UN experts on Thursday called on the United States government to intervene to prevent the eviction of dozens of Native Americans from the homes they occupy on the territory of the Nooksacks tribe, whose tribal executive wants to drive them out. .
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“Many of them are elderly, women and children, some with disabilities or chronic illnesses, and have been living in their homes for more than ten years,” two rapporteurs from the High Commission said in a statement. of the United Nations for Human Rights, Balakrishnan Rajagopal and Francisco Cali Tzay.
“The imminent evictions will have a significant impact on the health of vulnerable individuals in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic”, note the experts.
The government of the Nooksacks, established in the extreme northwest of the country, near the Canadian border, challenges these 21 families representing a total of 63 people to belong to the tribe. He has written them off and believes that they therefore do not have to reside on tribal soil.
As a last resort, the families’ lawyer, Gabriel Galanda, therefore seized the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last December.
“There were judgments” from a tribal court “saying that these people could not be deported via radiation” and “now they are threatening to deport them”, summarizes Mr. Galanda.
The Nooksacks government has since “closed Tribal Court so that neither my clients nor I can turn to it. That’s why I went to the United Nations “, last December, explained to AFP the lawyer, who assures that his clients belong to the Nooksacks tribe.
According to UN experts, the homes in question were built on tribal land by the US government using federal funds. They call on the government to enforce the “right to decent housing” enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This dossier highlights the complex and often historically strained relationship between the federal administration and the 574 Native American nations it officially recognizes within its borders.
Mr Galanda hopes President Joe Biden will push for the Nooksacks’ government, which represents around 2,000 members, to back off on those expulsions, even though he doesn’t technically have the power to overturn them himself.
“They can sue the tribe (or) suspend federal grants (…) so they have the legal and diplomatic means to stop the evictions,” said the lawyer.