Great news!

In follow-up to our previous news item, URGENT ACTION: SIGN THE PETITION - U.S. Border Wall violates International Law; U.S. Law violates Lipan Apache Indigenous Rights (see related UN CERD action), calling for signatures of support to our collective, joint indigenous Lipan Apache and supporting submissions to UN CERD, University of Texas Law Clinic statements, and campaign therein, and in continuation and support of years of notable and groundbreaking work of Dr. Eloisa Tamez and Margo Tamez, who are Indigenous Lipan Apache Nde grandmother, mother and daughter, activists, scholars and experts, and their many supporters and colleagues, in several key legal and related actions fighting for Lipan Apache Nde and Apache Nde peoples' rights to traditional lands, ceremonies, family, historical and current remedy and restoration of sovereign rights and more:

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) has written to the United States for communication concerning allegations, submissions and evidence that the United States-Mexico border wall and the current U.S. Executive Order to expand the border wall are in violation of Indigenous Rights of the peoples whose homes and territories the wall and any expansion of the wall divide and affect, namely, in accordance with submissions made to the CERD Committee on the matter(s), discriminatory impacts on the Lipan Apache, Kikapoo, and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo indigenous peoples and communities.

Excerpts are as follows (click here for the full document) -

“The Committee is informed of the worsening of the situation of indigenous peoples in the same area. It is informed that the discriminatory effect of the previously constructed wall has not been remedied. Moreover, the Government’s planned expansion of the border wall, as announced through the executive order for 'Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements' of January 25, 2017, will allegedly have an adverse impact on the communities living along the border, especially indigenous communities.
 
Reportedly, the new order is more expansive than previous initiatives, and it was implemented without any type of consultation or consideration of potentially affected communities including indigenous communities.
 
[...] The Committee reconfirms and recommends the United States to '(a) Guarantee, in law and in practice, the right of indigenous peoples to effective participation in public life and in decisions that affect them, based on their free, prior and informed consent; (b) Take effective measures to eliminate undue obstacles to the recognition of tribes; (c) Adopt concrete measures to effectively protect the sacred sites of indigenous peoples in the context of the State party’s development or national security projects and exploitation of natural resources, and ensure that those responsible for any damages caused are held accountable'." [emphases added]
 
The United States is requested to submit a response to the CERD decision by 17 July 2017, in particular:

1. The impact of the executive order of 25 January 2017 on the rights of affected indigenous peoples to have access to their lands and resources they own or traditionally use;
2. Measures envisaged to reverse the negative impact of the expansion of the border wall on the rights of indigenous peoples;
3. Measures taken to ensure the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples, or genuine consultation, in decisions affecting them. [emphasis added]

WE still need your signatures and support!

Sign here in support of the UN CERD, Lipan Apache Band, Lipan Apache Women Defense (LAWD), Apache Nde Nnee Working Group (ANNWG), International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality (IOSDE), and University of Texas Law Clinic statements and positions against the U.S. Mexico border wall's violations of Indigenous and Human Rights:

https://www.change.org/p/sign-the-petition-u-s-border-wall-violates-international-law-u-s-law-violates-lipan-apache-indigenous-rights/

Per UN CERD request, the United States has until this 17 July 2017, just under two months, to reply to the UN CERD Committee. We must continue to be active and vigilant, so as to ensure the United States upholds its side of the UN CERD treaty and takes all necessary actions to be in compliance with International Human Rights Law.

General contact point: Apache Nde Nnee Working Group, [email protected]

Sign the petition in support of halting any further US-Mexico border wall construction in Ndé (Lipan Apache) Peoples’ traditional and customary homelands, currently bifurcated by the States of Mexico and the United States.

We demand an end to the deep, inherent violations of the US-Mexico border and its crossing of Nde and Lipan Apache Indigenous territories and homelands, and respect for free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

Petition at:
https://www.change.org/p/united-states-us-border-wall-violates-international-law-us-law-violates-lipan-apache-indigenous-rights

The Lipan Apache Women Defense (LAWD) and Dr. Eloisa García Tamez (Lipan Apache Ndé. Lipan Apache Band of Texas), The Lipan Apache Band of Texas, The Apache Nde Nnee Working Group, and the International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality (IOSDE) have submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD), and now make firm, public statements against the alien, colonial domination of the United States-Mexico border and border wall and, therein, the current United States administration’s executive order and any other mandate or effort in further construction of a United States-Mexico border wall in Apache Ndé, and, specifically Lipan Apache, territory/ies.

Border walls do not build a better humanity. Border walls have consistently existed in conjunction with social oppression, violations of human dignity, peace and life, and, in the cases of colonial settler States/countries, acts of violence and violations against Indigenous Peoples and pre-existing peoples and lifeways who have, and continue to survive, border colonialism. The United States-Mexico border wall is in violation of International Law.

Collectively, we have established the cutting edge for understanding of the United States’ border and border wall and its inherent, encompassing violations of Indigenous and Human Rights to, among other things, land, religion, and freedom of expression, culture, family and kinship, movement within one's customary community, speech, identity, access to justice and appropriate juridical procedures, and due process and remedy.
 
This action is in conjunction to the Follow up to Urgent Action/Early Warning re United States Executive Order to further construct a US-Mexico border wall, submitted to the United Nations CERD (International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) Committee by Ariel Dulitzky (member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances) and his University of Texas Law Clinic, and in accordance with related previous legal initiatives, as detailed in the sections and links below.

RECENT breaking developments:

21 February 2017. Ariel Dulitzky (member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances) and his University of Texas Law Clinic, under the continuation of previous work with LAWD, sent a request to the UN CERD Committee for review of the current United States administration’s order(s) to undergo renewed border wall construction (See letter here)

27 April 2017. Eloisa Garcia Tamez, founder of LAWD, created a letter to UN CERD in support of Mr. Dulitzky’s initiative, alerting the CERD Committee to official, contextual legal history re the border wall and the Lipan Apache, and brought a supporting call to action on several points. (See letter here)

27 April 2017. The Chair of the Lipan Apache Band of Texas, Daniel Castro Romero, Jr., created a letter to UN CERD, also affirming Dulitzky and Tamez’s actions, calling on the UN CERD for protection and affirmation of inherent Indigenous Rights. (See letter here)

30 April 2017. The Apache Nde Nnee Working Group, via Dr. Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache Nde, and legal counsel India Reed Bowers, LLM, Founder & Director of IOSDE, wrote in support of the LAWD and Dulitzky actions, affirming Indigenous and Human Rights, contextualizing the situation in historical context and regarding colonialism, and referencing the Apache Nde Nnee Working Group’s 2015 and 2016 Shadow/Alternative Report submissions to UN CERD for the reviews of the Holy See and Spain, therein, and the ties to the current border wall and border as it/they violate Nde Peoples and lands. (See letter here)

1 May 2017. The International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality (IOSDE) submitted the three supporting letters to the UN CERD Committee together as one action of Lipan Apache and Nde self-determination. (See submission here)

5 May 2017. The CERD Secretariat confirmed receipt of the letters.

Now: We anticipate the CERD Committee's formal response in the approaching days/weeks.

Additional information:

The following information consists of excerpts from the LAWD-Apache Nde Nnee Working Group-Lipan Apache Band joint submission to UN CERD, in support of the Follow Up to the Urgent Action/Early Warning regarding the Border Wall and the United States as-submitted by Ariel Dulitzky and Clinic.
 
Background [for sampled, detailed key results from actions below, click here]:

• In 2007, Indigenous women from El Calaboz led a national and international legal challenge to the wall.

 

• In 2008, in partnership with Denise Gilman and the University of Texas School of Law, LAW-Defense participated in a hearing on the Texas-Mexico Border Wall, at the Inter-American Commission/Organization of American States, 133rd Period, held in Washington, D.C.; the Inter-American Commission/OAS supports the claims in the submission. (see key results here).

 

• Dr. Margo Tamez, Co-founder, Lipan Apache Women Defense, Co-Director, Emilio Institute for Indigenous and Human Rights, submits and presents: Kónitsąąíí gokíyaa Ndé: ‘Big Water People’s Homeland’ a shadow of Self-Determination in a bifurcated Traditional Territory; from ‘Strengthening Partnership between States and indigenous peoples: treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements’, Geneva 16-17 July 2012, Organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, HR/GENEVA/ /SEM/NGOs/2012/BP.7 (see key results here)

 

• In 2012, in partnership, with Mr. Dulitzky and the University of Texas (UT) Law Human Rights Clinic, the LAW Defense, in partnership with the Lipan Apache Band of Texas, co-submitted an Early Action/Early Warning (EA/EW) procedure to the UN CERD Committee (See more here).

 

• Based on the submission to CERD above, on March 1, 2013, during the 82nd Session, Alexei Avtonomov, then UN CERD Committee Chair, sent a diplomatic letter to Ms. Betty E. King, then Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations. (see key results here)

 

• Ndee-Nnee Alliance Intervention Statement, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), 12th Session, 20-31 May 2013, New York. (see key points here). Other UNPFII and UN EMRIP statements also made in various sessions and years (available by request).

 

• The Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group submitted the following Shadow and Alternative Reports to the UN CERD Committee for the Committee’s review of the Holy See: The Holy See and European Dispossession of Apache-Ndé-Nnee Peoples: A call for truth, disclosure, justice and redress, Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group Shadow Report, UN CERD 88th Session, November 2015: Review of the Holy See, and Spain: Alternative Report for the CERD Review of Spain, submitted by the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group, UN CERD 89th Session, April-May 2016: Review of Spain. ... (see key points here). These Reports address, outline, and explain in detail the historical, legal and political contexts and legacies of the ongoing colonization of the Ndé territories, including regarding the violently militarized colonial line of legal-political-territorial alien domination itself, known as the United States-Mexico border and accompanying border wall. The United States-Mexico border, and the border wall therein, divides Ndé traditional territories, families, and lives and harming Ndé ceremonies, lands, waters, self-determination as well as Ndé Peoples’ rightful independence from colonial and alien domination and rule.

 

• UN CERD calls for the Holy See to become accountable to Indigenous Peoples on key historical and ongoing matters raised in the above submission; see some related news and happenings to follow here: http://iosde.org/3/post/2016/01/united-nations-declares-the-holy-see-legally-responsible-and-accountable-to-indigenous-peoples-for-effects-and-legacy-of-racist-colonial-papal-bulls-and-doctrines.html and http://iosde.org/3/post/2016/02/only-a-truth-commission-will-end-the-abuse-pope-francis-and-the-catholic-church-continue-theft-and-the-rape-of-the-apache-nd-nne-after-un-findings.html

Current requests from Apache Ndé Nneé Working Group to the UN CERD Committee include (See more here):

• Acknowledge the diversity of Ndé-Nneé juridical personality and political-territorial status(es) affected by the United States-Mexico border and border wall […] as a result of intergenerational and on-going racism, discrimination, and aggressive State policies. (Dr. Margo Tamez, Apache-Ndé-Nneé Shadow Report, CERD 88th Session: Holy See, p. 56).

 

• Acknowledge that a United States Government’s policy/mandate-induced expansion of a United States-Mexico border wall, and without the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the affected Indigenous Peoples, including the Lipan Apache Band (Ndé), is a continued colonial and genocidal territorial alien domination of the traditional Indigenous Peoples and lands and in direct violation of international law as per the ending of all forms of colonialism (CERD preamble and Art. 15, and associated and applicable UN GA Resolutions and UN initiatives, departments, mechanisms, procedures and treaties), as well as all relevant CERD Treaty articles and analyses as provided by Mr. Ariel Dulitzky and his Clinic’s submission.

Lastly, LAWD has called for the CERD Committee to affirm the Declaration from the El Calaboz 2011 Gathering on Indigenous Knowledge, Lands, Territory and Rights. (see key points here)

Contact info: Apache Nde Nnee Working Group, [email protected]