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<h1><font size=4><b>Listening Conferences for UN Report: No one was
listening to Native Americans</b></font></h1><font size=3>By Brenda
Norrell<br><br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2010/08/listening-conferences-un-report-no-one-was-listening-native-american" eudora="autourl">
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2010/08/listening-conferences-un-report-no-one-was-listening-native-american<br>
<br>
</a></font><font size=3><i>Updated Aug. 24, 2010<br><br>
</i>It appears no one was listening at the US State Department’s
Listening Conferences this year, when Native Americans offered testimony
on human rights for a report to the United Nations.<br><br>
The US Periodic Review on Human Rights released Monday, Aug. 23, shows
the Obama Administration giving itself a glossy, positive review on the
issue of Native Americans and human rights to the United Nations Human
Rights Council.<br><br>
However, the release of the final document proves Russell Means was
accurate when he described the Listening Conferences as a
“Smokescreen.”<br><br>
“Once again, the occupation government of the United States of America
has trotted out its dogs and ponies to provide a smokescreen and
diversion from its continuing crimes against the indigenous peoples and
nations of the Western Hemisphere,” Means said in March.<br><br>
The US report to the UN fails to describe the ongoing environmental
genocide, where corporations in collusion with the US government target
Indian country with power plants, coal mines and oil and gas
wells.<br><br>
The United States does not address the uranium mining that now threatens
water supplies of Navajos or Lakotas, nor of the proposed Desert Rock
power plant that threatens the health of Navajos. There is no mention of
the so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute that resulted in the relocation of
14,000 Navajos on Black Mesa. It was manufactured by attorneys,
Congressmen and Peabody Coal to make way for Peabody Coal mining. The
report does does not mention the Forgotten Navajos of the Bennett Freeze
zone, where development was frozen by federal legislation.<br><br>
The US report does not address the poisoned groundwater of the Tohono
O'odham from mining, nor the conditions on South Dakota Indian lands. It
does not address the violations of the rights of the Western Shoshone as
gold mining targets sacred Mount Tenabo. There is no mention of how the
use of recycled sewage water on sacred San Francisco Peaks will affect
American Indian Nations.<br><br>
There is no mention of the radioactive spills and radioactive tailings
strewn across the Navajo Nation or the live Cold War bombs in the
Badlands on Pine Ridge, S.D. There is no mention of the genocide of
uranium mining, leaving behind a legacy of cancer and death, in Acoma and
Laguna Pueblos. There was no mention of testimony to protect Zuni Pueblo
sacred places.<br><br>
The US Periodic Review fails to address the widespread abuses by the US
Border Patrol of Indigenous Peoples traveling in their own territories,
or the violations of NAGPRA and other federal laws during construction of
the US/Mexico border wall. This included Boeing digging up the ancestors
of the O'odham.<br><br>
There is no mention of the physical abuse of Haudenosaunee and others on
the northern border by border agents. The US fails to describe the racial
profiling that has become acceptable for police and border agents in the
US. There is no mention of the destruction of ceremonial items by border
agents.<br><br>
The US does not address the violations of fishing and hunting rights of
Native Americans in violations of Treaties. There is no mention of the
loss of water rights.<br><br>
The report fails to describe the targeting of American Indians by police
during traffic stops, the longer prison sentences issued by courts for
American Indians or the ongoing hate crimes in Indian country
bordertowns. The US fails to admit to the denials of American Indian
religious freedom in US prisons.<br><br>
While giving a sweeping rosy report of the United States in regards to
Native Americans and human rights, the US says it is considering passage
of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The US fails
to point out that it is trailing all the other countries in the world in
adoption of the Declaration.<br><br>
The US is currently attempting a flim-flam approach to the adoption of
the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But Indigenous
Peoples say that US laws of "Discovery" and
"Conquest" can not supersede the UN Declaration.<br><br>
Tonya Gonellaa Frichner, Onondaga, said the US House of Representatives
submitted Resolution 1551.1H to Congress and referred it to the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on July 22.<br><br>
"The resolution expresses the sense of Congress that the United
States should 'promote respect for and full implementation of the
provisions of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
consistent with US law.'<br><br>
"As positive as this wording of the resolution may seem, the phrase
'consistent with US law' is highly problematic because US law with regard
to American Indian nations and peoples is premised on unacceptable
doctrines such as 'discovery,' 'conquest,' and 'plenary power,' and on a
presumption of United States supremacy over Indigenous peoples,"
said Frichner, North American Regional Representative to the UN Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues.<br><br>
"The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is an
international human rights instrument that recognizes the individual,
collective, and group rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the right
of self-determination, and the right of Indigenous Peoples to give or
withhold their free, prior, and informed consent when it comes to the
exploitation of their Indigenous lands, territories, and
resources.<br><br>
"It is incumbent upon the United States government to fully endorse
and implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in a
manner consistent with international standards of human rights, and in
keeping with the recognition of the individual, group, and collective
rights of Indigenous Peoples," she said.<br><br>
Meanwhile, in the Periodic Review to the UN, while applauding
freedom of expression in America, the US fails to point out that spying
on private citizens is nearing the Cold War spying level. There is no
mention of ongoing US war crimes.<br><br>
The ACLU, in its response to the US Periodic Report, stressed the US
abuse of the rights of prisoners and migrants.<br><br>
Although Window Rock, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation was one site of the
testimony at the Listening Conferences, there are no specifics of Navajo
testimony in the final report.<br><br>
Although written testimony was presented on behalf of Leonard Peltier,
there is no mention of Peltier in the final report.<br><br>
Means said, in his statement in March, “As we can see, many indigenous
people have been duped to participate, yet again, in a lying and
duplicitous process of the United States. The United States has
absolutely no interest or intention of admitting to the world its human
rights record that is neither justifiable nor defensible. In particular,
the record of the United States with regard to historical, and ongoing,
violations of over 370 treaties that were negotiated and signed with
indigenous nations must be, but will not be, addressed by the United
States.”<br><br>
The ACLU listed the shortcomings of the report and made recommendations
today, stressing the United States abuse of the rights of prisoners and
migrants:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/upr_submission_20100419.pdf">
http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/upr_submission_20100419.pdf</a><br><br>
View the US Periodic Review to the UN Human Rights Council:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/146379.pdf">
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/146379.pdf</a><br><br>
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