OAS adopts Declaration on Indigenous Rights

“Today, after nearly 30 years, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” according to an article published Wednesday, June 15, by the Indian Law Resource Center.

For generations, indigenous peoples’ human rights, including their right of self-determination and their rights to their lands, territories, environment, natural resources, sustainable development, and cultural survival have been challenged globally. The American Declaration offers specific protection for indigenous peoples in North America, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

The OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas, including the United States, “and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere,” according to its website. According to the OAS announcement on its declaration of indigenous rights, it is “the first instrument in the history of the OAS to promote and protect the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.”

The OAS announcement lists key points of the declaration, which include:

Weekend Reading and Efforts to Resist the Dakota Access Pipeline

Below are brief synopses and links to articles. Pick the one(s) that speak to you:

• The Canadian commitment to fully embrace the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Returning to Harmony, an essay about residential schools, intergenerational trauma, and healing by Richard Wagamese (Ojibwe)
• A United Nations proposal to increase participation by indigenous governments — and some pushback
• An update on resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline