Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission Prepares for United Nations’ Universal Pe

[walksalone11]

 

St. Michaels, Navajo Nation (Ariz.) – The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (NNHRC) is preparing statements to be submitted, byway of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee of the Navajo Nation Council, to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) for submission in a report for the 9th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in December.

 

The report will strongly advocate for the HRC to press the United States , and its political subdivisions, for immediate ratification and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to respect and protect the Dine Life Way and to actively engage in a true nation-to-nation dialogue with indigenous nations.

 

NNHRC Executive Director Leonard Gorman says Diné has always been a civil society with methods and means of addressing issues in factions within the nation, the economy, development and preservation of resources and fundamental laws and values.

 

The UPR is a United Nations mechanism which assesses the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years, with the intent to improve human rights conditions and to address any human rights violations in all the countries. Each State is also given an opportunity to highlight what actions they have taken to improve human rights issues in their country, to fulfill their human rights obligations.

 

On December 3, 2009, Commission Staff Attorney Donovan Brown and Policy Analyst Rodney L. Tahe met with members of the U.S. Department of State in Washington D.C. to invite them to the Navajo Nation to hear Diné issues directly from Diné before the UPR of the U.S.

 

In the past, the Commission has sent delegation to United Nations (UN) and Organization of American States (OAS) meetings to advocate on behalf of the Diné people, to advance the Navajo Nation’s positions in international fora and to ensure Diné human rights are represented when the UN and OAS adopt their declarations on the rights of indigenous peoples.

 

“With the advent of the UN’s adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, at least 146 nations/states have recognized, at the minimum, the rights of the Diné people to exercise their life-ways the way Diné people recognize their relationships with lands, resources, environment, atmosphere and governance,” Gorman said.

 

The Commission sought participation from the general public and organizations in providing language recommendations for creating position statements regarding self-determination, lands and natural resources, sovereign immunity and self-governance, for insertion into the OAS draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

 

“While the U.S. supported many parts of the UN Declaration, it’s dissension from it centers on the recognition of owning lands, territories, resources on Indian reservations and if the indigenous peoples have the full right to self-determination as other peoples do under international law,” Gorman said. “Thus, it is very important for the Diné people and Navajo Nation to assert and let it be known internationally their views of how the U.S. has affected Diné human rights.”

 

The Commission has also conducted 25 public hearings addressing race relations between Navajo’s and non-Navajo’s in the border towns of the Navajo Nation. Although a variety of concerns were heard, there were four issues that consistently reoccurred: Issues pertaining to sacred sites, the environment, relocation and unsolved deaths, all of which the Commission included in the position statements as thematic issues.

 

On April 6, 2009, the Intergovernmental Relations Committee of the Navajo Nation Council approved and adopted the position statements made by the Commission as the minimum standard to be utilized in the advancement of relevant Navajo Nation policy positions.

 

The United States will be under review in December 2010. For more information contact the Office of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission at (928) 871-7436 or visit www.nnhrc.navajo.org .

[acurtsinger2]

Are you an important leader in your community??? You are so aware of all the goings on concerning your native people.  They are fortunate to have you on their side..

[walksalone11]

No one piece of the circle holds more importance than any other however one must always accept that the circle as a whole is much more significant therefor more valuable than any of it's pieces.......no, I am no leader and would not consider myself a teacher, I simply have much interest and great adoration for my Relatives.

You see, by what I post, as myself having much knowledge on the subject.
To me that simply confirms my belief that we are, as usual, out of sight and out of mind.
I believe education is key in any chance of our issues being addressed......I just pass on what I know, learn and live.
What one chooses to do with that knowledge is their own decision to make.