Civil Society Organizations Meet with White House Staff on Implementation of Human Rights Treaties in the United States

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 24, 2024

Contact: Nizhoni Begay, WPLC Communications, communications@waterprotectorlegal.org 

Washington, D.C. – As a follow-up to the UN human rights reviews, on September 18, 2024, the White House met with Indigenous Peoples and organizations, including Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC), and 45 civil society organizations. Representatives from the Vice President’s Office, 9 federal agencies, and domestic policy counsel were present to discuss implementing human rights obligations into domestic policy via agency Racial Equity Plans. The purpose of this meeting was to talk about the next steps to honor the United States’ commitment to protecting human rights during the remainder of the Biden Administration and so their Administration can make robust recommendations for the next president. The wide-ranging recommendations of these UN bodies, which have been informed by input from civil society organizations, begin with urging the United States to create an independent national human rights body to oversee the implementation and monitor compliance with international treaty obligations.

Efforts to coordinate this meeting have been ongoing during almost the entirety of the Biden administration. With less than two months left of his presidency, this meeting was long overdue. The meeting primarily concerned recommendations from participants in both the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Human Rights Committee (CCPR) treaty bodies reviews of the U.S. that occurred in 2022 and 2023, respectively. 

The meeting was the first step in the U.S. taking its binding international human rights treaty obligations seriously as this was the first meeting of its kind. Unfortunately, the meeting left more to be desired of human rights advocates. The meeting time was scheduled for two hours and was supposed to give slightly more time for practitioners to give their recommendations to officials; however, White House officials went over their time by roughly 20 minutes shifting how much time human rights practitioners had to give recommendations and led to various officials leaving prior to everyone being heard due to time constraints. 

Human rights practitioners had a wide array of recommendations for the Biden administration and amendments and considerations to better the Racial Equity Plans. Recommendations included: barring anti-public camping policies on federal lands; closing Guantanamo Bay and releasing those that have been cleared for release; stop federal funding to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers; taking seriously the bi-lateral Treaty obligations with Indigenous Nations; replacing Tribal consultation with free, prior and informed consent; and calling for an end to death by incarceration.

There were two separate calls from human rights practitioners to grant clemency to Mr. Leonard Peltier and to release him immediately. The first call came from the Indigenous Working Group and called for Mr. Peltier’s immediate release. The second came from an advocate against death by incarceration. He explained that Mr. Peltier is 80 years old and has spent most of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit and it is time to release him immediately. 

WPLC’s advocacy for Mr. Peltier at the international level includes its work as part of the coordinating team for the Indigenous Working Group for the CCPR treaty body review in 2023. There, WPLC coordinated a Joint Statement of U.S. Civil Society calling for Mr. Peltier’s immediate release. 

Over the last several years, United Nations treaty body reviews and other mechanisms have made recommendations to the United States on how to close the gap between U.S. human rights obligations and insufficient domestic policies and practices:

• UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2022

• UN Human Rights Committee in 2023

• Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement in 2023

For more on WPLC and the ICCPR:

• WPLC ICCPR Report 2023

• Joint Statement regarding the Release and Freedom of Political Prisoner, Leonard Peltier

• Press Conference: Civil Society Organizations Report Out on White House Meeting on Implementation of Human Rights Treaties in the United States

• October 2023: 4050th Meeting, 139th Session, Human Rights Committee (CCPR)

• October 2023: 4051st Meeting, 139th Session, Human Rights Committee (CCPR)

• For more information, visit the UNHCR website.

Born out of the #NoDAPL Movement, the Water Protector Legal Collective is an Indigenous-led legal nonprofit that provides support and advocacy for Indigenous peoples and Original Nations, the Earth, and climate justice movements. For more information about WPLC and to learn how to contribute to WPLC please visit: www.waterprotectorlegal.org.