Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 2, 1 Pepeluali 2011 — U.S. supports U.N. indigenous rights declaration [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

U.S. supports U.N. indigenous rights declaration

By Lisa Asato n December, the United States became the last nation who opposed the declaration in 2007, to support the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, saying in a statement that the declaration "expresses the aspirations of indigenous peoples around the world" and of countries seeking to improve their relations with them.

"Most importantly," the U.S. statement continued, "it expresses aspirations of the United States, aspirations that this country seeks to achieve within the structure of the U.S. Constitution, laws and

international obligations, while also seeking, where appropriate, to improve our laws and policies."

The declaration is not legally binding nor a statement of intemational law but "has both moral and political force," said the statement, whieh is

posted on the U.S. State

Department web site. (See box.) Native Hawaiian

community leaders \ have been working I in support of the I declaration since the 1990s, including Keali'i Gora and Mililani Trask,

who heiped dratt the document. In July, the OHA Board of

Trustees voted unanimously to urge the U.S. to support the declaration. In its letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, OHA advocated,

"In the same way that OHA believes that the support of the Obama Administration on Native Hawaiian issues provides long-needed equity under federal law for all of its indigenous peoples, the support of the Administration on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples would show that the United States supports such equity beyond its borders to indigenous peoples in the world seeking the protection, preservation and advancement of their rights." The U.S. was the last holdout on the declaration. In September 2007, 143 countries ratified it, with four countries declining: Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United SEE DEGLARATI0N ON PAGE 22

Full texts online Read the detailed U.S. statement > www.state.gov/doc uments/organization/ 154782.pdf Read the announcement of support byAmbassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative tothe U.N. > usun.state.gov/briefing/ statements/2010/ 153009.htm Read the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of lndigenous Peoples > www.un.org/esa/socdev/ unpfii/en/d rip.html

G0VERNANCE

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To restore pono and ea, Native Hawaiians will achieve self-gover-nanee, after whieh the assets of OHAwillhe transferred to the new governing entity.

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Sen. Daniel Akakū

Esther Kiū'ōino

Lilikolū Kome'eleihiwo

DECLARATION

Continued from page 4 States. All four countries have since supported it. The declaration is "another avenue to improve the quality of life for our people," said Esther Kia'āina, OHA's Chief Advocate. Now that the U.S. has signed on, "it puts the world of nations on nohee that the United States will play its part in advancing the standards in the declaration and elevating the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide," she said. Although Kia'āina commended the United States for finally supporting the declaration, she believes the official U.S. position on the declaration was even more historical, including for Native Hawaiians. The U.S. position achieves three things, Kia'āina said: it marks the first time the U.S. is on record supporting what's known as collective - or group - rights of indigenous

peoples at the international level, whieh was a sticking point in the Bush administration's opposition of the declaration. Collective rights are different than individual rights, whieh are afforded to all individuals, she said, and the U.S. is acknowledging that these are additional rights that indigenous peoples are entitled to. Second, in recognizing self-deter-mination for indigenous peoples under international law, the U.S. position is supporting the concept that other nation-states should allow for some formof self-determination for its indigenous populations. For example, it could help those who are denied self-determination rights as native peoples in their respective countries and, domestically, lead to an improvement or enhancement of U.S. policy toward American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. Lastly, Kia'āina said, the U.S. position recognizes that Native Hawaiians are an indigenous people and that the administration supports

a process for Native Hawaiians to establish a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity through the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, whieh would establish a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Kia'āina, who has been working on the U.N. declaration since 1993 when she was a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, said because the declaration is international, it raises the visibility of the plight of Native Hawaiians - and opens the door for other countries to lend their support to self-determi-nation forNative Hawaiians. "Now that this is an international document, this has been shared with the world ... so it wouldn't be unheard of for a nation to show support for the rights of Native Hawaiians," she said. "We simply need to reach out and ask for their kōkua." University of Hawai'i Professor Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, who has taken students with her to the U.N. every

year for a decade, called the declaration "a pathway to peaee." "One of the greatest points of contention between all indigenous peoples and their colonizers is access to and control over ancestral lands," she said. "This is an issue that wars are fought over. The U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples sets out the agreement that all countries, including the U.S., have now agreed to . . . and so this process lessens the need to go to war to have the most fundamental human right, whieh is land to live upon to practice one's culture. Thus the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a template or a pathway to peaee." U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D, Hawai'i), who was instrumental in bringing a U.N. style meeting on the draft declaration to Honolulu in 1996, whieh attracted about 300 Native Hawaiians and federal officials from the State, Interior and Justice departments, said in a statement: "The Ohama administration's support of the U.N. declaration is

pono - it is just, and it is timely. Congress and the Ohama administration have made great strides for the well-being of our nation's indigenous peoples in the past eouple years, though there is mueh more to do. "Our nation has an obligation to improve the conditions of native communities, through quality education and heahh care, infrastructure improvements, selfgovernance rights and eeonomie self-sufficiency. I look forward to chairing the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs this year and eontinuing Congress's work to address the disparities experienced in native communities across the country." President Ohama, announcing America's support of the declaration Dec. 16 at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, said, "The aspirations it (the declaration) affirms - including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples - are ones we must always seek to fulfill." ■

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