Archived News & Events

Current news can be found on the current news page.

Professor Hershey's paper, "GLOBALIZATION AND ITS SPECIAL AND SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS ON INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES", was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for: Environmental Justice & Sustainability eJournal, Indigenous Nations & Peoples Law eJournal and International Environmental Law eJournal. The abstract can be viewed at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2070204.

Professor Melissa Tatum has been named Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. She was previously the Associate Director of the program. She replaces Professor Robert A. Williams, who founded the Indian Law program 25 years ago and has served as its Director since 2005.

You could hear the snap, crackle and pop of intellectual athletics as a different kind of Indian all-stars team, The First Thirteen, assembled at the University of New Mexico Law School in Albuquerque recently. These were the first Native American attorneys to argue Federal Indian law cases before the Supreme Court, from 1980 through 2001. Full article...

Prior to receiving her LLM & SJD via the Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program, Professor Sanders received hr JD from Suffolk University Law School. Here, Professor Sanders is featured in the Suffolk University Law School Alumni magazine.

Ryan Dreveskracht has written a short paper for publication on Turtle Talk titled "Keeping Tribal Business Partners Close – and Their Lawyers Closer". The paper is intended for tribal attorneys, and details some of the lessons tribal lawyers can learn from two recent cases involving the Seminole Tribe of Florida (Everglades Ecolodge and Contour Spa).

Keeping Tribal Business Partners Close – and Their Lawyers Closer

Nicole Friederichs, IPLP Alumnus (LLM 2008), has an article in the American Indian Law Review - "A REASON TO REVISIT MAINE'S INDIAN CLAIMS SETTLEMENT ACTS: THE UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES"

Grant Christensen, IPLP Alumnus (LLM 2010), has an article in the American Indian Law Review - CREATING BRIGHT-LINE RULES FOR TRIBAL COURT JURISDICTION OVER NON-INDIANS: THE CASE OF TRESPASS TO REAL PROPERTY"

Rob Williams was listed among the "2011 Heroes of the Hill" by Indian Country Today Media Network. Below is a link to the story.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/12/21/heroes-on-the-hill-2011-68449

On Friday, October 28, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) will hold its first ever hearings into the violation of Indigenous land rights in Canada. The case is being brought by the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy( IPLP) Program of the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona .

The case before the IACHR concerns the 1884 expropriation of over 237,000 hectares of resource-rich land from the traditional territories of the Hul’qumi’num peoples on Vancouver Island. The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group (HTG) alleges that Canada has violated international human rights norms by refusing to negotiate for any form of redress for the expropriated lands, which are now mostly in the hands of large forestry companies, and by failing to protect Hul’qumi’num interests while the dispute remains unresolved .

Robert A. Williams, Jr., a law professor and director of IPLP Program, is representing HTG as lead counsel in the case, assisted by students in the IPLP clinic.More than a dozen indigenous peoples’ organizations and human rights groups, including Amnesty International,  have filed legal briefs in support of the Hul’qumi’num. Williams has said he believes a favourable decision for HTG  "will vindicate the position of First Nations leaders and communities throughout Canada that the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy needs to be scrapped in favor of a process that complies with international human rights standards for the recognition and protection of First Nations' peoples in their ancestral lands."

Craig Benjamin, Campaigner for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples with Amnesty International Canada, said, “The case now before the Inter-American Commission highlights crucial issues of justice that affect not only the Hul’qumi’num people, but Indigenous peoples across Canada. The very fact that a respected international human rights body like the IACHR is investigating these issues should be a wake up call to the federal and provincial governments and to all Canadians.”

In agreeing to hear the complaint, the Inter-American Commission ruled that the available mechanisms to resolve this dispute in Canada, whether through negotiation or the BC treaty process, are too onerous and too constrained in their protection of human rights to live up to the standards of international justice.

Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come, Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) said, “Fair and timely resolution of land and resource disputes is essential for reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada and for closing the unacceptable gap in standard of living facing so many Indigenous communities. We hope that the intervention of the international human rights body can be a catalyst for rethinking government policies and approaches that have so blatantly failed Indigenous peoples and the cause of justice.”

“Canada cannot credibly demand that other states live up to international standards for the protection of human rights -- including the fundamental right to equality and non-discrimination -- while dismissing those same standards at home,” said Heather Neun of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada. “Our organizations will be closely monitoring this hearing and are prepared to campaign to make sure governments in Canada act on the Commission's findings.”

The hearing will be held at the Commission’s headquarters in Washington D.C. on October 28, 2011, from 9-10 am EDT and will be webcast live on the IACHR’s website. http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/webcast_schedule.asp

S. James Anaya, a UA Regents' Professor of Law and Special Rapporteur to the United Nations, announced this month that he would give special attention to extractive industries over the course of his next term.

United Nations Special Rapporteur S. James Anaya is making the impact extractive industries have in and around world's indigenous territories a strong priority over the next three years.

Anaya, a University of Arizona Regents' Professor in the James E. Rogers College of Law, announced his intention during an Oct. 17 presentation to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly during a meeting held in New York.

During the meeting, Anaya presented his third annual report to United Nations member states convened in the Third Committee, which concerns social, humanitarian and cultural affairs.

Anaya placed particular emphasis on extractive industries, those involved in forestry, mining and the production of gas, oil and chemicals.

Learn more: The Special Rapporteur's website | UANews story

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