>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 Worlds
>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 wasnt 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