Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 8, 1 August 2010 — BOT URGES U.S. SUPPORT OF U.N. DECLARATION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOT URGES U.S. SUPPORT OF U.N. DECLARATION

As the Obama administration reviews the United States' stance on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the OHA Board of Trustees weighed in, voting unanimously to urge the United States to support the document.

The vote eame at the Board of Trustees meeting in Hilo on July 15. While nonbinding, the document recognizes a set of rights that must be afforded to the world's 37 million indigenous peoples. It includes rights that deal with land, resources and self-deter-mination. The declaration was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 13, 2007, with 143 member states voting in favor, 11 abstaining and four opposing. The United States opposed it, along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The United States, one of two remaining holdouts, announced on April 20, 2010, that it would review its opposition to the declaration. In her announcement, Ambassador Susan E. Rice, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said: "There is no American history without Native American history. There ean be no just and decent future for our nation that does not directly tackle the legacy of bitter discrimination and sorrow that the first Americans still live with. And America cannot be fully whole until its first inhabitants enjoy all the blessings of liberty, prosperity and dignity. Let there be no doubt of our commitment. And we stand ready to be judged by the results." ■