Call to Action: Demand OAS Support a Strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Demand a Strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous rights to life, land, equality, natural resources, self-determination, and religious freedom are under attack. A strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will help prevent human rights violations in the Americas.

• Gross violations of human rights are occurring against Indian and other indigenous peoples in North, South and Central America.
• Developers deprive Indians in the United States of their right to religious freedom by desecrating sacred places such as Bear Butte and the San Francisco Peaks.
• One in three Indian women in the United States will be raped in their lifetimes. This epidemic of violence violates Native women’s rights to life, security of the person, and equal treatment.
• The United States continues to try to take Western Shoshone HOMELANDS for military testing, gold mining and nuclear waste disposal in violation of Western Shoshone property rights.
• More than 1,244 indigenous people have been assassinated in Colombia in the past five years.
• Maya Q’eqchi’ people suffer death threats, the burning of their homes, and forced removal for defending their land rights from mining interests in El Estor, Guatemala.
• Canada continues to ignore Innu land rights, resulting in the forced relocation of Innu families and the loss of their traditional hunting grounds and homelands.
• More than 3,000 illegal miners threaten the survival of the Yanomami people in Brazil by invading their lands, contaminating their rivers, introducing fatal infectious diseases, and murdering their people.
  
  This persecution is not unique to particular countries. It is part of an alarming trend of human rights violations against indigenous peoples in North, Central, and South America. Indigenous rights to life, land, equality, natural resources, self-determination, and religious freedom are under attack. The Organization of American States, a regional body made up of the 35 countries of the Americas, is currently negotiating an American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Countries of the Americas must commit to the recognition and implementation of indigenous rights by adopting the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
  

ACT NOW FOR A STRONG AMERICAN DECLARATION by sending letters to OAS member countries urging them to support a strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. [click here to send letter]

Following is a copy of the letter you will be sending to the government of every nation that is a member of the Organization of American States (OAS). (You will also have to opportunity to include any personal comments or statements.)

"Dear Ambassador,

I am seriously concerned about the widespread violation of indigenous peoples' human rights in the Americas and the need for a strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I strongly urge your country to commit to the adoption of a strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by actively engaging in negotiations immediately.

A strong American Declaration is crucial to recognize indigenous human rights, including the right of self-determination, treaty rights, cultural and religious rights, rights to lands and resources, and more. Further, a strong American Declaration will address the particular regional issues in the Americas that are not dealt with in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, such as gender equality, violence against Native women, and indigenous peoples under internal armed conflict.

More importantly, we need a strong American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to prevent the grave treaty and human rights violations that Indian and Alaska Native nations currently face in the United States and throughout the Americas. In the United States, the government is allowed to confiscate certain Indian lands in violation of the Constitution, one in three Native women is raped in her life time, and developers deprive Native peoples of their right to religious freedom by desecrating sacred places such as Bear Butte, South Dakota.

The situation is even more appalling in Central and South America. Extractive industries threaten the survival of many indigenous nations, including the Yanomami in Brazil and the Maya Q'eqchi' in Guatemala, and indigenous peoples are being assassinated in Colombia. A strong American Declaration will help to secure Indian rights and prevent further human rights abuses. The OAS and OAS member countries must commit to the adoption of a strong American Declaration.

It is more important than ever to have a strong American Declaration which enjoys widespread support. In 2007, 143 countries affirmed their commitment to indigenous rights through their historic adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Only four countries voted against the Declaration. Three of those four -- the United States, Canada, and Colombia -- belong to our region, which has some of the largest indigenous populations in the world. All countries of the Americas must take their obligations to respect and promote indigenous rights seriously.

Thank you in advance for your country's commitment to the negotiation and adoption of a strong American Declaration.

Sincerely,

[Your Name, Organization, Address, Phone & Fax]"

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The Indian Law Resource Center is a non-profit law and advocacy organization established and directed by American Indians. We provide legal assistance to Indian and Alaska Native nations who are working to protect their lands, resources, human rights, environment and cultural heritage. Our principal goal is the preservation and well-being of Indian and other Native nations and tribes.

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This article has been adapted from Indigenous Notes
the newsletter of the Indian Law Resource Center

Native Rights News is making this material available with the express permission of the Indian Law Resource Center . This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.
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Native Rights News (NRN) is published by the Alliance for Indigenous Rights, a nonprofit corporation owned and operated by Temple Beit Shem Tov as part of its Peace and Justice Ministry.

Canadian Copper Mining Firm Uses Violence to Deal with Indigenous Resistance in Equador

Canadian Mining Firm Financed Violence in Ecuador: Lawsuit

TMX Group denies claim. Win could affect thousands of other projects by Canadian companies.

TheTyee.ca
By Jennifer Moore

Published: March 3, 2009

"Financing being raised in Canada is travelling across borders to do harm," said lawyer Murray Klippenstein by phone from his office in Toronto. "We want to find out if our legal system can respond to this."

Klippenstein is perhaps best known for his representation of the estate and family of native activist Dudley George, who was shot and killed by police in Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario in 1995. This lawsuit revealed deep political involvement from the premier's office and resulted in a landmark public inquiry.

In another ambitious and possibly precedent-setting case, Klippenstein is representing three villagers from the valley of Intag in northwestern Ecuador who are suing Copper Mesa Mining Corporation (TSX:CUX) and the Toronto Stock Exchange. They allege that company directors and the TMX Group have not done enough to reduce the risk of harm being faced by farmers and community leaders in Intag who have faced violent threats and attacks for opposition to a large open-pit copper mine in their pristine cloud forests.

Still, they hope to go further. "What is happening in Intag is illustrative of a wider problem," a summary of the legal claim states, "the corporate and financial unaccountability of the Canadian mining industry." So while the case uses established legal principles, the plaintiffs hope it will lead to long-awaited legal reforms to help better control thousands of Canadian financed projects abroad.

Klippenstein, who said he "has learned to go miles on very little," acknowledges the "staggering financial mismatch" and says that companies have hundreds of millions of dollars to gain, so it won't surprise him if they spend tens of millions on the case. He also anticipates years of counterattacks, including motions and appeals on technicalities.

But he emphasized that the basics of the case are straightforward. "There's a simple fundamental legal point that you shouldn't harm somebody and that you shouldn't use your money to hire someone who you know is likely to do harm."

Conflict escalates

Marcia Ramírez is secretary of the Intag Community Development Committee. She lives near the end of the road in an isolated village in one of the most biodiverse places on earth. Her community of Chalguayaco Alto sits at the crossroads of two biodiversity hotspots, the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena and the Tropical Andes.

"It isn't fair," she told The Tyee, "that a foreign company can come here and contract people who attack us for defending our rights, for wanting to live in a healthy environment, for defending our land and our water." She added, "We'd like the stock exchange to listen to us and to understand that we've been very hurt by one of their companies."

Now 25 years old, the fight against large scale copper mining has marked daily life for the diplomatic and dedicated leader since she was about 12.
Broad-based opposition to large scale copper mining arose when a Japanese company was initially carrying out mineral exploration a short distance away. When the company released its Environmental Impact Assessment report for the proposed mine, the news that four communities would be displaced, as well as massive deforestation, local desertification, river contamination and harm to endangered species sparked vociferous opposition that persists.

Since Copper Mesa, who has a strategic alliance with the giant Rio Tinto, took over the project in 2004, new issues have emerged with apparent attempts to break the opposition. Now land trafficking, threats of violence, as well as relatively high-paying job offers have been driving a wedge between neighbours and families in these rural communities.

"But," commented Ramírez, "what most hurt is when they came... with armed men and sprayed us with gas."

In early December 2006, over 50 heavily armed security guards, mostly ex-soldiers, were hired to reach company concessions and set up camp. Local residents had been tipped off and gathered along the narrow dirt road that the company-hired trucks would have to pass. When they arrived, Ramírez and others tried to urge the armed men to turn around. But instead, the security agents sprayed tear gas into their faces from only a metre away and fired their weapons into the air, injuring one man, also a plaintiff in the case.

When the residents didn't back down, the guards finally retreated.

The incident was caught on film by a European student researching the controversy and is retold as part of the recent film Under Rich Earth by director Malcolm Rogge that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It has also been denounced in a complaint to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.

Prior warning

Canadian authorities were warned that such an incident could arise.

On March 8th, 2005, three months before Copper Mesa (then Ascendant Copper) was listed on the TSX, County Mayor Auki Tituaña wrote to the Finance and Audit Committee of the Toronto Stock Exchange: "We consider it to be appropriate and fair that before accepting open "trade" of Ascendant Copper Corporation's stocks in the Stock Market, you evaluate in depth the "new" company's merits..."

Included in his list of 14 concerns were lack of prior community consultation, lack of legally required municipal approval, violation of a municipal ordinance that declares the area an "Ecological County," as well as attempts to foster divisions as a "means to achieve company profits against the citizen's will and at a cost of the loss of unique biodiversity in our territory."

Then in May, Carlos Zorrilla, executive director of the Ecological Defense and Conservation of Intag (DECOIN), travelled to Ottawa to present a complaint to the Department of Foreign Affairs claiming that Copper Mesa had violated the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Mining Watch and Friends of the Earth Canada supported the claim.

"I'm here," he says in a press release, "because Canadians need to understand the real risk of violence that is emerging as a result of this company's activities." He added, "The Canadian government must take action to curb the excesses of Canadian mining companies operating and exploring overseas."

The complaint was withdrawn after eight months when it was apparent that the appropriate authorities would not apply the relevant procedures. The legal summary notes that "the TSX stock market listing of Copper Mesa has allowed the company to obtain over $25 million in capital funds -- some of which paid for the armed attackers" in December 2006.

Carolyn Quick, director of corporate communications for the TMX Group, told The Tyee her firm considers the case to be "entirely without merit" and that they will "vigorously defend this position." She would give no further comment about the letter from Mayor Tituaña nor the complaint made to DFAIT. No one from Copper Mesa was available to speak with The Tyee.

Globalization of legal accountability

Another challenge in holding companies to account in Canada, where the bulk of the world's mining companies are based, are complicated corporate structures that criss-cross continents.

"By dispersing their actions across borders and saying that 'Well, we didn't do that in Canada or Ecuador, that decision was made in the U.S.,' they can evade accountability. The courts can respond and say 'Take this case somewhere else,'" says Klippenstein.

Copper Mesa whose headquarters in Colorado, "has connections to some nine different legal jurisdictions, making it difficult to identify which jurisdiction is the proper one in which to hold the corporation accountable," says the legal summary of the case.

The former website of Copper Mesa (then Ascendant Copper) acknowledged that its corporate structure makes suing directors difficult: "All of the directors of Ascendant and substantially all of their assets and those of Ascendant are located outside of Canada. It may not be possible for purchasers of securities being qualified for distribution under this prospectus to effect service of process within Canada upon directors who reside outside of Canada..."

It is for this reason that the lawsuit focuses on decisions allegedly made in Ontario.

'Establish clear legal norms in Canada'

However, one possible advantage for rural residents of Intag preparing for a lengthy legal battle on tricky Canadian territory is that they are not alone in their concern.

Their broader goals for legal regulations of Canadian mining companies echo what the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and other civil society groups have already been saying.

While Carlos Zorrilla was in Ottawa in 2005, the SCFAIT was writing its 14th report, which recommended that the government "Establish clear legal norms in Canada to ensure that Canadian companies and residents are held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies."

The government responded saying that it "will continue to examine the best practices of other states attempting to address the accountability of businesses for activities conducted abroad." But it has yet to implement mandatory rules.

Still Klippenstein is hopeful in the face of tough odds. "One has to trust in the promise of a certain amount of fairness and independence that the justice system can provide. It has been shown that powerful people can be brought to kneel this way before."

It took eight years of legal proceedings before a public inquiry was called in the Dudley George case. They never even made it to court, but a long list of recommendations was implemented.

Ramírez is also optimistic that they have a chance at justice through Canadian courts as part of their fight to leave Intag's cloud forests intact.

She points out the variety of sustainable development projects that they have been working on as alternatives to large scale mining, including community owned watersheds, a mixed mini-hydroelectric company, as well as agricultural and tourism initiatives. She urges Canadians to see the benefits: "We want future generations to have what we have."
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Native Rights News is making this material from The Tyee available in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine codified at Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107: This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.

International Pressure Mounts on Canada to Do More about Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples

ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS

Canada's Record on Indigenous Rights Questioned at UN Human Rights Council

OTTAWA, Feb. 4 /CNW Telbec/ - The international community has sent a strong message that the Government of Canada must do more to uphold the human rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Canada's human rights record was reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, February 3 as part of the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.

Of the 45 states that spoke during the three -hour session, 30 raised concerns about the rights of Indigenous peoples. Some of the strongest recommendations came from states that have traditionally allied with Canada in the promotion of human rights.

The United Kingdom, for example, recommended that Canada give its "highest priority" to addressing "fundamental inequalities" between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people including through "resolution of land claims and reconciliation of governance and self-government."

The governments of Norway and Denmark called on Canada to reconsider its opposition to the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Norwegian representative said, "We believe the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is unique as a universal framework for improving implementation of existing rights of Indigenous peoples in all countries of the world."

The government of Norway also called for "comprehensive reporting and statistical analysis of the scale and character of violence against Indigenous women so that a national strategy can be initiated in consultation with Indigenous representatives to respond to the severity of this issue."

Switzerland expressed concern over the lengthy process for resolving Indigenous land disputes and the concessions demanded by the government as a condition for settling claims. Switzerland urged Canada to "redouble its efforts" to resolve land disputes and to improve the mechanisms for doing so.

Canada was also questioned about the rights of Indigenous peoples by states with close economic ties. The government of the Philippines asked, "Is there specific legislation which covers mining activities in lands claimed by Indigenous communities? What mechanisms are in place to resolve possible disputes between private corporations, local and federal government and Indigenous communities in this regard?"

Twenty-three states did not have a chance to speak because of time constraints. They have submitted questions and recommendations in writing. For example, Zambia recommended Canada "take steps to review its position on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, consistent with the principal of international cooperation and the protection of the international human rights system as a whole."

Canada failed to consult with Indigenous peoples' organizations and domestic human rights groups before submitting its report to the Human Rights Council. Such consultation is recommended by the UPR process. Unfortunately, the failure to hold consultations was not made clear in Canada's report or in yesterday's session, which led some states to congratulate Canada on its consultations.

"The government is working with Aboriginal communities to agree on priorities," John Sims, the Deputy Minister of Justice, told the UN Human Rights Council. "The challenges are enormous. The scale of issues to confront is vast and many of the issues are technically very complex but we're moving ahead on many fronts: education, entrepreneurship, economic development, land claims, safe drinking water and so on."

Indigenous peoples' organizations and human rights groups are calling on Canada to take the recommendations of the UPR seriously and to engage constructively with Indigenous peoples and civil society to ensure their implementation.

The report of the Council's UPR Working Group will be released on Thursday, February 5. The Government of Canada will have until June to respond.

Video recordings of the session and related documents can be found online at: http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=090203

For further information: Assembly of First Nations: Don Kelly, Communications, (613) 241-6789 ext 334, dkelly@afn.ca; Gina Cosentino, Government Relations + International Affairs, National Chief's Office, (613) 241-6789 ext 356, gcosentino@afn.ca; Amnesty International Canada: Beth Berton-Hunter, Media Officer, Amnesty International Canada, (416) 363-9933, ext 32, Cell: (416) 904-7158; Canadian Friends Service Committee: Jennifer Preston, (416) 920-5213; Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami: Stephen Hendrie, Director of Communications, Cell: (613) 277-3178, hendrie@itk.ca; Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada): Corinne Gray, (613) 563-2642; KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice: Ed Bianchi, Indigenous Rights Program Coordinator, (613) 235-9956; Native Women's Association of Canada: Celeste McKay, cell: (613) 858-7070; Quebec Native Women: Ellen Gabriel, (450) 632-0088 ext. 228
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© 2009 CNW Group Ltd.

Native Rights News is making this material from Assembly of First Nations available as the result of a general press release. This article is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information. Distribution of this material is for research and educational purposes that will promote social and economic justice and benefit society.

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Posted By Alliance for Indigenous Rights to Native Rights News at 2/05/2009 02:31:00 PM