North America

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Requests an Injunction to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline Construction

by Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

CANNONBALL, N.D. — The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has sought a preliminary injunction to stop the construction of a $3.7billion pipeline until their lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is heard. The judge, James A. Boasberg of United States District Court, wanted more time to determine whether the Corps failed to follow federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, in its environmental review of the pipeline project. A ruling on the injunction is expected September 9.

The pipeline spans over 1,100 miles over four states and is the first to bring Bakken shale in North Dakota directly to refineries in the Gulf Coast. Dakota Access is the group of firms behind the pipeline, which is led by Energy Transfer Partners. Supporters of the pipeline say this will be a more cost-effective way to transport the shale to the Gulf and assert it is safer than using roads and railways.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have been protesting the construction since April in order to protect their burial sites, sacred land, and the Tribe’s main water supply. There are now three distinct camps, the original Sacred Stone Spirit camp, the main Seven Council camp on the north side of the Cannonball River, and the Rosebud camp across the river. The main camp was established last spring to fight the construction of the pipeline that is expected to travel under the Missouri River on treaty lands a half of a mile from the Standing Rock reservation. Other Tribes and Nations have joined the camp in solidarity to protect the water and advocate for treaty rights. Accounts of the number of people at the camps vary from 1,000 to 3,000 over the last few weeks. A part of the camp traveled to Washington, D.C. to fill the court room and demonstrate outside the courthouse.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have confirmed that Energy Transfer Partners does not have a written easement to build the pipeline on Corps property. In July the Corps issued Section 408 permission, which allows the easement to be written, but the easement itself is still under review. The Department of the Interior, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Environmental Protection Agency objected to the Corps permission. Corps spokesman Larry Janis discussed current construction saying, “They can’t build the project by accessing corps property from west to east across Lake Oahe.” The lack of an easement became clear in the federal district court case. “Everybody thought they had it, this is really important information,” said attorney Carolyn Raffensperger, one of four attorneys volunteering their legal services to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and individuals that may get arrested in the protests.

A group of those protesting the Dakota Access pipeline left the camp to take their message to Washington, D.C.. (Photo courtesy of the New York Times)

Amnesty International and United Nations observers have been making visits to the camp. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the International Treaty Council have appealed to the United Nations by submitting an urgent action communication to four U.N. human rights special rapporteurs on the grounds that the tribe’s water supply is directly threatened by construction of the pipeline. The appeal states, “We specifically request that the United States Government impose an immediate moratorium on all pipeline construction until the treaty rights and human rights of the Standing Rock Tribe can be ensured and their free, prior and informed consent is obtained.” The Dakota Access pipeline allegedly violates the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples including the “right to health, right to water and subsistence, threats against sacred sites including burial grounds, Treaty Rights, cultural and ceremonial practices, free prior and informed consent, traditional lands and resources including water, productive capacity of the environment, and self-determination.”

The appeal also asserts environmental racism in the Corps’ decision to relocate the pipeline from north of Bismarck due to concerns of the impact on the city’s water supply without concern for the impact on the Tribe’s main water supply. The Corp has also issued permits to dig through burial grounds that are protected by protocols established by the National Historic Preservation Act that the Tribe alleges are not being followed.

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple declared a state of emergency which allows for resources to be mobilized through the State Emergency Operations Plan and helps state and local agencies with more funding for public safety. Some residents are questioning the use of resources to protect Energy Transfer Partners. North Dakota Highway Patrol troopers and other agencies are manning a police barricade that stops and reroutes those going to the reservation but gives access to those north of the reservation. Private security has also been employed, including the recent use of dogs and pepper spray.

In addition to easement issues and potential human rights violations, residents in other states impacted by the pipeline have also filed suit. In Iowa, farmers are suing the government asserting that Dakota Access LLC is illegally using eminent domain to gain rights of way onto their land.

For further information, please see:

The Bismarck Tribune – Corps Says Pipeline Still Needs Water-Crossing Easement – 25 August 2016

Indian Country Today Media Network – Dakota Access Pipeline: Standing Rock Sioux Issue Urgent Appeal to United Nations Human Rights Officials – 20 August 2016

Inside Climate News – Native American Pipeline Protest Halts Construction in N. Dakota – 19 August 2016

Los Angeles Times – With Echoes of Wounded Knee, Tribes Mount Prairie Occupation to Block North Dakota Pipeline – 27 August 2016

New York Times – North Dakota Oil Pipeline Battle: Who’s Fighting and Why – 26 August 2016

Reuters – Celebrities Join Native American Pipeline Protest in Washington, DC – 24 August 2016

El Salvador’s Supreme Court Declares Amnesty Law Unconstitutional

By Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador’s Supreme Court has found articles 1 and 4 of the 1993 Amnesty Law unconstitutional. These articles extended amnesty to certain people and crimes committed during El Salvador’s civil war beyond international law, violating the fundamental rights for the victim’s of genocide and crimes against humanity. In a 4 to 1 vote the judges ruled that provisions in the law contradict the right to moral reparations, “Crimes against humanity don’t have statute of limitations according to international law.” Without the Amnesty Law the government can now investigate, prosecute, sanction, and remedy severe human rights violations.

According to the UN Truth Commission the Salvadorian army committed massacres in villages that were suspected of supporting guerrillas. Over 75,000 El Salvadorians were raped, tortured, killed or disappeared between 1980 and 1992, during the country’s civil war. The report listed names of those responsible for these human rights violations and found that the Salvadoran army and paramilitary groups committed 85 percent of these crimes and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) committed about five percent.

A part of the peace agreement between the Salvadoran government and the FMLN included a clause called the Law of National Reconciliation which granted amnesty to both parties. However, in accordance with international law those that were listed in the UN report were excluded from being granted amnesty. Both sides signed the law in 1992 but it was quickly superseded by the 1993 Amnesty Law passed by the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly, which granted amnesty to all of those who committed human rights violations. The Amnesty Law has since been protested by grassroots efforts, NGOs, and international bodies such as the Center for Justice and Accountability and the Spanish Association for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of Organization of American States.

 

The Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador’s Supreme Court declares parts of the 1993 Amnesty Law unconstitutional. (Photo courtesy of PanAm Post)

Many are celebrating the court’s ruling, such as Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, “Today is an historic day for human rights in El Salvador. By turning its back on a law that has done nothing but let criminals get away with serious human rights violations for decades, the country is finally dealing with its tragic past. El Salvador must waste no time and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility for the tens of thousands of unlawful killings and enforced disappearances that were committed during the internal armed conflict to justice. Victims should not be made to wait for justice, truth and reparation for a second longer.” But others are concerned that the decision is empty without strong and impartial institutions to investigate war crimes and start prosecutions.

Politicians are especially reluctant to revisit human rights violations during the civil war since many of them were involved in the conflict and had previously enjoyed protection from prosecution with the Amnesty Law. As a guerrilla leader during the war, even President Salvador Sanchez Ceren is among many of the country’s leaders that could be investigated, prompting political divide and opportunity with upcoming elections.

El Salvador’s attorney general, Douglas Melendez, says the government will abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling. But until a prosecution unit is established to investigate these war crimes, justice for the victims’ families will continue to be on hold.

 

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – El Salvador Rejects Amnesty Law in Historic Ruling – 14 July 2016

Council on Hemispheric Affairs – El Salvador’s 1993 Amnesty Law Overturned: Implications for Colombia – 25 July 2016

New York Times – Seeking Justice in El Salvador – 22 July 2016

PANAM Post – El Salvador’s War Criminals Lose Legal Immunity – 18 July 2016

Drought Leads to Severe Food Insecurity and Need for aid

By Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

Severe drought since mid-2014 has obliterated crops and intensified hunger for 2.8 million people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Although the latest El Nino has ended, it caused a shift in weather patterns throughout the world and sea levels to rise to their highest levels in nineteen years, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Disaster response advisor for Central America at the U.N. humanitarian agency (OCHA) Gianni Morelli said, “People are and have been selling their assets to survive, selling land and seeds, reducing the number of meals a day and reducing their amount of protein intake. Right now the situation is very serious, and it’s fragile.” The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates some 3.5 million people are struggling to feed themselves in Central America’s “dry corridor” and 2.8 million rely on food aid to survive.

In Guatemala, areas like Chiquimula are severely impacted and the drought has worsened the hunger problem, especially among the country’s large indigenous population. Children as young as two are being treated for malnutrition at local clinics. Fresh water is also becoming scarce in this area as the level of the Jupilingo River has dropped and the hillsides deforested. Local resident Elda Perez Recinos said, “We walk three hours a day to get water, and after that we go out to look for firewood.” Experts call the period between June and September “seasonal hunger.” During this period between harvests the Guatemalan government has to provide food assistance to a million people but the drought has further depleted the harvests and limited the yield and income for farmers.

Sparse rain fall through the “dry corridor” has left farmers with one crop per year and hungry families. (Photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

In El Salvador, President Salvador Sanchez Ceren declared a water shortage emergency for the first time in its history earlier this year, citing the effects of the El Nino phenomenon and climate change.

In April the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said it is providing food aid including rice and beans as well as cash for people to buy food at local markets. The Embassy of the United States of America in Honduras has contributed 75 percent of the funds received to serve drought-affected families in Honduras. The Minister Counselor of the Embassy of the United States of America said, “Investing in the health and nutrition of families is investing in the future of your communities.  That’s why it is important that you, the beneficiary, invest in feeding your family and that the works carried out in your communities are works for the benefit of all. Such long-term improvements including schools, roads, and drains strengthen you to be able to face future emergencies.”

More efficient irrigation systems and drought-resistant crops can help farmers better adjust and prepare for long dry spells. Until then, the effects of poor harvests and lost livestock will continue to hurt families as the rainy season has started a month late with inconsistent rainfall.

For further information, please see:

Appeal Democrat – Drought Heightens Seasonal Food Scarcity in Guatemala – 13 June 2016

Reuters – El Salvador declares drought emergency for first time ever – 14 April 2016

Thomas Reuters Foundation News – Nearly 3mln People Need Food aid in Drought-hit Central America – UN – 27 May 2016

World Food Programme – Honduras: Thousands of Drought-Hit Families Receive Food Assistance to Ensure Their Food Security – 6 April 2016

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls on Canada’s Highway of Tears Add to National Inquiry into Unsolved Cases

By Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

SMITHERS, British Columbia – Highway 16 is a remote stretch of road that cuts west across four provinces in Canada to the Pacific Ocean. A section of the road in British Columbia runs near remote logging towns and Indian reserves and has become known as the “Highway of Tears” due to the dozens of women and girls that have gone missing or been murdered near the highway. Most of these women and girls are indigenous and almost all of the cases continue to go unsolved.

The impoverished area and nonexistent public transportation has made hitchhiking a common means of transit. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) formed a special unit that has officially linked eighteen of these unsolved cases that occurred from 1969 to 2006 to the highway but families, activists, and the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Carolyn Bennett, believe the number is much higher. Complaints of racism and sexism committed by the police as well as disparities in police action for non-Indigenous women that have gone missing are behind this claim. Minister Bennett said the police often fail to do investigations and deem the deaths of indigenous women and girls to be suicides, accidents, or drug overdoses. She said, “What’s clear is the uneven application of justice.”

A United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women report completed last year found the previous government’s efforts under Prime Minister Stephen Harper to protect indigenous women from harm to be “inadequate” and found “grave violations” of the women’s human rights with the lack of an inquiry into the disappearances and murders. The report said failures by law enforcement have “resulted in impunity.”

A billboard along Highway 16 warns of the murdered and missing in the area. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)

Canada’s new government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised a “total renewal” of the country’s relationship with indigenous people and in December Trudeau announced a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls which completed the public participation stage of the inquiry design process this past spring. Nationally, the RCMP has officially counted a total of 1,181 missing and murdered indigenous women and girls but research done by the Native Women’s Association of Canada finds the number could be as high as 4,000 women and girls. The national inquiry is expected to cost $40 million ($31 million U.S.).

British Columbia has committed $3 million to improve public transit along the “Highway of Tears.” This includes extending transit services, sharing costs with First Nations reserves for community vans, and highway infrastructure safety improvements, including webcams and transit shelters.

Families and supporters continue their efforts to search for the missing. Ten years ago families walked a 700km stretch of Highway 16 from Prince Rupert to Prince George to raise awareness and improve safety along the highway and the walk is being done again over the next three weeks, ending on June 21, National Aboriginal Day. The first walk ended with a two-day Highway of Tears Symposium that focused on prevention, support, and emergency planning. Since then the Highway of Tears Initiative has been making efforts to implement recommendations from the symposium to build community supports and do workshops with first responders, but with limited funding. Brenda Wilson, the only official staff member of the initiative, said, “Some of the things with the government have changed. They’re starting to recognize the work that needs to be done in a lot of our communities between Prince George and Prince Rupert. This is Northern British Columbia. We need to be in the forefront. We can no longer be silenced. We need to be a part of British Columbia.”

For further information, please see:

New York Times – Dozens of Women Vanish on Canada’s Highway of Tears, and Most Cases Are Unsolved – 24 May 2016

CBC – Highway of Tears ‘cleansing walk’ begins in Prince Rupert – 3 June 2016

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Report of the Inquiry Concerning Canada – 30 March 2015

The Government of Canada – National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls – 8 March 2016

U.S. Transfers Nine Yemeni Prisoners From Guantanamo To Saudi Arabia

By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Oceania

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America — Saudi Arabia has accepted the transfer of nine Yemenis from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including a onetime associate of al Qaeda and the Taliban who personally knew Osama bin Laden, as well as a prisoner on a hunger strike. All the men released this week were Yemeni nationals but could not be sent back to their homeland due to the ongoing conflict in the region.

The U.S. Military Outpost in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Photo Courtesy of NY Times)

The decision to make the transfer came after six government agencies reviewed the plan.

Cliff Sloan, who served as the State Department envoy for negotiating detainee transfers in 2013 and 2014, stated: “There have been a lot of discussions with the Saudis over the last few years, and they have been emphatic that it was very important to close Guantánamo. They wanted to help with that. But the one thing they weren’t willing to do for a long time was actually accept Yemenis. That’s why this is a major breakthrough.”

In a press release, the Pentagon emphasized: “The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.”

The prisoner transfer is seen as part of an effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to release detainees considered low-risk while transferring the remainder to the US in a bid to eventually close the notorious prison by the end of the year. With the most recent release, there are still 80 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo. Another 26 men are expected to be sent to their home countries or to another country outside the US by the end of the summer.

The transfer also clears another statistical milestone for the Obama administration: there are now more detainees approved to leave Guantanamo, 26, than there are so-called forever detainees, a term lawyers use to describe those whom the administration has insufficient evidence to charge but claims are too dangerous to release.

There are currently 22 so-called forever prisoners, each of whom are expected to remain confined even if Obama succeeds in his goal of closing the Guantánamo detention center.

But many in the US Congress continue to oppose plans to close the facility or move any prisoners to the US. Members of Congress have vowed to block any attempt to transfer prisoners to the U.S. from Guantanamo, and House Republicans have retained a law firm to challenge the president if he attempts to close the facility by executive order before his term expires.

The Saudi-owned television network Al Arabiya has reported the nine prisoners have already arrived in Saudi Arabia. The men will be enrolled in a program where they will be de-radicalized through discussions on religion, the network said.

 

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Guantanamo Bay: Nine Yemenis released to Saudi Arabia – 17 April 2016

NPR – After 9 Detainees Transferred From Guantanamo, The Number Held There Drops To 80 – 17 April 2016

Bloomberg – U.S. Transfers Nine Guantanamo Bay Prisoners to Saudi Arabia – 16 April 2016

CNN – Nine Guantanamo detainees transferred to Saudi Arabia – 16 April 2016

DW – US transfers 9 Yemeni prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia – 16 April 2016

The Guardian – Nine more Guantánamo Bay prisoners released as population dwindles to 80 – 16 April 2016

NY Times – 9 Guantánamo Prisoners From Yemen Are Sent to Saudi Arabia – 16 April 2016