Chief's Kingdom!!

Native American Proverb

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace, and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

     The other day I wrote about the United Nations, their documents, declarations, and the many articles within these documents that are often ignored, including the UN Charter, and also the articles within, including those that are not signed as law. We can think about the human rights of parents who were separated from their children at the U.S. / Mexico border, or those who have wounded up in the tents of Texas. Whilst these events have drawn advocacy groups, public attention, human rights groups, and law makers have remained hush, hush, allowing these crimes to continue over and over again, without any real outcome, solutions, or justice for the vulnerable groups. We could think of immigration policy, how laws are manipulated or the silence, as modern day colonialism. Colonial policy framed in the form of immigration laws, zero tolerance, or even embedded in the practices of national security, customs and border patrol.

     These thoughts can also be transferred to specific groups, or peoples that existed in American land before the arrival of the Europeans. Whilst Columbus thought he found a new world, really he did not. "In the age of imperialism and colonization it appears that conquerors chose the language of the 'new world' even though societies and cultures were long-standing and 'old' " (2012).

     As the conquerors discovered what they called the new world, the fact that the existence of these populations that existed within were already there, living, present, using resources, land for sustenance; was ignored because of the power that the conquerors possessed. However, whilst I wrote earlier that law/policy makers at the level of the Government can use law to manipulate in what we term as colonial policy, there are law makers, and researchers who use their knowledge to promote and argue for the rights of indigenous populations. For example: When President Trump says that America is a sovereign nation and wants to preserve that, or if Britain whats to have Brexit because it wants to preserve a sovereign nation; we can question what is sovereign, and can sovereignty really be preserved? In the case of America we can take this thought a step further and question if sovereignty can be preserved for a nation, was America sovereign historically? Can we claim sovereignty, and at the same time take this right away from others? 

    In the case of the indigenous people "Indigenous peoples rights constitute a sui generis category of rights that arise from a positive law system. They are 'pre-exisiting rights in the sense that they are not developed from the legal system of surrounding states but [they] arise sui generis from the condition of indigenous peoples as distinctive societies with the aspiration to survive as such'" (Gilbert, 2007).

     Indigenous people have rights and protection under international law, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) however, how these laws are interpreted affect the development and maintenance of indigenous peoples rights. We could even argue that even though the development of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples was a monumentous step, what is included and what is left out, such as definitions, or identifying what as an indigenous person, or land rights, again reveal the limitations of these documents. 

    While the document recognized the minimum rights of indigenous people under international law, they are non-legally binding. However, it is important to note that the fact that rights have been formed in declarations, are worthy of recognitions. These are important steps to inform law, and policy makers, and even leaders of important history, and bloody pasts that must be recognized to create relationships with diverse communities, and indigenous Americans in the form of respect and understanding. A shared future promises hope, mechanisms to achieve peace, free from war. The work of the United Nations (UN)  strives for worthy causes that must be manouevered, and pushed forth as documents can be relied upon for national and international progress, while there is also room for revisions with the inclusion of indigenous members.

"Overall the adoption of the UN Declaration will indicate as important departure from the bloody past where international law played an important role in the destruction of indigenous cultures, and from this perspective the Declaration is a promising step towards a future based on partnership and mutual respect" (2017). 

Senator Elizabeth Warren 
On October 15th 2013, Senator Elizabeth Warren released DNA test results that provide strong evidence that she has Native American Ancestry. When hearing this news, President Donald Trump replied with "who cares". His response is discriminatory and could also viewed as a violation of human rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Warren's claims as an American politician and academic are significant as they reveal the case for a shared ancestry between America and Indigenous America. While we can argue with President Trumps response here, there is a point of agreement with regards to immigration law, where there is a need for immigration reform, but reform that is non-discriminatory. 

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

References: 
Ferrero, A., Pettifor, J. L. (2012).  Ethical Dilemmas, Cultural Differences,
      and the Globalization of Psychology. In Leach, M., Lindsay, G., Korkut,
      Y., and Ferrero, A (Eds.), The Oxford      Handbook of International
      Psychological Ethics (pp. 28-41). New York, USA: Oxford University
      Press.

​Gilbert, J. (2007). Indigenous Rights in the Making: The United Nations
     Decleration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. International Journal
     on Minority and Group Rights. 14, 207-230. 

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand written on October 15th 2018. 
Image 1 - Web Link
Image 2 - Web Link