HAWAIIANS CHALLENGE U.S. VIOLATIONS
Self-Governance and Control of Resources Denied
Honolulu - Three Native Hawaiian groups have filed a Shadow Report detailing on-going human rights violations against native Hawaiians since the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Na Koa Ikaika o Ka Lahui Hawai`i, The Koani Foundation and Kanaka Maoli Tribunal Komike filed their report with the UN Human Rights Committee challenging Bush Administration claims that the United States has complied with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), an international Human Rights Treaty, to which the U.S. is signatory.
The three Hawaiian groups also endorsed and supported, with the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, a second report filed by the Indigenous Peoples and Nations Coalition which raises human rights violation by the U.S. as the administering agent of the Non-Self Governing Territories of Alaska and Hawai`i.
“The reports demonstrate the historic and continuing violation of our people’s right to self-governance and self-determination that predates the overthrow and continues to the present,” said Mililani Trask, Convener of Na Koa Ikaika o Ka Lahui Hawai`i.
“Self-determination is the right of the Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiians) to determine their political status and to freely pursue our economic, social and cultural development. It also means we have the right to control our natural wealth, land and resources which have been withheld from our peoples since statehood was imposed in 1959” Trask said.
The Shadow Reports may be viewed at http://wisperhawaii.com/~kaiopua/
The Human Rights Committee will meet in Geneva this summer to review the U.S. report and present questions to the United States.
The current U.S. report ignores Hawai`i’s indigenous peoples; and only remotely addresses American Indians and U.S. Trust Territories.
For more information contact Mililani B. Trask, (808) 961-2888, Kaiopua Fyfe, Director, The Koani Foundation, (808) 822-7643 or Kekuni Blaisdell, Chair, Kanaka Maoli Tribunal, (808) 595-6691.
