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Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination : United States of America
Date:
August 14, 2001
Organization:
CERD
Document Type:
Observations
Link: HTML
In the CERD Committee’s USA Concluding observations, the Committee notes “the persistence of the discriminatory effects of the legacy of destructive policies with regard to Native Americans” (paragraph 384). In paragraph 400, the Committee raises concern about Congress’ unilateral power to abrogate treaties entered into with Indian nations and that the land they use or posses can be taken without compensation and plans for expanding mining and nuclear waste storage on Western Shoshone ancestral land. The Committee recommends that the U.S. “ensure effective participation by indigenous communities in decisions affecting them” and use General Recommendation XXIII and ILO Convention No. 169 as guidance.
International Indian Treaty Council’s Response to the U.S.A’s first periodic report, dated September 30, 2000, to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Date:
Organization:
International Indian Treaty Council
Document Type:
Response
Link: HTML
In this written response, the IITC asks that the CERD Committee examine the United States with regard to Indigenous Peoples pursuant to General Recommendation XXIII and with particular with regard to: 1) the case of the Western Shoshone, and the refusal of the United States to comply with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Precautionary Measures in the Dann case; 2) the factual basis on which the US could return traditional Western Shoshone lands or any parts thereof to the Western Shoshone Nation; 3) the factual basis on which the US could return of the Sacred Black Hills, or parts thereof, particularly Sacred Sites, to the Lakota (Sioux) Nation; 4) the denial, despoliation, desecration and destruction of Indigenous Sacred Sites committed or permitted under law by the United States government; 5) the disparagement and denial of traditional ceremony and religious practice to Indigenous inmates in many states of the United States, as well as its own federal penitentiaries; 6) the system of “recognition” of Indigenous Peoples, and its inherent discrimination against those Indigenous persons not fortunate enough to be “recognized;” and 7) the failure of the United States to gather and report data relevant to the condition of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous Peoples in the United States, particularly those rights and freedoms that are diminished or annulled by official acts of racial discrimination.
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