Serious Surrender

Glenn Morris, a scholar from the Fourth World Center for the Study of International Law and Politics, observes that the State Department report — documenting the conditional US endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — seeks to “persuade indigenous peoples that we’ve lost our international legal personality–and that is a very serious surrender.” Professor Morris goes on to say that the US statement regarding its qualified endorsement of UNDRIP amounts to domesticating an international document, and “rejects its major principles and ideals.” The consistent historical US opposition to indigenous peoples’ human rights, says Morris, reflects the current US strategy to protect its ill-gotten gains through such chicanery.