Tribal claim sent to U.N.

The Western Shoshone on Jan. 14 submitted information to the United Nations that argued the United States is not in compliance with U.S. human rights requirements.

The submission was made to be a part of U.N. considerations during the current periodic review of member states’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Shoshone reminded the U.N that the United States has never responded to a 2006 ruling by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination against the U.S. government in its dispute with the Shoshone (“United States on trial,” RN&R, March 30, 2006). That case was argued for the Shoshone by Reno attorney Robert Hager.

The new updating of the Western Shoshone case this month charges the U.S. with environmental racism; fracking; religious bias under a Supreme Court doctrine of Christian discovery; illegal use, occupancy and expansion; federal regulations rewritten to limit freedom of information; breach of trust and failure of fiduciary responsibility by U.S. intent to defraud Shoshone of property; and media in the United States acting as a propaganda arm of the U.S. by failing to report or underreporting U.S. abuse and instead characterizing American use and occupancy as positive, when in fact they are illegal use and occupancy.