This section contains materials from Special Rapporteurs concerning U.S. indigenous issues.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Adverse Effects of the Illicit Movement and Dumping of Toxic and Dangerous Products and Wastes on the Enjoyment of Human Rights Mission to the United States of America
Date:
December 3-14, 2001
Organization:
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Toxics
Document Type: Report
Link:
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/857e2f721fbc3a8ec1256ccc00366e78?Opendocument
In the report of the Special Rapporteur on Toxics mission to the United States of America, the Rapporteur reports on claims of environmental racism and the particular vulnerability of indigenous peoples. She dedicates paragraph 62 to report on testimonies from indigenous peoples, villages and tribes representatives. In her conclusions and recommendations she invites the Special Rapporteur on Racial Discrimination and the Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People “to pay particular attention to the specific issues raised in this report related to their respective mandates” (paragraph 78).
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance on His Mission to the United States of America
Date:
1995
Organization:
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and All Forms of Discrimination
Document Type:
Report
Link: HTML
In the report of his the mission to the United States of America, the Special Rapporteur on Racial Discrimination highlights racial discrimination experienced by indigenous populations in addition to ethnic communities. In his historical section on racial discrimination he refers to the “trail of tears” and quotes Native scholar Vine Deloria. In the specific topic areas that he addresses, he singles out racial discrimination against indigenous populations when he investigates unemployment (paragraph 53), criminal sentencing (paragraph 59) and toxic waste dumps (paragraph 88). Although the Rapporteur was asked to address issues of self-determination for indigenous populations, he declined to address the subject matter in this mission. He did, however, emphasize that “the Indians with whom he spoke who represented the League of Indigenous Sovereign Nations of the Western Hemisphere believe that the failure to observe the treaties signed by the Government of the United States with their ancestors, treaties which guaranteed the sovereignty of the signatory Indian Nations, constitutes an act of discrimination” (paragraph 8).
Indigenous Rights Online Library
www.indigenousrightswatch.org