Knowledge is Power

Rapporteur

One who is designated to give a report, as at a meeting.
[Middle English raportour, judge, from Old French raporteur, from raporter, to bring back; see rapport.]

In international and European legal and political contexts, a rapporteur (derived from French) is a person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation.

Apparently Teh UN takes thae latter meaning and has a list of Special Rapporteurs in charge of various things. A sample:

Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence (2012-)
Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living (2000-)
Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (1990-)
Special Rapporteur on the right to education (1998-)
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (1982-) …
Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty (1998-)
Special Rapporteur on the right to food (2000-)
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (1993-)
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (1986-)
Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (2002-)
Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants (1999-)
Independent Expert on minority issues (2005-)
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (1993-)
Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity (2005-
Independent expert on the effects of economic reform policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights (2000-)

Who knew?

Today we focus on the “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people (2001-).”

A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combatting continuing and systemic racial discrimination.

So it’s to be a fair-minded look at history, then…

James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples… said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and “numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination”.

…Anaya visited an Oglala Sioux reservation where the per capita income is around $7,000 a year, less than one-sixth of the national average, and life expectancy is about 50 years.

Yup. Living on a Rez is not the best choice available.

Close to a million people live on the US’s 310 Native American reservations. Some tribes have done well from a boom in casinos on reservations but most have not.

…”At Rosebud [SD], that’s a situation where indigenous people have seen over time encroachment on to their land and they’ve lost vast territories and there have been clear instances of broken treaty promises. It’s undisputed that the Black Hills was guaranteed them by treaty and that treaty was just outright violated by the United States in the 1900s. That has been recognised by the United States supreme court,” he said.

Yup. Treaties were broken. By both sides.

Anaya said he would reserve detailed recommendations on a plan for land restoration until he presents his final report to the UN human rights council in September.

“I’m talking about restoring to indigenous peoples what obviously they’re entitled to and they have a legitimate claim to in a way that is not devisive but restorative. That’s the idea behind reconciliation,” he said.

I have a couple of questions.

If the “indigenous peoples” were massively honked off at a ginormous gov’t agency “stealing” lands they thought of as their own, how ya gonna have a a ginormous gov’t agency “steal” lands from different people and expect them not to be massively honked off? In your own words, expect it to be “a reconciliation?”

What do you intend to do about the Visigoths?
The Armenians?
The Druids?
The Neanderthals?
The Marsh Arabs?
The Scots and the Irish?
[insert longest list evah, here]

Anaya said he had received “exemplary cooperation” from the Obama administration but he declined to speculate on why no members of Congress would meet him.

Well, that’s reassuring…

“These are important steps but we’re talking about mismanagement by the government of assets that were left to indigenous peoples,” he said. “This money for the insults on top of the injury. It’s not money for the initial problem itself, which is the taking of vast territories. This is very important and I think the administration should be commended for moving forward to settle these claims but there are these deeper issues that need to be addressed.”

Really? And these “deeper issues” relate to the return of all lands to the descendants of the first people to ever set foot there?

Or do the Europeans who came to the New World qualify as “migrants” under the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants (1999-)?

So instead of the US gov’t treating the “indigenous peoples” like dim children and “stealing” their lands, the UN will treat the “indigenous peoples” like dim children and steal the US gov’t lands.

That’ll work out well. Under Chief O’bobo.

Previously by James Anya:

In Finland, Norway, and the Russia intergovernmental Berents Euro-Artic Council, is composed of representatives of the Nenet, Sami, and Veps

[Panama] Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous representatives have blocked different points of the Inter-American highway in protest of proposed mining and hydroelectric activities on their territories.

Boruca, China Kichá, Curre, Coto Brus, Ujarrás, Cabagra, Salitre and Térraba would be affected by the construction of the large-scale dam in Costa Rica

Cases examined by the Special Rapporteur reflected in the report [oint Communications Report of Special Procedures Mandate Holders] are from Israel, Thailand, Malaysia, Peru, United States of America, Mexico, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Finland, Canada, Guatemala, Chile, Costa Rica, China, France, and Brazil.

Busy fella…

*Stated Goal -vs- Actual Goal*

Wonder who’d fund him if US quit sending our inflated $$$$?