Native American Law: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On December 16, 2010, former President Barack Obama announced "that the United States is lending its support" to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

• UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (@ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights))
  • Summarizes this Declaration:

    • "The Declaration is the most comprehensive instrument detailing the rights of indigenous peoples in international law and policy, containing minimum standards for the recognition, protection and promotion of these rights. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity, wellbeing and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. The Declaration addresses both individual and collective rights; cultural rights and identity; rights to education, health, employment, language, and others. It outlaws discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them. It also ensures their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own priorities in economic, social and cultural development. The Declaration explicitly encourages harmonious and cooperative relations between States and indigenous peoples."

  • Provides: the history and text of UNDRIP; United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions (c2013); Training Module on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues (2010); and Resource Kit on Indigenous Peoples´ Issues (2008).

• The Implementation Project: Realizing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (joint initiative of Native American Rights Fund & University of Colorado Law School)

The Implementation Project provides this toolkit:

• Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (@ Indian Law Resource Center)
  • States: "Helping Indian leaders initiate, win, and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been an important part of the Center’s work for more than 35 years."
  • Discusses/links to this Center's statements, recommendations and other materials on: creating an implementing/monitoring body for this Declaration, enabling the participation of indigenous governing institutions at the United Nations, and protecting indigenous women and girts. 
• Site to monitor for future events: White House Council on Native American Affairs (WHCNAA) Committee on International Indigenous Issues (@ U.S. Department of the Interior)

Indigenous Navigator: Data by and For Indigenous Peoples (w/ a Steering Committee of five partners)

• A framework and tools by and for Indigenous Peoples "to systematically monitor the level of recognition and implementation of their rights."
• States: "Starting in 2022, the tools have been applied by Indigenous organisations and communities in 29 countries across Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Arctic."
• Includes Tutorials and the page Explore and use our community-based monitoring tools.
• Provides Indigenous Navigator Survey, Data and Index modules.
  • Includes a Data explorer for National submissions (searchable by regions and countries) and a Data explorer for Community submissions.

In Canada, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act is now in force.

• Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (@ Government of Canada)
  • Includes: Second annual progress report on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (July 2023) and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan (for 2023-2028).
  • Includes these videos: Voices on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (provides perspectives of "First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth from across Canada who participated in the language of their choice") and Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Declaration Act ("a panel discussion with First Nations, Inuit and Métis experts as well as senior federal government officials").

 Vancouver's City Council created the UNDRIP Task Force.

• Includes Report of the UNDRIP Task Force to the City of Vancouver Mayor & Council (Oct. 25, 2022) in which "the Task Force provides Calls to Action for the City of Vancouver Council to implement UNDRIP at the City" (p. 6).  Currently, the Task Force is developing a five-year plan (2024-2028) to implement this Report's 79 recommendations.

"Kirsten A. Carpenter is the Council Tree Professor of Law and Director of the American Indian Law Program at the University of Colorado Law School. Professor Carpenter was appointed to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as its member from North America from 2017-2021. She currently serves as a Justice of the Shawnee Tribe Supreme Court and co-lead of The Implementation Project, with colleagues at the Native American Rights Fund."  Professor Carpenter also is a co-author of Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law (7th ed. 2017).

Walter R. Echo-Hawk is a former President of the Pawnee Business Council ("the supreme governing body of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma") and Consultant to the Implementation Project.  He was the “Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair on Democratic Ideals" at University of Hawai’i’s Law School and was a staff attorney of the Native American Rights Fund from 1973-2009.  See: 2020 World Indigenous Peoples Day Interview with Walter Echo-Hawk.

Additional Books: