Washington, DC, June 7, 2010 – The Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People offered a training seminar on the inter-American and universal systems for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.
The panelists were the IACHR Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Dinah Shelton, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, James Anaya. There were also presentations by human rights specialists from the IACHR Executive Secretariat and from the Support Project for the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples of the University of Arizona.
The seminar’s objective, which took place on June 3 and 4 in Washington, D.C., was to train indigenous leaders and lawyers from throughout the United States and Canada in the petition and case system and in the protection mechanisms offered by the IACHR and the United Nations system regarding the rights of indigenous peoples. Special emphasis was given to the development of jurisprudence in relation to the human rights of indigenous peoples.
This seminar was made possible by the financial support of the Government of Denmark through the project Strengthening of the Capacities of the Inter-American System of Human Rights in the Defense of the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who act in a personal capacity, without representing a particular country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.