>From: DINETAH29@aol.com
>Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 20:53:37 EDT

>Update on Dineh UN Activity
>prepared by Marsha Monestersky, Consultant to Sovereign Dineh Nation
>
>The Dineh families residing on what is now called "Hopi Partitioned Lands"
in
>the State of Arizona, have been participating in various United Nations
fora.
> The purpose, to obtain their intervention to stop the United Sates
>Government from continuing its program under which their human dignity and
>very survival are at peril.
>
>The Dineh have been told that the actions of the government are mandated by
>US law so that they have no recourse within US law to stop these attacks.
>With each day, more confiscations and threats take place, and each such
>incident causes irreparable harm to the human rights of its victims and to
>their communities.
>
>Helena Begay from Cactus Valley Community in Black Mesa has just returned
>from Geneva Switzerland where she participated in the UN Working Group on
>Indigenous Peoples from July 26-30. Some of the text of an intervention
she
>presented to the Working Group was posted recently to the Big Mountain list.
>As you may know, a Dineh Land Rights Communication was submitted last
>February to the Working Group at the invitation of Madam Erica Irene Daes,
>Chair of the Working Group and is a part of a UN Land Rights Study. Funding
>for this trip was provided by the World Council of Churches Program to
Combat
>Racism.
>
>Upon Helena's return she was asked to travel again to the United Nations,
>this time to New York to participate in the International Day of the World’s
>Indigenous Peoples. This is an official UN International Day. Her airplane
>ticket to New York was provided by the General Board of Church and Society
of
>The United Methodist Church. While there she will participate in the
>activities of the Day and will report on the activities of the Working Group
>on August 9-10, 1999.
>
>Helena's presence in Geneva followed the participation of a delegation of 7,
>including Norris Nez, a Medicine Man from Sand Springs Community that
>participated in the 55th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human
>Rights. Two interventions made by Leonard Benally from Big Mountain
>Community and Peggy Scott from Star Mountain Community dealt with the
>activities of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs and issues of Religious
>Intolerance. Both interventions and a United Methodist Church News Release
>were translated into French, German, Russian and Spanish and are available
on
>our web sites and on the United Methodist Church web site. From there a
>delegation of 3 traveled throughout Germany meeting with members of the
>German Parliament, NGOs and support people.
>
>The Dineh people hope that by participating in processes within the United
>Nations and the international arena they can change the dynamics of
>negotiation at a national level. They believe that this involves the
>initiation of a mobilization of shame as the strongest sanction for the
>enforcement of their human rights. The fora they are involved in includes
>the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Working Group on
>Indigenous Populations where the Dineh hope to achieve the glare of
>international scrutiny on their issue in order to generate international
>solidarity around their human rights in the United Nations and in the Non
>Governmental Organization (NGO) community.
>
>As a result of organizing and lobbying efforts by the Dineh and other NGOs,
>Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious
>Intolerance made a site visit in February 1998 to Black Mesa. He presented
>his report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva last
>April. A key finding of his Report "On the subject of Black Mesa, the
>Special Rapporteur calls for the observance of international law on freedom
>of religion and its manifestations." In UN-speak, this statement is fairly
>critical of the U.S., since he would not call for the observance of
>international law it is wasn’t already being honored. This was the first
time
>a U.N. Human Rights organ officially and publicly took on investigation of a
>specific case against the United States.
>
>To help empower UN activity the Dineh have obtained the support of over 250
>NGOs that have signed petitions and issued proclamations supporting their
>right to their ancestral land above any consideration of settlement of a
>national interest. This includes such NGOs as the General Board of Church
and
>Society of the United Methodist Church, the World Council of Churches, the
>NGO Committee for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous
Peoples,
>FIAN International, KWIA, the Society of Threatened Peoples, etc.
>
>The Dineh believe that the work of the United Nations aided by the active
>involvement of the NGOs can be a substantial catalyst for media attention
and
>a powerful source of pressure, mostly through “quiet diplomacy” on U.S.
>policy.
>
>The Dineh are currently working on some procedures that will be submitted to
>the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, including a 1503 Procedure
>which relies on a confidential dialogue with concerned governments with the
>UN playing a mediational role. This complaint will relate to a consistent
>pattern of violations affecting a large number of people over a protracted
>period of time and will be submitted to the Centre for Human Rights, UN
>Office at Geneva.
>
>The focus of it will address the recent issuance of Exclusion Orders to
Dineh
>and non native supporters in advance of the February 1, 2000 deadline for
>forced relocation, along with the continuing violation of the Dineh peoples
>basic human rights, including their right to security, livelihood, and the
>right to free exercise of religion.
>
>The 1503 procedure is what Sovereign Dineh Nation filed in March 1997 that
>led to Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, the Special Rapporteur on Religious
>Intolerance's historic visit to Black Mesa AZ in February 1998. The 1503
and
>other communications will only be admitted to the United Nations if there
are
>reasonable grounds for them to believe that there is a consistent pattern of
>gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental
>freedoms.
>Committees of experts within these organizations and other organizations
>receive regular reports from the governments of States Parties and have
>adopted procedures to deal with complaints and disputes over the application
>and interpretation of ratified conventions such as exists in the case of the
>Dineh.
>
>The Dineh believe that the UN system can help with human rights enforcement
>because it sets international human rights standards and promotes their
>adoption. All remedies to the people under US law have been exhausted, and
>the people are threatened with not only continuation of current abuses, but
>the intensified abuse that will result when the US completes its "solution"
>to the problem over the next year. The UN, the international and national
>community represents a forum of last resort for the Dineh people.
>
>The deadline of February 1, 2000, is only 6 months away. Please help us stop
>this tragedy of ethnocide, which can still be averted in its final
>expression. The news media of the world has focused long and intensely on
>"ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo. It's time that the international community and
>the American people see the "ethnic cleansing" that is happening within the
>borders of the United States.
>
>Please let us know if we can provide you with any additional information,
>contact persons and phone numbers.
>
>For further information please contact Sovereign Dineh Nation
>E-mail: dinetah29@aol.com and visit our Web sites:
>http://solcommunications.com and http://theofficenet/~redorman/welcome.html
>
>Resource Extraction and the Genocide of the Navajo People
>http://www.jps.net/jackieg/articles/may03-1999g.html
>
>How the West Was Lost
>http://www.jps.net/jackieg/articles/may03-1999g.html
>
>A thorough history of the problem was written by Judith Nies and
can be
>read at:http://www.orionsociety.org/nies.html