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UN Group at Standing Rock Probing Human Rights Abuses by Police

  • A North Dakota police officer stands next to two armored vehicles just beyond the police barricade on Highway 1806 near a DAPL construction site.

    A North Dakota police officer stands next to two armored vehicles just beyond the police barricade on Highway 1806 near a DAPL construction site. | Photo: Reuters

Published 2 November 2016
Opinion

A U.N. advisory group on Indigenous issues will produce a report after collecting testimonies of abuses against Dakota Access pipeline protesters.

On Monday, a United Nations group began investigating human rights abuses by North Dakota law enforcement against those protesting the Dakota Access pipeline project. More than 300 Native American Nations have gathered to demand the cancellation of the oil pipeline project.

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Grand Chief Edward John, a member of the U.N.’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is currently at the encampment site collecting information and testimonials from those water protectors arrested or attacked by local police or private security guards, the Guardian reported late Monday.

“When you look at what the international standards are for the treatment of people, and you are in a place like the United States, it’s really astounding to hear some of this testimony,” Roberto Borrero, a representative of the International Indian Treaty Council who is helping John with the interviews, told the British newspaper.

John is also meeting with police officials in the local town of Mandan, Borrero said. Native American protester have alleged ill-treatment and abuse by police as their protest continues to gain national and international attention.

After collecting the testimonies the U.N. forum plans to issue a report and possible recommendations. The body has already called on the U.S. government to grant the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe a say over the construction of the US3$3.8 billion pipeline.

The police are holding some of the water protectors in a temporary holding facility, described as  “cages”, at Morton County correctional center.

“We embarked upon a peaceful and prayerful campaign,” Phyllis Young, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told The Guardian. Water protectors “were placed in cages. They had numbers written on their arms very much like concentration camps.” Young, who had given her testimony to the U.N. representatives, added that she was planning on helping the tribe file a lawsuit against the police over “not only conditions of colonialism, but conditions of war.”

Native American leaders vowed Saturday to continue their protest against the pipeline, which threatens water resources and sacred lands, and are considering lawsuits over police treatment of water protectors.

In a show of solidarity more than a million people used Facebook's location tagging feature to "check in" Monday afternoon at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in an attempt to confuse police who are using social media to monitor the protest.

Last month Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman, Dave Archambault II,  addressed the 49-member United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva where he called upon “all parties to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline."

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