European Parliament resolution on native Americans in the US - Dineh
Date: 2000-02-17
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: United States, human rights, indigenous population

C 339/276

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.11.2000

Thursday 17 February 2000

15. Human rights: Native Americans in the US (cid:23) Dineh

B5-0152, 0157, 0163, 0171 and 0174/2000

European Parliament resolution on native Americans in the US (cid:23) Dineh

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the provisions on rights of indigenous peoples contained in the Vienna Declaration
adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights stressing the need to protect the economic, social
and cultural well-being of indigenous peoples including their distinct identities and cultures,

(cid:1) having regard to its resolutions on the rights of indigenous peoples, in particular that of 9 February

1994 (1) and 19 January 1995 (2),

(cid:1) having regard to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the principles

of Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity,

(cid:1) having regard to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 36/55 (cid:1) Declaration on the elimina-

tion of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief,

(cid:1) having regard to Resolutions 1989/97 and 1990/34 of the UN Sub-commission on prevention of

discrimination and protection of minorities on the ‘Relocation of Hopi and Navajo families’,

A. mindful of the Dineh people who reside in the Hopi Partition Lands (HPL) in the United States and are
facing eviction through the implementation of the Relocation Act (Public Law 93-531), obliging them
to sign the Accommodation Agreement,

B.

aware of the fact that the US Government will start the relocation process very soon,

C.

D.

E.

F.

concerned that the recent Public Law 104-301 and its Accommodation Agreement will mean the
Dineh (Navajo) families in the Black Mesa region being forced to abandon their land, given the denial
of sufficient livestock, thereby threatening the Dineh’s cultural and socio-economic survival, confisca-
tion of firewood causing families severe hardship, especially in winter, and the withdrawal of rights
regarding water, hunting and medicinal gatherings,

aware of the fact that Dineh families residing in HPL live near the Peabody Coal Company coal mining
lease areas on Black Mesa, which the Bureau of Indian Affairs granted water rights to the Navajo
aquifer, the sole water source of the Dineh and Hopi, whose wells are rapidly drying up, thereby
threatening their spiritual and religious existence,

considering the fact that on Black Mesa there are 10 000 sites of special significance for the cultural
heritage of the Dineh people,

aware of the fact that 94 million gallons of water contaminated with uranium mining waste broke
through a United Nuclear Corporation storage dam on 16 July 1979, pouring into the Puerto river in
New Mexico and the Little Colorado river where Dineh families from HPL had been evicted to con-
taminated radioactive areas along the Little Colorado river’s so-called New Lands,

G.

concerned about the health of the Dineh families living in the vicinity of existing mining facilities on
Black Mesa and those who relocated to the New Lands,

Calls on the US Government’s law-enforcement officers to halt all harassment of Dineh families

1.
resisting relocation;

Calls on the US Government to respect the land rights of the Dineh people as well as the provisions

2.
for indigenous peoples of the Vienna Declaration;

(1) OJ C 61, 28.2.1994, p. 69.
(2) OJ C 43, 20.2.1995, p. 85.

29.11.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 339/277

Thursday 17 February 2000

Calls on the US Government not to proceed with the Accommodation Agreement until the US Con-

3.
gress mandates formal congressional hearings to re-assess the impact of mining in the region;

Calls on the US authorities to organise integration programmes for the Dineh people who have been

4.
relocated;

5.
Calls on its delegation for relations with the United States to discuss, at its next meeting, the Dineh
(Navajo) and Hopi people’s human rights, development, cultural and religious rights and their treatment by
the United States;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the US Govern-

6.
ment, the US Congress, the Navajo and Hopi Tribal Councils and the Governor of the State of Arizona.

16. Human rights: Human rights: Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky

B5-0153, 0155, 0156, 0172 and 0177/2000

European Parliament resolution on the case of Andrei Babitsky, freedom of the media and viola-
tions of human rights in Chechnya

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to its previous resolutions on the situation in Chechnya, in particular its resolutions of

18 November (1) and 15 December 1999 (2) and 20 January 2000 (3),

(cid:1) having regard to Article 2 of the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between the Russian
Federation and the European Union which states that ‘respect for the democratic principles and
human rights’ constitutes an essential element of the partnership,

(cid:1) having regard to the Common Strategy of the European Union on Russia, adopted by the Council on

4 June 1999,

(cid:1) having regard to the conclusions of the General Affairs Council of 24 January 2000,

A. deeply concerned about the fate of the Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky who had been covering the
war in Chechnya for Radio Liberty before he was detained at a Russian checkpoint on 16 January
2000 and then supposedly handed over by the Russian authorities to Chechen commanders in
exchange for two Russian prisoners of war,

B.

deeply perplexed by the conflicting declarations about the whereabouts of the Russian journalist,

C. deploring the thousands of war victims among the civilian population of Chechnya killed during the
totally indiscriminate and disproportionate military attacks by the Russian Federal Forces, and deeply
concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian situation of hundreds of thousands of displaced per-
sons in and outside Chechnya,

D.

aware of allegations concerning the ill-treatment of Mr Babitsky by Russian Federal and Security
Forces as well as of allegations that thousands of civilians are being arbitrarily detained, tortured and
humiliated in detention centres, namely Chernokozovo and Mozdok, under the control of the Russian
Federal Forces,

E.

alarmed by many similar cases of detained, threatened or disappeared journalists, casting a bleak sha-
dow on the increasingly battered freedom of the press in the region,

(1) Texts adopted of that Sitting, Item 15.
(2) Texts adopted of that Sitting, Item 23.
(3) Texts adopted of that Sitting, Item 6.