HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

324

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the united states congress to ratify and adopt the united nations declaration of indigenous rights.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of Indigenous Rights on September 13, 2007, with one hundred forty-three member states voting in favor, eleven abstaining and four ‑‑ Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States ‑‑ voting against; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Declaration emphasizes the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures, and traditions and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Declaration prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them, and their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Declaration supports the rights of indigenous peoples and, broadly, for the human rights agenda; and

 

     WHEREAS, by ratifying the Declaration, the United states will be taking a major step toward the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all; and

 

     WHEREAS, the text of the Declaration is non-binding, setting out individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education, and other issues; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Declaration will also provide a basis for settlement of native claims by providing a foundation for the fair and equitable adjudication of native claims; and

 

     WHEREAS, Native Hawaiians are indigenous and part of the estimated 370,000,000 indigenous people in seventy countries worldwide; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2010, the Senate concurring, that the Congress of the United States is urged to ratify and adopt the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, the Chairperson of the House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and to the Mayor and the Chairperson of the Council of each county.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights; Congress Ratify