INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS WORKSHOP
Translating Critical Race Theory into Practice in the Inter-American Human Rights System: Hul’qum’num Treaty Group v. Canada
The 10th Annual Critical Race and Anti-Colonial Studies Conference
8-10 October 2010
University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
This workshop will be conducted by Professor Robert A. Williams, Jr., the E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies, The University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, the lead counsel on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) case, Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group v. Canada (IACHR Case Number: P-592-07). Prof. Williams will draw on the case to explore the intersection of critical race theory and practice.
About the case: How does a First Nation negotiate a just and equitable land claim settlement when the majority of its land claim has been given to private interests? That vexing question has long plagued the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, which for years has sought to bring private land to the table as part of its treaty process with the Canadian and British Columbia governments, both of which have steadfastly refused to negotiate private lands. In seeking an answer to that question, the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group has redefined the debate by posing its own question, namely: whether either the current system in place for First Nations to negotiate reconciliation of their land and resource rights (the “British Columbia treaty process”) or Canada’s judicial system are effective in protecting Hul’qumi’num human rights as a result of the privatization of traditional territory. They posed that question in the form of a petition to the Inter‐American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States, promoting and protecting human rights. The petition drew the international community’s attention to the ongoing violations by Canada of Hul'qumi'num human rights to property, culture, religion and equality under the law. Source: HTG Backgrounder:
http://www.htg-humanrights.bc.ca/HTG%20Backgrounder.pdf
The Hul’qumi'num Treaty Group represents over 6,600 members of the Cowichan Tribes – the Chemainus First Nation, Penelakut Tribe, Lyackson First Nation, Halalt First Nation and Lake Cowichan First Nation. The Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group case centres on the 1884 E&N Railway Grant, which made private the entire southeast coast of Vancouver Island. The IACHR recently ruled the petition as admissible, opening the way for it to consider the merits of a potential case against Canada for the violation of the human rights of Aboriginal people whose traditional territories are subject to private property rights created by the state. For additional info:
http://www.htg-humanrights.bc.ca/docs.html
Bio: Robert A. Williams, Jr. is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina, Professor Williams received his B.A. from Loyola College (1977) and his J.D. from Harvard Law School (1980). He was named the first Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (2003-2004), having previously served there as Bennet Boskey Distinguished Visiting Lecturer of Law. He is the author of The American Indian in Western Legal Thought: The Discourses of Conquest (OUP, 1990), which received the Gustavus Meyers Human Rights Center Award as one of the outstanding books published in 1990 on the subject of prejudice in the United States. He has also written Linking Arms Together: American Indian Treaty Visions of Law and Peace, 1600-1800 (OUP, 1997), and is co-author of Federal Indian Law: Cases and Materials (5th ed., with David Getches and Charles Wilkinson) (West, 2004). His most recent book is entitled Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights and the Legal History of Racism in America (Native Americas series, University of Minnesota Press, 2005). The 2006 recipient of the University of Arizona Henry and Phyllis Koffler Prize for Outstanding Accomplishments in Public Service, Professor Williams has received major grants and awards from the Soros Senior Justice Fellowship Program of the Open Society Institute, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the National Institute of Justice. He has represented tribal groups before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples, and served as co-counsel for Floyd Hicks in the United States Supreme Court case, Nevada v. Hicks (2001 term). Professor Williams has served as Chief Justice for the Court of Appeals, Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation, and as Justice for the Court of Appeals and trial judge pro tem for the Tohono O’odham Nation.
