US Senate Committee Explores UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Policy

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

United Nations

WASHINGTON - At the Tribal Summit last December, President Obama informed tribal officials the United States became a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This hearing will explore the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as an international policy; the current ways existing domestic policy achieves the Declaration's goals; and additional domestic policy considerations to make the United States a world leader in indigenous rights and the implementation of the Declaration.

WHEN:     Thursday, June 9

TIME:     2:15 pm edt

WHERE:   Dirksen Room #628

Witnesses and Testimony:

James Anaya, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations, Tucson, Arizona

Ryan Red Corn, Filmmaker / Member, 1491s, Pawhuska, Oklahoma

Robert T. Coulter, Executive Director, Indian Law Resource Center, Helena, Montana

Frank Ettawageshik, Executive Director, United Tribes of Michigan, Harbor Springs, Michigan

Melanie Knight, Secretary of State, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Donald "Del" Laverdure, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Department of Interior, Washington DC

Lindsay G. Robertson, Professor of Law / Faculty Director of the American Indian Law and Policy Center / Judge Haskell A. Holloman Professor

The Honorable Fawn Sharp, President, Quinault Indian Nation, Taholah, Washington

Sam K. Viersen, Presidential Professor, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, Oklahoma

Duane Yazzie, Chairperson, Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, Window Rock, Arizona

posted June 8, 2011 4:43 pm et