And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
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Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 21:01:42 EDT
Subject: Update on UN Activity
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Update on Dineh UN Activity
prepared by Marsha Monestersky, Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation
The Dineh families residing on what is now called "Hopi Partitioned Lands" in
the State of Arizona, have been participating in various United Nations fora.
The purpose, to obtain their intervention to stop the United Sates
Government from continuing its program under which their human dignity and
very survival are at peril.
The Dineh have been told that the actions of the government are mandated by
US law so that they have no recourse within US law to stop these attacks.
With each day, more confiscations and threats take place, and each such
incident causes irreparable harm to the human rights of its victims and to
their communities.
Helena Begay from Cactus Valley Community in Black Mesa has just returned
from Geneva Switzerland where she participated in the UN Working Group on
Indigenous Peoples from July 26-30. Some of the text of an intervention she
presented to the Working Group was posted recently to the Big Mountain list.
As you may know, a Dineh Land Rights Communication was submitted last
February to the Working Group at the invitation of Madam Erica Irene Daes,
Chair of the Working Group and is a part of a UN Land Rights Study. Funding
for this trip was provided by the World Council of Churches Program to Combat
Racism.
Upon Helena's return she was asked to travel again to the United Nations,
this time to New York to participate in the International Day of the World’s
Indigenous Peoples. This is an official UN International Day. Her airplane
ticket to New York was provided by the General Board of Church and Society of
The United Methodist Church. While there she will participate in the
activities of the Day and will report on the activities of the Working Group
on August 9-10, 1999.
Helena's presence in Geneva followed the participation of a delegation of 7,
including Norris Nez, a Medicine Man from Sand Springs Community that
participated in the 55th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights. Two interventions made by Leonard Benally from Big Mountain
Community and Peggy Scott from Star Mountain Community dealt with the
activities of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs and issues of Religious
Intolerance. Both interventions and a United Methodist Church News Release
were translated into French, German, Russian and Spanish and are available on
our web sites and on the United Methodist Church web site. From there a
delegation of 3 traveled throughout Germany meeting with members of the
German Parliament, NGOs and support people.
The Dineh people hope that by participating in processes within the United
Nations and the international arena they can change the dynamics of
negotiation at a national level. They believe that this involves the
initiation of a mobilization of shame as the strongest sanction for the
enforcement of their human rights. The fora they are involved in includes
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Working Group on
Indigenous Populations where the Dineh hope to achieve the glare of
international scrutiny on their issue in order to generate international
solidarity around their human rights in the United Nations and in the Non
Governmental Organization (NGO) community.
As a result of organizing and lobbying efforts by the Dineh and other NGOs,
Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious
Intolerance made a site visit in February 1998 to Black Mesa. He presented
his report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva last
April. A key finding of his Report "On the subject of Black Mesa, the
Special Rapporteur calls for the observance of international law on freedom
of religion and its manifestations." In UN-speak, this statement is fairly
critical of the U.S., since he would not call for the observance of
international law it is wasn’t already being honored. This was the first time
a U.N. Human Rights organ officially and publicly took on investigation of a
specific case against the United States.
To help empower UN activity the Dineh have obtained the support of over 250
NGOs that have signed petitions and issued proclamations supporting their
right to their ancestral land above any consideration of settlement of a
national interest. This includes such NGOs as the General Board of Church and
Society of the United Methodist Church, the World Council of Churches, the
NGO Committee for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples,
FIAN International, KWIA, the Society of Threatened Peoples, etc.
The Dineh believe that the work of the United Nations aided by the active
involvement of the NGOs can be a substantial catalyst for media attention and
a powerful source of pressure, mostly through “quiet diplomacy” on U.S.
policy.
The Dineh are currently working on some procedures that will be submitted to
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, including a 1503 Procedure
which relies on a confidential dialogue with concerned governments with the
UN playing a mediational role. This complaint will relate to a consistent
pattern of violations affecting a large number of people over a protracted
period of time and will be submitted to the Centre for Human Rights, UN
Office at Geneva.
The focus of it will address the recent issuance of Exclusion Orders to Dineh
and non native supporters in advance of the February 1, 2000 deadline for
forced relocation, along with the continuing violation of the Dineh peoples
basic human rights, including their right to security, livelihood, and the
right to free exercise of religion.
The 1503 procedure is what Sovereign Dineh Nation filed in March 1997 that
led to Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, the Special Rapporteur on Religious
Intolerance's historic visit to Black Mesa AZ in February 1998. The 1503 and
other communications will only be admitted to the United Nations if there are
reasonable grounds for them to believe that there is a consistent pattern of
gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
Other procedures the Dineh will be filing in the future includes a
Communication to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in Vienna,
Austria, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), all of whom have
international legislation, treaties and conventions dealing with human
rights. Committees of experts within these organizations receive regular
reports from the governments of States Parties and have adopted procedures to
deal with complaints and disputes over the application and interpretation of
ratified conventions such as exists in the case of the Dineh.
The Dineh believe that the UN system can help with human rights enforcement
because it sets international human rights standards and promotes their
adoption. All remedies to the people under US law have been exhausted, and
the people are threatened with not only continuation of current abuses, but
the intensified abuse that will result when the US completes its "solution"
to the problem over the next year. The UN, the international and national
community represents a forum of last resort for the Dineh people.
The deadline of February 1, 2000, is only 6 months away. Please help us stop
this tragedy of ethnocide, which can still be averted in its final
expression. The news media of the world has focused long and intensely on
"ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo. It's time that the international community and
the American people see the "ethnic cleansing" that is happening within the
borders of the United States.
Please let us know if we can provide you with any additional information,
contact persons and phone numbers.
For further information please contact Sovereign Dineh Nation
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and visit our Web sites:
http://solcommunications.com and http://theofficenet/~redorman/welcome.html
Resource Extraction and the Genocide of the Navajo People
http://www.jps.net/jackieg/articles/may03-1999g.html
How the West Was Lost
http://www.jps.net/jackieg/articles/may03-1999g.html
A thorough history of the problem was written by Judith Nies and can be
read at:http://www.orionsociety.org/nies.html
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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