Comments Delivered to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief

Comments delivered as part of the “Virtual Consultation on Legal Framework: Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief,” held June 22, 2022. For details on the Special Rapporteur’s report, see Ahmed Shaheed, “Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief” (New York: United Nations, October 10, 2022), https://www.ohchr.org/en/ documents/thematic-reports/a77514-interim-report-special-rapporteur-freedom-religion-or-belief.

Remarks on the Freedom of Religion or Belief Report

Remarks delivered at the forum “Freedom of Religion or Belief for Indigenous Peoples: The 2022 UN Report,” at the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary on October 26, 2022. This forum discussed human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

On the Limits of the Concept of Religious Freedom in Indigenous Communities

In this essay, we will argue that firstly, the international and national legal framings of religion or belief are limited in scope, and one must ask not only religious freedom for whom but also from whom. Secondly, we will underscore the continued limitations of international human rights-based discourse. Why are Indigenous nations consistently excluded from rights-based discourses? We have the UN Declaration on Human Rights (UNDHR), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNPFII), the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), this new report, and so many other reports. We will ask at what stage we move from declarations and reports to protecting and supporting Indigenous nations and peoples. Thirdly, building on the limitations of rights-based reporting, we will highlight what this report gets right and invite activists, lawyers, scholars, and all folks to take up and read the report and follow up on the elements we believe to be most salient. Finally, we will conclude by offering an alternative to declarations that support Indigenous nations and peoples’ inherent right to sovereignty. Our conclusion emphasizes Faithkeeper Lyons urgent message, The Ice is Melting in the North, and provides a framework for how people could respond by explaining the Two Row Wampum treaty and the Two Row Wampum Method.

The Bankruptcy of the Category of Religion

This article takes as its point of departure the 2022 Interim Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, entitled “Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief.” The report recommends “collaborat[ing] with indigenous spiritual leaders and influencers to support conservation efforts and the sustainable development of traditional lands through a human rights-based approach.” We ask what a human-rights-based approach to the conservation and sustainable development of traditional Indigenous lands looks like. More specifically, would such an approach be in line with the worldviews of the Indigenous peoples potentially affected by such conservation or development? We consider these questions both legally and theologically. We acknowledge that the protection of human rights is better than their violation, but we also take seriously critiques of this standard human rights discourse. We argue that case studies such as Oak Flat, Lake Titicaca, and the Klamath River call us away from abstract affirmations of the human right to religious freedom and toward a rights-of-nature framework – even as we consider critiques of this framework as well. Ultimately, both Western legal discourse and Western religious studies discourse reduce Indigenous cosmologies (which are metaphysical systems) into cultural debates, thus erasing the sovereignty of Indigenous lands and peoples. A decolonizing approach therefore requires a rethinking of the sacred.