PLEASE SUPPORT THE DINEH PEOPLE BY SIGNING-ON TO THIS SAMPLE LETTER
ORGANIZATIONAL LETTERHEAD
DATE
Ms. Elsa Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Representative for the High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for: Ms. Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, UN Comission on Human Rights
Room 2914, Secretariat, UN Headquarters
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 963-5930
Fax: (212) 963-4097
Dear Ms. Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Ms. Mary Robinson and Mr. Abdelfattah Amor,
We wish to join with other members of the international community in
support of the United Nations (UN) investigation of human rights violations
perpetuated against the Dineh people by the US government. We urge you to
preservere to ensure examination of the full scope and magnitude of the
crisis facing the Dineh and all Indigenous peoplesí in the US. Currently,
mechanisms within the UN where Indigenous peoples can turn for redress for
violations of their rights barely exists. We believe that the UN system
must urgently addresses this before it is too late.
The last frontier lands in the US containing metallic and non-metallic
resources, are found on Indigenous peoples' territories. Indigenous
peoplesí have been fighting for more than 500 years to preserve the earth's
wealth for the generations to come. However, what was preserved, at the
cost of many lives, is now being ravaged by unscrupulous multinational
corporations, whose rights are given protection over and above that of
Indigenous peoplesí.
The non-recognition of the rights of the Dineh and all Indigenous peoples
by the US, such as their rights to their ancestral territories and the
resources found therein is responsible for destruction of their cemeteries,
sacred sites, cultural property, livelihood, and self-determination. The
distinct identity of the Dineh and all Indigenous clan, tribe, or nation,
is crucially linked to the lands they have occupied since time immemorial.
Displacement from such territories means the destruction of their identity,
cultures, and lifeways - ethnocide.
In the case of the Dineh people, we see the adverse effects of US
governmental policies and a multinational, British-owned Peabody Coal
Companyís mining operations. They are responsible for destroying the
survival options of the Dineh people, and for glaring human rights
violations. We condemn US governmental policy that has used over $350
million US taxpayer dollars to fund the relocation of over 12,000
traditional Dineh people from their land and has allowed their homes,
cemeteries and sacred sites to be destroyed by industrial activities.
A few thousand Dineh still remain in the region, resisting all efforts by
the US government to starve them and freeze them off their land. For over
3 decades, the Dineh have been denied all services, including electricity,
access to water and the right to fix their homes; even in cases of
demonstrated medical need. Their livestock upon which they are dependent
for their survival is confiscated at the governmentís discretion.
We believe that the UN should cite the US for human rights violations
against the Dineh and all Indigenous peoplesí and pressure the US to
recognize and respect their human and religious rights; including their
right to their ancestral lands. The preservation of the Dineh land-base is
essential to the existence and perpetuation of their tribal society and
culture. The land, which they regard as their home for generations and
generations to come, and which is sacred to them, must be disposed to the
Dineh people in order to protect it from the economic interests held by the
US government and the tribal councils they created.
December 10, 1997, Human Rights Day marked the beginning of a year-long
ìjubileeî celebration, the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights during the UN Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. We
call for a UN Decade for Human Rights and believe this is necessary in
order to ensure the reality of human rights for everyone.
Sincerely yours,
NAME
ORGANIZATION
ADDRESS
cc: SDN NY Support Group 231 Frost Street #2L, Brooklyn, NY 11211
E-mail: sdnation@earthlink.net
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PETITION CAMPAIGN
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
CALL FOR HELP
To: Ms. Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr.
Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, UN
Commission of Human Rights
We the undersigned, support the call for help of the Dineh (Navajo) people
facing forced eviction in northeastern Arizona. We support the United
Nations investigation of human rights violations perpetuated against the
Dineh people by the US government.
US governmental policies and British-owned Peabody Coal Companyís mining
operations are destroying the survival options of the Dineh people,
resulting in glaring human rights violations. The US Government and
industry must recognize the Dineh peopleís human and religious rights,
including their right to their ancestral land and property rights. 1998
marks the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Forced evictions, displacement and US government starvation tactics against
the Dineh People must stop. The preservation of the Dineh, their land
base, sacred sites and subsistence livestock are essential to the existence
and perpetuation of their tribal society and culture. Over $350 million US
taxpayer dollars has been used to fund Relocation. We do not want our tax
dollars funding Relocation.
Signature Printed Name Address E-Mail or Phone
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Sovereign Dineh Nation (SDN), Roberta Blackgoat, Chairperson
P.O. Box 349 Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
PLEASE SEND COMPLETED PETITIONS TO:
SDN NY Support Group 231 Frost Street #2L, Brooklyn, NY 11211
E-mail: sdnation@earthlink.net
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BACKGROUND INFORMAITON
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Sovereign Dineh Nation NY Support Group
* Dineh - United Nations News*
June 1998
231 Frost Street #2L, Brooklyn, NY 11211 Telephone: (718) 349-1841
E-mail: sdnation@earthlink.net
____________________________________________________________________________
____________
The Dineh families in Black Mesa Arizona are reaching out to the
international community:
The Dineh (Navajo) families are reaching out in their struggle for
survival and protection of the earth. Their lives, their culture, and their
human rights are being sacrificed in order to provide short-term profits
for a non-sustainable industry that also threatens the regional and global
environment. Their land is estimated to contain 21 billion tons of coal
within 6 feet of the surface, and the US government is the legal holder of
land title to the reservations, holding the land in trust for the benefit
of the tribes and their members. Their relocation is funded by US taxpayer
dollars. Over 350 million has already been spent.
The Dineh case serves as a general model that demonstrates the
abuse suffered by Indigenous people living in communities that are directly
affected by mining operations. It was the intent of the Surface Mining
Coal Reclamation Act (SMCRA), that no government-sponsored coal mine could
evict people. However, in reality, Indigenous people are not afforded this
protection because they are treated as tenants at the will of their tribal
council governments, whose continuation is dependent upon coal mining
revenues. Such policies as they are presently applied allows tribal
councils to evict people and British-owned Peabody Coal Company to destroy
burial sites at a minutes notice if their presence impedes mining
operations. The granting of land title to the tribal councils rather than
to the homeowner denies the rights of people living in a mining permit area.
_________________________________________
Dineh Delegation travels to the UN
_________________________________________
A Dineh delegation traveled to New York for a week in late April,
1998, to participate in various United Nations (UN) and UN related events,
including the second session of the International Peoples Tribunal on Human
Rights and the
Environment (IPT); the Womenís Environment and Development (WEDO) workshop
on Industrial Hot Spots; the sixth session of the United Nations Commission
on Sustainable Development (UN CSD), and a forum on Indigenous Land Rights
at Hofstra University in Long Island, NY.
The Dineh case was one of 18 cases in a report jointly published by
WEDO and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs entitled ìWomen
Transform the Mainstreamî (UN Background Paper No. 30, DESA/DSD/1998/30,
98-10869). This document was distributed to the governments and NGOs at UN
CSD. Copies can be ordered for $5.00 each from WEDO, 355 Lexington Avenue,
Third Floor, NY, NY 10017-6603.
An article ìUN Rapporteur Visits Native Americansî appeared in the
February-April 1998 edition of ìGO BETWEENî, a magazine published by the
United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service-Servicing the UN system and
NGO community for 23 years.
_______________________________________
Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
_______________________________________
NGOs are the representatives of civil society, and are responsible for
a growing momentum dedicated to the defense of peoples human rights
worldwide. Many are advocating that urgent action be taken by every sector
of society, including the governments, to establish mechanisms and
instruments able to adjudicate human rights violations within UN jurisdiction.
NGOs are aware that human rights violations perpetuated by
multinational corporations are accelerating, caused by coal mining and
other unsustainable use of resources, particularly affecting water.
Human rights advocates and environmentalists need to work together in
order to protect the environmental health of the planet and the civil
rights of its inhabitants. It is acknowledged that all rights are
universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Womenís rights are
human rights. All peoplesí have a human right to a healthy environment, to
full and equal participation in environmental decision-making and
development planning at all levels, including the right to organize to
protect the environment, the right to have access to full and accurate
information about the environ-ment and to safe working conditions.
Environ-mental and human rights standards must be applied to the operations
of all multinational corporations, including those operating within the
borders of the US.
____________________________________________
NGOs support Dineh
____________________________________________
The Dineh have the support of numerous human rights organizations, the
European Parliament, the Flemish Parliament. the National Education
Association (NEA), etc.
A delegation of 15 NGOs traveled to Arizona to support the Dineh
meeting with the UN investigator in early February. These NGOs, many
accredited to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), included
representatives from the General Board of Church and Society of the United
Methodist Church, World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches,
the Decade Committee of the Worldís Indigenous Peoples, National Council of
Women, Peace Caucus, Human Rights Caucus, Values Caucus and others. Their
purpose to witness this historic meeting and uphold the mandate of Mr.
Amor. The Dineh case, reviewed by four Anthropologists, was submitted to
Mr. Amor and the High Commissioner for Human Rights along with a complete
set of both written and oral testimonies presented.
_________________________________________
The 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration
______________________________________
December 10, 1997, Human Rights Day marked the beginning of a
year-long ìjubileeî celebration, the 50th Anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, during the UN Decade of the World's Indigenous
Peoples. National and international law must be enacted that protects
Indigenous peoplesí land, property and water rights, as defined by
Indigenous peoplesí. Land, water, religious rights must be restored and the
title to their land returned.
The US government, holders of Indigenous land title, violated their
Trust responsibility to the Indigenous peoples, in order to gain access to
the mineral riches. And in order to ensure protection of land, property
and water rights, the land title must be returned to the individual members
of a tribe when the US government or the tribal government they created
violates the rights of their members, just as each US citizen is guaranteed
these rights without discrimination.
However, in order to achieve human rights for everyone we need to call
for a Decade of Human Rights in the same way that Indigenous people called
for a Decade of the Worldís Indigenous Peoples during the Year of the
Worldís Indigenous Peoples.
____________________________________________
UN Calendar
_________________________________________
In September 1998, Mr. Abdelfattah Amor will present his report on the
US to the General Assembly in September. A Dineh delegation hopes to
travel to NY to meet with Mr. Amor, faith-based and other NGOs to discuss
the report and what to do.
At the end of January 1999, the Commission on Social Development will
address older people as their theme. For the first two weeks in March,
1999, the Commission on the Status of Women will address health.
In March/April 1999, Mr. Amor will give his report on the US to the UN
Human Rights Commission, Geneva, Switzerland. A Dineh delegation hopes to
travel to Geneva to participate in the next session of the Commission on
Human Rights.
Please support the UN investigation by writing:
Ms. Elsa Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Representative for the High Commissioner
for Human Rights
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Room 2914, Secretariat, UN Headquarters
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 963-5930 Fax: (212) 963-4097
Please note that a copy should be sent to:
Ms. Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights and
Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance,
UN Commission on Human Rights
====================================
From: sdnation@earthlink.net
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 12:49:31 -0700 (PDT)
X-Sender: sdnation@earthlink.net (Unverified)
X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (16)
To: redorman@theofficenet.com
Subject: Part II-Dineh in the UN and NGO News-excerpts
_____________________________________
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Dineh in the News
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____________________________________
GO BETWEEN
United Nations Non-Governmental
Liaison Service
Servicing the UN system and NGO community
for 23 years
February-April, 1998 page 10
_________________________________________
UN NEWS
UN RAPPORTEUR VISITS NATIVE AMERICANS
The Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, Abdelfattah Amor (Tunsia), traveled to the US
state of Arizona on 2 February to meet with Dineh (Navajo) Nation elders.
The purpose of the visit, requested by the International Indian Treaty
Council, was to investigate possible US government violations of the rights
of Indigenous peoples to practice and express their religion and religious
beliefs. The meeting which received strong support from numerous European
human rights groups, was witnessed by an inter-faith coalition of NGOs,
including the World Council of Churches, United Methodist Church and the
National Council of Churches.
The special rapporteurís mandate is to investigate clear examples of
international religious discrimination or persecution by governments in all
parts of the world, pursuant to the provisions of the Declaration on the
Elimination of All Forms of In tolerance Based on Religion or Belief.
Native American representatives discussed a range of subjects with Mr.
Amor, including what they described as the prohibition or restrictions on
Native American religious expression in United States federal and state
prisons, as well as international destruction of sacred sites in the US on
Native American reservations.
The Dineh elders who spoke with Mr. Amor are among a group of
ìtraditionalsî resisting relocation from land awarded to the Hopi Nation by
the US government after a two-decade-long legal dispute. In 1997 the Dineh
filed a complaint with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights,
charging the US government with human rights violations relating to their
forced relocation. Among other things, they argued that relocation would
violate their right to free religious expression, since many of the sites
sacred to them are on land that is being destroyed by strip mining carried
out by British-owned Peabody Coal Company.
During his visit, Mr. Amor also met with some 150 other Native
American representatives across the United States including representatives
of the Apache, Havasupai, Yaqui and Tohono OíOodham Nations, about the
spirituality of indigenous peoples. He will present a report on the
results of his findings for submission to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
_____________________________________
OUTREACH 1998
Reporting for the CSD/NGO Steering Committee
_________________________________________
The Newsletter of the NGO Community at the U.N. Commission on Sustainable
Development
Wednesday, April 29, 1998 Page 8
The Reality of Freshwater
by Amy Lister
On Monday, April 27th, the Womenís Environment and Development
Organization (WEDO) and the DSD/DESA presented a panel of women who came to
the CSD 6 to speak about the freshwater crisis.
The Dineh people of Black Mesa, Arizona, are being starved off their
land by governments in deference to coal deposits that are being accessed
and used without consent, to create electricity (for the people of
California, not the Dineh people). The only suggested site for relocation
is the site of the second greatest nuclear disaster next to Chernobyl.
In 1996, Congress passed a new law that sanctions the mandatory relocation
of most of the Dineh families currently living on the land and forces the
few families who sign leases to this land to live without the benefit of
civil and religious rights enjoyed by other Americans.
The panelís objective was to raise awareness about the urgency of
freshwater issue by coming to the CSD conference and telling their stories
in person. It is by introducing the human element to the discussion of
these crucial issues that change will be made possible. This forum was a
glimpse of preventable devastation that is causing the environmental and
human suffering which is far beyond these womenís stories. They have
compiled a document entitled ìWomen Transform the Mainstreamî. These women
deserve our attention. Our commitment to including a gender perspective in
assessment processes, policy-making, industrial, political and military
practices is vital to ensuring the future livelihood of the environment and
all people of the world.
_________________________________________
OUTREACH 1998
Reporting for the CSD/NGO Steering Committee
_________________________________________
The Newsletter of the NGO Community at the U.N. Commission on Sustainable
Development
Monday, April 27, 1998 Page 7
Great Grandmother from Dineh Nation to Testify at
International Peoplesí Tribunal on Human Rights and the Environment
by Claire Greensfelder
ìThe reason I am here, in New York City, is that my homeland has many
problemsî said Glenna Begay in a quiet, gentle voice that belied the strain
of the many years of local struggle over Indigenous land rights for her
people near Big Mountain, Arizona. The mother of 9, grandmother of 32, and
great grandmother of one continued: ìFor 24 hours a day, I feel the victim
of mind games being played out by other forces. It is not really the land
struggle, since the Hopis and Navajos (Dineh) have lived together
peacefully for many years. The fundamental issue here is materialism. The
corporations want access to resources and together with the Federal
government they are creating a lot of tension among people.î
Glenna Begay lives in an area that could almost be described as a war
zone. With her home on a small strip situated between the boundaries of
the Peabody Coal Mine and lands partitioned in the Hopi-Navajo Partition
agreement, everybody seems to want her to move. And move from her
traditional home is the one thing that Glenna Begay says she will not do.
ìI want this land struggle to come to an end, and I want to live in peace
and quiet. I did not sign the accommodation agreement with the Federal
government. I love my homeland and I will not sign it.î
ìThe hope I have is from my heart,î says Glenna Begay about the
Tribunal she will speak at today. ìI will explain to people that we are
tied to the land and cannot be torn from it.î She continued, ìThis is
where we make the offerings to our gods and we cannot be taken away from
these sites. All the other elder women in my homeland feel the same way.
I am representing them here, and we are pleading for outside intervention
from the international community. That is why I have come.î
_________________________________________
Statement released at the second session of the
International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and the Environment
Church Center for the United Nations
_____________________________________
The International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and the Environment
seeks to provide a forum for communities and peoples who have no other
forum or have been unable to obtain justice in the fora that they
approached. ìAs presented to us, the cases depict: The refusal to respect
the sovereignty and humanity of the First Peoples (in Canada, Mexico and
the U.S.), it is claimed, is the prelude to ethnocide, the pillage of their
lands and resources and the destruction of environment essential for
cultural survival.
The cases involving Indigenous peoples also raise other complex issues
relating to self-determination, and preservation of cultural identity,
jurisdiction of national courts and representation within the United
Nations system.
Serious incidents of genocide were presented to the Tribunal, in
several countries in the cases before us, as well as reports in the
international press and to the UN. Even more to the point for this
Tribunal on Human Rights and the Environment was especially moving
testimonies on ecogenocide -- the destruction of ecological systems on
which Indigenous peoples depend for their livelihoods and indeed their very
survival. Genocide in any form is a gross violation of international human
rights and a crime against humanity.
The Tribunal condemns all acts and practices of genocide, anywhere in
the world and calls for an immediate cessation thereof. The Tribunal
recognizes the invaluable contributions of civil society worldwide in
exposing such genocidal
practices as well as in the prevention of and protection from such
practices and urges the United Nations system to renew its own efforts to
those ends as well. The Tribunal reiterates its call for global solidarity
to ensure a rule of law premised on respect for justice, human rights, the
environment and for humane governance.î The final Statement of the second
session will present findings in the Dineh and the other cases, and will be
released in December, 1998.
_________________________________________
Christian Social Action magazine
ìStanding Together with the Dinehî
ìIf somebody destroys, desecrates, contaminates our land, they are hurting
our beliefs; this is our way of lifeî
by Lee Ranck, editor,
Christian Social Action magazine
United Methodist Church
February 1998
_________________________________________
ìWeíre struggling to help Christians support indigenous people all
over the world, so our struggle is to support you,î the Rev. Dr. Thom White
Wolf Fassett told close to 200 Dineh (Navajo) in Black Mesa, Arizona,
during a February 2 meeting there. ìWeíll continue to fight for your
justice concerns, and we will leave here taking back your testimony to the
US government, the United Nations and elsewhere to change the policies that
have hurt the Dineh.î
ìFassett, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of
Church and Society (GBCS) and a Native American, a member of the Seneca
Nation (Six Nations Iroquois), led an interfaith Non-governmental
Organization (NGO) delegation to the Black Mesa home of Glenna Begay, an
elder in the matriarchal Sovereign Dineh Nation. The NGO representatives
were invited by the traditional Dineh to witness the Feb. 3 on-site visit
of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Mr.
Abdelfattah Amor.î
ìThe NGOs were in Black Mesa to witness the historic meeting between
Mr. Amor and the Dineh,î Liberato Bautista, assistant general secretary of
the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) explained:
ìThey were there as a delegation with one purpose - to stand together with
the Dineh in their struggle and to affirm the importance of the mandate of
the special rapporteur.î
The United Methodist Social Principles provides the foundation for
involvement of the denominationís agencies, and, in fact, of all United
Methodists, in efforts to identify and oppose religious intolerance. That
documentís section on ìRights of Religious Minoritiesî states: îWe urge
policies and practices that ensure the right of every religious group to
exercise its faith free from legal, political, or economic restrictions.
We condemn all overt and covert forms of religious intolerance, being
especially sensitive to their expression in media stereotyping. We assert
the right of all religions and their adherents to freedom from legal,
economic, and social discrimination.î
(Cover photo, editorial and 8 page article with photos)
____________________________________________
Sierra Club magazine
Colorado Plateau - Dirty Dodging
July, August 1998, Pg. 63
_________________________________________
In a truly masterful act of avoidance, the Mohave power plant on the
Nevada-Arizona border has managed to buck the Clean Air Act for two
decades. Operating without adequate pollution controls, Mohave has dumped
approximately one million tons of sulfur dioxide and one-quarter of a
million tons of particulates into the atmosphere.
In addition to endangering public health, the pollution has impaired
visibility over the Grand Canyon. The cost of installing smoke-stack
scrubbers, claims Southern California Edison, the plantís primary owner,
would shut the plant down, cutting off jobs and income to the nearby Hopi
and Navajo people.
Activists say that other plants in the region have managed to follow
the law, however,. With the plant in the black last year by nearly $1
billion, and an $8 billion deregulation windfall on the way, the plant
owners are just blowing smoke, contends the Grand Canyon Chapter. The
chapter, with the Grand Canyon Land Trust, is suing to force the utility to
come clean.
.
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