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Standing Rock Sioux Chairman addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva
Published on Sep 20, 2016
David Archambault II, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, today to garner international opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the reservation.
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U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper, left, and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II. Photo from U.S. Mission in Geneva
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is bringing the #NoDAPL movement to the international stage.
Chairman Dave Archambault II met with U.S. Ambassador Keith Harper in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday to talk about his tribe's resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
"They discussed the efforts, including peaceful protests, to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and the related human rights and indigenous rights issues," the U.S. Mission in Geneva wrote on Facebook.
Archambault is also due to address the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday afternoon. Harper, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the inter-governmental body.
"Ambassador Harper welcomed the participation of the Standing Rock Sioux at the Human Rights Council?," the U.S. Mission in Geneva stated.
Leaders and members of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues have already come out in support of the #NoDAPL movement. They have called on the United States to recognize the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensure that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's concerns about the $3.8 billion pipeline are addressed.
"The pipeline would adversely affect not only the security and access to drinking water of the Sioux and millions of people living downstream of the Missouri River, but it would also destroy archaeological, historical and sacred sites of the Sioux," a statement from the Permanent Forum read.
The United Nations Human Rights Council consists of 47 governments that promote and protect human rights around the world. Harper is the first Native American to serve as ambassador to the body and is the first member of a federally-recognized tribe to serve as an ambassador for the U.S.
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals #NoDAPL Injunction:
Order: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (September 16, 2016)
http://www.indianz.com/News/2016/09/20/chairman-of-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-sp.asp
Excerpt:
“The Dakota Access Pipeline not only threatens the water supply that is fundamental to the Tribe’s existence, but it will also pass through and destroy burial sites and sacred places,” said Robert T. Coulter, executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center. “The Pipeline should never have been approved, and its construction clearly violates principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, first adopted in 2007 and endorsed by the United States in 2010, is a global statement of the rights of Indian and Alaska Native tribes, including rights of self-determination, self-government and autonomy, rights to lands and resources, the right to be free of violence and discrimination, and many other rights.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe stated in an August 18, 2016, appeal to the UN the pipeline violates their human rights and that it is another breach of their treaties with the United States.
[font size="4"color="navy"]“When I saw a video of the dog attacks on peaceful protestors a few weeks ago and the blatant disregard for human rights by law enforcement and the oil companies, I felt the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe should consider bringing this before the UN Human Rights Council,” said Coulter.[/font]
http://indianlaw.org/undrip/Standing-Rock-Sioux-Tribe-Takes-NODAPL-to-the-United-Nations
But back in this country.
The United States goes around and talks about sovereignty, justice, equality, honor.
Then, with a wink, wink, and nod, nod, conveniently forget(s) the treaties and the Acts they sign with the Indigenous people, this double standard, is just that a double standard, using the federal and state government(s) and its agencies as a shield.
If you can't walk the walk and talk the talk, you have no business or standing to represent what you go around and perceive to the world as a just and forthright country, just maybe you should look in your own back yard and clean up this mess first, you created it.
You are nothing more than someone or thing, that can be perceived as being a a liar from very first day one of the occupation of the water and the land, and the ancestral artifacts and burial grounds, its about principles, and always has been about principles.
http://earthjustice.org/
http://standingrock.org/
Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, waits to give his speech against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Sept. 20, 2016. DENIS BALIBOUSE / Reuters
The chairman spoke as part of a United Nations Human Rights Council hearing on indigenous rights that featured more than three dozen tribes from around the world concerned with infringement on their lands by corporations and governments.
In Geneva, Archambault and other tribe representatives met with two UN ambassadors — including Keith Harper, the U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council — and experts on indigenous rights.
Archambault also formally invited Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the U.N,'s Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to visit Standing Rock — a visit that would require approval from the Obama administration.
Archambault told NBC News that the trip to Geneva was facilitated by the Indian Law Resource Center, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization that has consultative status at the Council. He said the opportunity to address the world's leading human rights body was "a historic moment" for the tribe.
"There was solidarity," Archambault told NBC News. "To see tribes here from all over the world who are having the same experiences where large corporations are infringing on their land, on their rights — it was powerful to see that we aren't alone in our struggle."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/standing-rock-sioux-takes-pipeline-fight-un-human-rights-council-n651381
Last edited Thu Sep 22, 2016, 07:34 AM - Edit history (1)
[font color="firebrick"size="3"]Archambault formally invited United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz to visit the reservation, and “witness for yourself the urgent situation and threats we are facing so that you are able to make informed recommendations to the United States about how to resolve this situation in a way that respects our rights as Indigenous Peoples,”
“The world needs to know what is happening to the Indigenous Peoples of the United States,” Archambault said. “This pipeline violates our treaty rights and our human rights, and it violates the U.N.’s own Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I hope the U.N. will use its influence and international platform to protect the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.”[/font]
http://bestblacknews.com/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-takes-nodapl-fight-to-the-united-nations/
