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36 NARF Legal Rev. 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/narf36 and id is 1 raw text is: United States Finally Endorses Historic United Nation's Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples A. Introduction Three decades of worldwide effort by indige- nous peoples resulted in an historic victory in the United Nations General Assembly on September 13, 2007, when that body adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) by an overwhelming majority.' 143 Yes, 4 No, 11 Abstaining. The four countries who voted against the Declaration were the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. One by one the dissenting countries have reversed their votes. The United States was the last country to do so, on December 16, 2010. That means that there is no country in the world that now opposes the Declaration. In addition, two of the abstaining countries have now endorsed the Declaration.' The Declaration affirms the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples as human rights across a broad range of areas including self-determination, . the U nite( States is lending its support to thi's dleclaration. The aspirations I .t affirms including the respect for the institutions and rich Cultures of Native peoples are ones we must alway zs seek to f'ulfill... .But I want to be Clear: Wthat matters far more than word/s what matters far more than any resolution7 or dleclaration7 ar(e aIctions to match those wvord/s. -President Barack Obama spirituality, land rights, and rights to intellectual property; thereby providing some balance to an international rights framework based largely on individual rights. Since 1999, senior staff attorney Kim Gottschalk of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has worked with our client, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and indigenous peoples worldwide, in the process of elaborating and supporting the Declaration. 'Three decades is a somewhat arbitrary starting point. It refers back to a 1977 meeting at the UnitedNations in Geneva, Switzerland concerning discrimination against Indigenous peoples in the Americas. However, indigenous efforts in the international arena go back much further in time. In the 1920s, Deskaheh, speaker of the Council of the Iroquois Confederacy, attempted to bring a dispute with Canada before the League of Nations. The League did not address the issue, viewing it as a domestic matter between Canada and the Iroquois. 2Along with one country that indicated that its positive vote had not been registered, that brings the number of countries endorsing the Declaration to 150. WINTER/SPRING 2011 VOUOT 719 NO. 1

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