Huy Asks United Nations For Intercession On Behalf Of Indigenous Prisoners

Today Huy wrote the U.N.Human Rights Committee in reference to the Committee’s List of Issues for the United States’ 5th periodic review. Here you can read Huy’s Submission to UN Human Rights Committee re United States 5th Periodic Review and Indigenous Prisoners’ Religious Freedoms.

Huy’s submission respectfully requests that the Committee ask the United States about its compliance with provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that are applicable to the situation of indigenous prisoners’ religious freedoms. Indigenous prisoners in the United States remain subject to a pervasive pattern of state and local prisons illegally restricting their ability to possess religious items, participate in religious ceremonies, and otherwise engage in traditional religious practices.

Huy specifically requests the Committee ask the United States:

“What steps is the State party taking to ensure the protection of indigenous prisoners’ religious freedoms at state and local levels, including access to sweat lodges and ceremonies and access to sacred and ceremonial items? How does the State party ensure that prison regulations affecting indigenous prisoners are made in consultation with indigenous peoples? How does the State party guarantee an effective remedy when indigenous prisoners’ rights are violated?”

The submission was chiefly authored by Akilah J. Kinnison, Assistant Professor of Law with the Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.