental Impact Statement and
public hearings before such projects can be
implemented have also been violated.
The Sheriff of Charles Mix County and the South Dakota
Highway Patrol have initiated a police occupation of
Indian land on the Yankton Reservation. More than 70
county, state and federal law enforcement officials,
including homeland security officers, with armed swat
teams and dogs, snipers with automatic weapons and
helicopters are being used to contain a peaceful
non-violent action with women and children present. In
the last week, thirty eight people have been arrested
including minors and elders. The state of South Dakota
does not have jurisdictional authority on federal
trust land and is therefore violating the sovereignty
of the Yankton Sioux Tribe within its own borders.
The Yankton Sioux tribal members are asking if these
State of South Dakota and federal law enforcement
officials are being used to protect corporate
interests at the expense of Indigenous Peoples human
rights. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and
the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska have written
resolutions opposing the hog farm. Additional
information has been provided to the North America
member of the Permanent Forum for review by all
members of the Forum.
The United States joined with only 3 other countries
at the General Assembly last year to vote against the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and
on that basis has attempted to maintain that the
Declaration does not apply to them. We remind the US
government that their own Constitution, Article 6
states that Treaties are the supreme law of the
land. We also remind them that on March 7th 2008, the
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) released its recommendations in
response to the United States Periodic Report, and
recommended that the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples be used by the US as a guide to
interpret the State Partys obligations under the
Convention relating to Indigenous Peoples. This
recommendation ties the implementation of the UN
Declaration by the US and other state parties to the
legally binding obligations of all state parties to
the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Racial Discrimination.
Indigenous Peoples are not alone in recognizing that
Industrial livestock production poses a serious threat
to the environmental integrity and health, both where
it is located as well as around the world. In its
recent report, The Long Shadow of Livestock, the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
cited large scale livestock production as a major
source of greenhouse gasses, water contamination and
land degradation.
The IITC therefore recommends that the UNPFII7th
session:
Transmit without delay the most urgent and critical
human rights situat ions which Indigenous Peoples have
presented to this session, including those caused by
unsustainable imposed development, to the new
Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN
Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and
the High Commissioner on Human Rights to ensure
further investigation and response
Congratulate Human Rights Council for the resolution
adopted at its last session Human Rights and Climate
Change [A/HRC/7/L.21], calling upon the UN High
Commissioner on Human Rights to undertake a detailed
analytical study of the relationship between climate
change and human rights, and to submit a separate
report as the UNPFII containing the information and
testimonies which have been presented to this session
to the UN Human Rights Council for inclusion in this
Study.
In closing Madame Chair, we thank you for this time
and your attention, and we ask that the UNPF determine
additional ways that it can monitor, encourage and
otherwise support the UN system to fully integrate and
implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples at all levels, and in all UN bodies
and agencies.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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