Nearly ten years of standing in solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Water Protectors, and allies working to protect the Water.
As communities continue to dismantle settler colonialism in sacred site areas, we understand there is a need for legal support. In addition, WPLC is able to provide support around petitions, public comment, and amicus brief filings.
On March 7, 2025, Water Protector Legal Collective, alongside the Traditional Authorities of the Eight Yaqui Pueblos of Sonora, Mexico, and the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), submitted an urgent action petition to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The petition calls for immediate action to protect the Rio Yaqui watershed and the Yaqui Peoples’ guaranteed Treaty rights to land and water, which remain under threat.
Through “Plan Sonora,” a so-called “green” energy plan, the Mexican government is advancing lithium and copper mining, mega-projects, and infrastructure expansion across Yaqui ancestral lands—without consultation or consent. These projects risk catastrophic water depletion and contamination in a region already facing drought and scarcity, violating international law and Treaty protections. The transition to cleaner energy cannot come at the expense of Indigenous Peoples—we must aim for a Just Transition.
WPLC continues to work in solidarity with the Yaqui Pueblos and IITC to hold Mexico accountable and defend the Rio Yaqui as a vital source of life.
WPLC was born out of a need to protect Protectors. We began as a mass defense organization working to protect Indigenous and non-Indigenous Water Protectors who were criminalized by the state and federal authorities for peaceful protest and standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline in order to protect the Water and the Earth. From Standing Rock to Line 3, to fighting SLAPP subpoenas from multinational corporations, today, WPLC continues this work to protect those protecting the Earth, advocating to stop critical infrastructure protest bills targeting frontline defenders, working on behalf of political prisoners, SLAPP defense, and other forms of defense work, as well as strategic litigation and impact litigation.
Hawaiian Kingdom v. Biden Amicus brief
A century later, the Hawaiian Kingdom continues to oppose the United States’ illegal occupation, through struggles for self-determination and resistance against settler-colonial oppression. The amicus brief filed by the Water Protector Legal Collective, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), focuses on the undisputed history of the Hawaiian Kingdom and application of international law, US Constitutional law and treaties between the sovereign States of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States.
Recordando los 43:
Justice for Ayotzinapa
On the evening of September 26, 2014, 43 unarmed Indigenous students were forcibly disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, México. The exact details of their disappearance remain unclear but the events on this night resulted in 6 people dead and 25+ injured. WPLC and TONATIERRA submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the file the Biden Administration gave to Lopez Obrador containing information about the Ayotzinapa 43. For too long the parents, families, and international community, have been denied answers for this human rights violation. “Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos!”—They were taken alive, we want them back alive—continues to be the rallying cry of Ayotzinapa families. We will not forget.
