UN: Too late to comment on US human rights abuses

Native Americans who were never informed, or ignored, will have to wait another four years to report US human rights abuses to UN in Periodic Report
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By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photo: Navajos remember the 1979 Church Rock NM uranium spill and legacy of death from uranium mining on Navajo Nation. Photo 2010: Garrett Brennan Stewart, Navajo.
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The United Nations Human Rights Council says it is too late to comment on the United States' human rights record, as presented in the US State Department's Periodic Review.

In a response today to Censored News, the UN says the deadline has passed. All of those Native American individuals and organizations, who were never informed, or who were ignored in the Listening Sessions in the final report, will have no chance to offer testimony on US human rights abuses.

This reveals that the process, undertaken by the US State Department, was a human rights abuse in itself.

The next report will be in four years.

Although the US State Department held "Listening Sessions," around the country, almost all of the Native American testimony was ignored in the final 29-page Universal Periodic Review Report to the UN.

The US State Department held a Listening Conference in Window Rock, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. However, in its final report, there is no mention of Navajos, Navajo deaths from uranium mining, respiratory diseases resulting from decades of coal mining and power plants on the Navajo Nation,or the relocation of 14,000 Navajos from their homes to make way for Peabody Coal mining on Black Mesa.

Some important statements were included in a separate human rights report. Those organizations connected with the US Human Rights Network were able to submit statements as members of the "civil society" in a 423-page report.

However, other Native people were either never informed, or ignored in the Listening Conferences. Indigenous Peoples at the southern and northern borders, struggling for their rights of passage, battling Border Patrol abuse, and the human rights abuses carried out by their own elected tribal governments, are among those who were left out of the process.

The US State Department's watered-down summaries of those Listening Conferences, which are posted online but not included in the final report, are a dismal effort that ignores key names and issues. These summaries expose the United States' lack of concern with the human rights of Native Americans in the US.
--Brenda Norrell, Censored News
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From: Secretariat of the Human Rights Council
UPRsubmissions@ohchr.org
Dear Mrs. Norrell,
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights wants to inform your office that the deadline for submissions of stakeholders in relation to countries scheduled to be reviewed at the 9th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group (November / 2010) has now passed. The Summary of stakeholders information has been finished and posted in our web page. Consequently, please note that we can not accept any other submission for the 9th session.
For information regarding the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, please kindly refer to http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/upr/index.htm
I would also ask you to check in the following web page the reports for the United States UPR: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/PAGES/USSession9.aspx
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To: Secretariat of the Human Rights Council
From: brenda norrell
07.09.2010 19:19 ToUPRsubmissions@ohchr.org, civilsocietyunit@ohchr.org, ccastaneda@ohchr.org
Subject Indigenous submissions for US Periodic Review
UPR submissions OHCHR Hello,
Indigenous individuals and organizations who have not had the opportunity
to comment on the US Human Rights record, would like to do so before
the November session.
Please let me know how they can submit their statements.
Also, please note that many of the comments at the Listening Conferences from
Native Americans were not included in the US State Department's Periodic Review.
Sincerely, Brenda Norrell
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Also see:
US State Department's watered-down 29-page Universal Periodic Review Report
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/146379.pdf

US Human Rights Network's 423 page full report:
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/ushr_Final_for_print.pdf

The US State Dept.'s pathetic summaries:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/upr/summaries/index.htm

Evo Morales in NY 'Nature is not for sale: the Rights of Mother Earth'

This article has been updated at Censored News:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

A Gathering to Support the Sovereignty of First Nations

By John Kane
http://letstalknativepride.blogspot.com
On Tuesday, September 14, 2010 starting at 5:00 PM there will be a gathering along the New York State Thruway where it passes through the Seneca Nation Territory of Cattaraugus. The gathering site can be accessed at the Big Indian Smoke Shop and Fuel Station on Mile Strip Road in Cattaraugus. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come and bring as many friends as possible. The gathering will be a family friendly event to support the People of the First Nations. Our non-native support is both appreciated and important. The gathering has the potential to not only show support for Native Sovereignty and Autonomy but to protest the over reaching of authority by the State and Federal governments into the lives of individuals. It is important that people realize that attempts to cause economic harm to Native economies are not just attacks based on race but on class. Big business and wealthy politicians are waging war against anyone they can marginalize; whether it is based on the color of our skin or the size of our wallets.
Join us to send a message to those that want to keep blaming us for their own incompetence. See some friends and make some new ones. Stand up and be recognized and find out who really will have your back when things get tough.

Birthday Message from Leonard Peltier

contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
September 6, 2010

By Leonard PeltierSisters, brothers, friends and supporters,
I wish I could sit across the table from each of you right now. We'd share a meal and reflect on changes in this world over these 35 or so years. Yes, I pay attention to things on the outside (as much as possible). I know the world is in turmoil and I ache for the Native people who languish in utter poverty on reservations and in inner cities across America.

As a young man, all I wanted to do was make a positive difference in the People's lives. I'll turn 66 years old next week and I still want that. It's difficult to have an impact in my current circumstances, though. That's a constant source of frustration for me. On the outside, given the chance to roll up my sleeves once again, I suspect I'd still be somewhat frustrated. All that must be done is more than any one person can accomplish. I'd still like the opportunity to do my part.

Thinking back to those days on Pine Ridge, what I remember is the funerals. There were so many funerals... So many families lost loved ones.

There was a powerful force at work on the reservation back then, one with a single purpose: to stamp out the last resistance of the Lakota people.

We (the Oglala traditionals and members of the American Indian Movement) stood up because we were trying to defend our People. It was the right thing to do. We had - have - the right to survive.

The land was being stolen, too - used for mining mostly. No thought was given to the disposal of toxic waste. The rivers were full of poisons. Not much has changed, I hear.

In those days, though, the reservation was torn apart by a tribal dispute and the federal government armed one group against another. The result was a long line of tragedies for the People of Pine Ridge - and for the People who were there that day in June 1975.

I honestly understand the pain and anguish suffered by all concerned and I have been part of that suffering.

I have watched people lie on the witness stand countless times and felt the doors closing on me.

I have heard judges admonish prosecutors for allowing false evidence in and, in some cases, for participating in the falsification itself.

The government hid evidence, too.

Or manufactured it. Literally.

The courts say none of this is even in dispute anymore. So I wonder, if the American standard of justice is still "beyond a reasonable doubt", why am I still here?

Some people have had their convictions overturned because of one constitutional violation. The number of constitutional violations in my case is staggering. Yet, I continue to wait here for the same justice to be applied for me.

I hope that someday someone can put it all on the table and show the enormity of the railroading I have been victimized by.

Last year, as you know, my parole was denied. That was a disappointment, but I am not defeated. My fight for freedom - for my People and myself - is not over. I am a pipe carrier and a Sundancer. Abandoning The Struggle is not - never will be - a consideration.

I am an Indian man and proud of it. I love my People and culture and spiritual beliefs. My enemies like to suggest otherwise and seek to rob me of all dignity. They won't succeed.

When I look back over all the years, I remember all the good people who have stood up for me, for a day or a decade. Of course, many have stayed with me all along the way. I think of the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have signed petitions for me, too ... people on the poorest of reservations to the highest of political offices.

As we have learned over these many years, my freedom won't come quickly or easily. To succeed, the coming battle will have to be hard fought. Please continue to help my Committee and legal team as you have always done. Your support is more important now than ever before. When freedom comes, it will be due in no small part to the actions you take on my behalf.

Again, thank you for remembering me. You can't know the comfort you bring to an innocent man locked away from the world for so very long.

Doksha,
Leonard Peltier
#89637-132
USP-Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
--Launched into cyberspace by the
Leonard Peltier Defence Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206
Fax: 701/235-5045
E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Visit http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/