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United Nations committee asks U.S. to investigate possible Line 3 treaty violations </h1>
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<div class="gmail-pull-none gmail-item-image"> <div class="gmail-img_caption gmail-none" style="float:none;width:1000px"><img class="gmail-caption" title="People march to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota to protest against the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project. (Photo by Darren Thompson, courtesy of Native News Online)" src="https://tribalbusinessnews.com/images/Line3.jpg" alt="Line 3 protestors" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="429" height="290"><p class="gmail-img_caption">People
march to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota
to protest against the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project. (Photo by
Darren Thompson, courtesy of Native News Online)</p></div> </div>
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By <a href="https://tribalbusinessnews.com/staff-directory/rob-capriccioso"><span>Rob Capriccioso</span></a> - September 2, 2021</dd><dd class="gmail-create"><br><font size="1"><a href="https://tribalbusinessnews.com/sections/sovereignty/13609-united-nations-committee-asks-u-s-to-investigate-possible-line-3-treaty-violations?utm_source=Native+News+Online&utm_campaign=cdd7bcfa84-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_08_31_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dfd2540337-cdd7bcfa84-1376240640">https://tribalbusinessnews.com/sections/sovereignty/13609-united-nations-committee-asks-u-s-to-investigate-possible-line-3-treaty-violations?utm_source=Native+News+Online&utm_campaign=cdd7bcfa84-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_08_31_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dfd2540337-cdd7bcfa84-1376240640</a></font><br>
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<div class="gmail-pigeon-first-p"><p>The
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is
calling for what is purported to be a first-of-its-kind investigation
of treaty rights violations by the United States. The issue at stake
pertains to Native Americans affected by the ongoing Line 3 pipeline
project in northern Minnesota.</p>
<p>According to a letter written by committee chair Yanduan Li to
Benjamin Moeling, Chargé d’Affaires of the Permanent U.S. Mission to the
United Nations, Li is concerned about the possible mistreatment of
Anishinaabe citizens as a result of Canada-based Enbridge Energy’s
tar-sands pipeline reconstruction project.</p>
<p>If the violations are verified by the United Nations, the letter says
it would be a breach of the International Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which has been signed and
ratified by the U.S. </p>
<p>If the international law was proven to be broken, it would give
Indigenous people in the U.S. another tool to battle broken treaties and
restore their sovereign rights, according to several Native legal
experts.</p>
<p>The committee is requesting information from the U.S. by Oct. 15 as it conducts its investigation.</p>
<p>“The information received alleges that the decision of the Government
of the United States of America and of the State of Minnesota to permit
the expansion of a tar sands pipeline (‘Line 3’) has been conducted
without adequate consultation with and without obtaining the free, prior
and informed consent of the Anishinaabe indigenous peoples, despite the
serious harm such pipeline could allegedly cause,” Li wrote in the
August 25 letter.</p>
<p>“It is further alleged that the ‘Line 3’ project would infringe the
rights of the Anishinaabe indigenous peoples, in particular by
significantly reducing their traditional source of food, the ‘manoonim’
wild rice, by encroaching on their lands and sacred sites and increasing
health risks connected to environmental degradation, due to, in
particular, air and water pollution. Reportedly, this project would
exacerbate the already disproportionate impact of climate change on
indigenous peoples in Minnesota, putting at risk their watersheds and
their wild rice ecosystem.” </p>
<p>“According to the information received, the ‘Line 3’ project would,
furthermore, increase the risk of violence against indigenous women,
including sex trafficking and sexual abuse, due to the significant
influx of workers and the establishment of camps composed of male
workers. It is also alleged that the intensified presence of law
enforcement officials and private security companies would increase the
risk of excessive use of force by members of the police and of these
security companies against peaceful protestors, in particular those
belonging to the Anishinaabe communities.” </p>
<p>Li also expressed concern that domestic remedies available to
Indigenous people “do not provide a legal basis for addressing the
underlying cause of structural discrimination.” </p>
<p>“Consequently, lawsuits filed against ‘Line 3’ project by Anishinaabe
organizations have reportedly been rejected without duly considering
its impact on the human rights of the Anishinaabe,” Li wrote. “In
addition, the Committee has been informed that the usufructuary rights
of Anishinaabe indigenous peoples to hunt, fish and gather wild rice,
among others, are based on a series of treaties signed between the
Anishinaabe and the Government of the United States of America.”</p>
<p>Li added that the Anishinaabe reportedly “retain such usufructuary
rights, which have been upheld by a ruling of the Supreme Court of the
United States of America (Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa
Indians, 526 U.S. 172, 1999).”</p>
<p>Li also recalled the U.S. support for the U.N. Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which requires “free, prior and informed
consent” over such matters, and he said that steps should be “taken to
suspend the project until such consultations have taken place and free,
prior and informed consent has been obtained.” </p>
<p>The committee further wants assurances from the U.S. that it will
protect Indigenous livelihood, health and culture; prevent violence
against Indigenous women and protesters, and “guarantee the right of the
Anishinaabe indigenous peoples to an effective remedy with regard to
possible violations of their rights in the context of the permission and
construction of the ‘Line 3’ project.”</p>
<p>Li is asking the U.S. “to provide details on the status of the
treaties concluded between the Anishinaabe indigenous peoples and the
Government of the United States of America and on measures adopted to
guarantee the respect of the rights of the Anishinaabe under such
treaties, in particular their usufructuary rights as upheld by the
Supreme Court’s ruling mentioned above.”</p>
<p>Native American groups, including Honor the Earth and the Giniw
Collective, were made aware of Li’s call for an investigation on Aug.
31. They had requested in March that the committee investigate the
potential abuses and treaty violations. </p>
<p>Organizers with the groups say that the investigation, which shines a
strong light on treaty rights and sovereignty, is a first for the
committee in its engagement with the U.S.</p>
<p>“When U.S. policy inadequately considers the rights of Indigenous
Peoples, international mechanisms such as the UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Descrimination are crucial to prevent the
devastating impacts that cannot be undone once they occur,” Kate Finn,
executive director of First Peoples Worldwide, a partnership between the
University of Colorado Law School and the Center for Ethics and Social
Responsibility at Leeds School of Business, said in a statement.</p>
<p>“The letter from the Committee plainly articulates the allegations of
rights violations attendant to Line 3 and the ways in which the actions
of the U.S. Government fail to respect those rights and, in turn,
perpetuate racial discrimination.</p></div></div></div>
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