Posted by Bunny.
There's a front page story on The Guardian (UK) website about how the United Nations will conduct an inquiry into the U.S.'s treatment of Native Americans. The inquiry will be lead by the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples James Anaya:
"I will examine the situation of the American Indian/Native American, Alaska Native and Hawaiian peoples against the background of the United States' endorsement of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples."
Anaya will be travelling to various places in the U.S. to meet and talk with Native Americans and present a summary of his findings at a press conference on May 4, and also to the UN Human Rights Council at its next session. Here's a picture of the front page. Big photo, bright orange header - hard to miss, isn't it?
click to see a larger version
I searched the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, etc. etc. - and guess what? No mention at all of the inquiry or forthcoming report. Hmmmmmm...
HMM!
Mainstream media-style censorship aside, The Guardian story contains this statement: "The UN mission is potentially contentious, with some US conservatives likely to object to international interference in domestic matters..." This is interesting for at least a couple of reasons:
1) The U.S. has never had a problem with the UN poking its nose into the 'domestic matters' of other nations, as long as the U.S. stands to gain something from this kind of 'interference'. This is just hypocrisy.
2) It's silly to say that such an inquiry would raise objections from U.S. conservatives. Why single them out? In fact, state violence and genocide against Native Americans has just been the most consistent and obvious thing conservatives and so-called liberals tend to agree on; in fact they've been together on this throughout all of U.S. history! The real division would better be characterized as indigenous vs. settler, since it's really all settlers who benefit from violence against Native Americans.
~Bunny.
LINKS......................................................
The above-mentioned Guardian story.
UN website: UN adopts UNDRIP. (The U.S. eventually signed on - late - in 2010.)
UN website: The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in pdf form.