Members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C., on September 26, 2016. Photo by U.S. Department of the Interior
Amid controversy over the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Obama administration is asking tribes about infrastructure projects. But what will the process look like going forward? Dina Gilio-Whitaker, a member of the Colville Tribes, believes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples already provides a model for consultation:
The reason is that the US already has access to a set of standards that is capable of accomplishing more than this. It’s called the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Recall that it was this very administration that finally officially endorsed the Declaration, years after it was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Granted, it has been repeatedly pointed out that as a mere declaration, UNDRIP is aspirational only and not actual law, meaning that if violated, Native nations have no legal recourse in international courts. However, what UNDRIP does--something the US in theory supports--is provide strong language about “respecting” Indigenous rights. Article 32, section 2, says that “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources." In other words, by virtue of its adoption of UNDRIP, the US had already agreed to abide by the international standard of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) when its agency, the Army Corp of Engineers, issued the permit to the contractor, Energy Transfer Partners, for the Dakota Access Pipeline project. This process was clearly ignored.Read More:
Dina Gilio-Whitaker: What Will ‘Consultation’ Mean for Standing Rock? (Indian Country Today 9/29)
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