State Department plans consultation over indigenous rights

State Department plans consultation over indigenous rights
Friday, June 4, 2010

The Department of State plans to consult tribes about the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The department will hold meetings with tribes but the schedule has not been announced. Written comments are being accepted until July 15.

The United States was one of four nations that voted against the declaration in November 2007. Australia and New Zealand have changed their stances, leaving the U.S. and Canada as the only holdouts.

But the Obama administration is reconsidering. Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, announced a shift in thinking in a speech at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in April.

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Leader of Maine's tribal-state commission leaves post (1/22)