Tuesday, April 24, 2012
James Anaya (photo: Fernando Vergara, AP)
For the first time in its history, the United Nations is scrutinizing the plight of Native Americans in the United States.
UN Special Rapporteur James Anaya, a human rights professor at the University of Arizona’s College of Law, will spend the next two weeks visiting reservations across the country. Anaya will then file a report on Native Americans’ living conditions with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UN decided it was time to conduct such a review, given the problems of unemployment, alcoholism, suicide rates, incest and other social problems on tribal lands.
Anaya has worked for the United Nations since 2008. Since then he has focused on indigenous peoples in Central and South America.
During his U.S. visit, Anaya will spend time in Washington DC, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in September 2007.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
UN To Investigate Plight of US Native Americans for First Time (by Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian)
First Mission to the USA by the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights)
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