May 16, 2008 by Rudolph Ryser.

According to Reuters during 19 May and 6 June United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteur Doudou Diène of Senegal will travel to the United States of America to investigate apparently growing evidence of racism. What seems to be stimulating this unusual action by the Commission on Human Rights is the democratic primaries for US President prominently involving Senator Barak Obama (D-Il) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). In the United States of America, as in Canada, Mexico and the other American states bigotry and violence against indigenous peoples is at an all-time high. Despite this fact, the UN Commission is focusing on visits with lawmakers, local and federal officials and judical authorities in eight major cities: New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Oreleans, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.Urban populations do not generally contain substantial numbers of indigenous peoples. Indeed, the intollerance, violence and bigotry committed against native peoples takes place in the rural areas–out of view of official investigations. Thousands of native peoples have been killed with impunity by state-support militias even as discrimination, bigotry and violence in other forms have been imposed on the living. In Mexico and the United States, native peoples are violently treated at the border, discriminated against over political rights, economic rights and social rights. In Chile, native peoples are denied access to their own lands by the government to support and protect mining companies extracting copper from underneath villages.

Will these and other incidents of racism, intolerance, bigotry and physical violence be the subject of Mr. Diène’s investigations? It is unlikely. While Mr. Diène may have good intentions, he is missing the mark and he is inadvertently aiding those who would protect states’ governments and corporations as well as individuals from special exposure. It would appear that native peoples must take their own initiatives to protect themselves since it is clear the Commission on Human Rights cannot or will not.

(c) 2008 Center for World Indigenous Studies

Technorati Tags: racism, bigotry, UN, human rights

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December 9, 2007 by Mirjam Hirch.

When fighting for human rights and justice indigenous nations use the legal system imposed upon them by the settlers. After decades or centuries of dealing with these systems  indigenous nations are much better equipped to protect their interests. More and more indigenous scholars are very familiar with the western judicial system after running through western education programmes, holding Master’s degrees and PhDs.
However, the immense legal costs forced to pay make it impossible for some to properly protect their interests. The landmark ruling which backs native self-determination in the case of the Tsilhqot’in First Nations in British Columbia, Canada, within the BC Treaty Process took a decade to complete and cost close to 30 million dollars. There are a lot of nations not able to wait so long for a decision nor able to raise sufficient funds and get good lawyers.

Legal systems the world over can be very cumbersome, expensive and slow. Lawsuits might cause bankruptcy. Big companies are very much aware of this and with immense financial power behind them employ legal battles and strategies to gain more control. The sting of multinational companies long legal arms can be very irritating. Monsanto, the giant agro-chemical company which is at the forefront of developing genetically modified foods, accused North American farmers of patent infringements. Many of these farmers have reached out-of-court settlements with Monsanto. They cannot pay the legal fees of their savings, plus time, travel and compensation for labour when away from their farms. They simply give in when Monsanto offers to withdraw the legal challenge if the farmers sign a contract to buy their seeds from Monsanto in the future and to pay a technology use fee. To put it bluntly: This is blackmail.

While eye-popping to most, the sum big companies pay for legal fees does not hurt those  companies. Merck spent more than $1.2 billion on Vioxx-related legal fees after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market in September 2004. Patients taking the drug suffered injury or even died. The settlement payment of $ 4,85 billion to settle 27,000 lawsuits represents less than one year’s profits for the copmapny, the third-largest American drug maker.

Sure, in the end the lawyers always win. However it is up to each and everyone of us to assist and support courageous people fighting a cause we deeply believe in, defending biodiversity, challenging environmental and moral perversity of current practices. It does not take so much if we all share.

Technorati Tags: law, self-determination, multinational companies

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October 18, 2007 by Jay Taber.

The European Court of Justice might soon choose to consider an application by the Cornish Stannary Parliament. Citing discriminatory treatment by England in the Duchy of Cornwall — also known as the nation of Kernow — the Cornish petitioners’ case sounds in part like a British version of Cobell v Norton (the Indian Trust Fund case) combined with Western Shoshone v United States of America.

In fact, it’s possible all three of these disputes might eventually end up being heard by the International Court of Justice. Either way, we expect an increasing number of opportunities for public education on the rights of indigenous peoples in the near future.

Indeed, given recent rulings against the United States for violating ICERD, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, we anticipate the precedent set by the Shoshone Nation will land the four member states opposed to the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights ( Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US ) increasingly in international judicial fora.

(Jay Taber — recipient of the Defender of Democracy award — is an author, columnist, and research analyst at Public Good Project.)

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