Tribal Clinic Develops Toolkit to Help Indigenous Peoples Assert Their Rights
April 28, 2021
Professor Angela R. Riley directs UCLA Law’s Native Nations Law and Policy Center and UCLA’s dual-degree program in Law and American Indian Studies.
For the first time, leaders across Indian country have a toolkit available to them to address Indigenous and human rights through tribal lawmaking that supports and implements the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The “Tribal Implementation Toolkit” was developed by students and faculty in UCLA School of Law’s Tribal Legal Development Clinic, in collaboration with students and attorneys at the University of Colorado Law School and the Native American Rights Fund, or NARF. It is available for free to the public and stands as an invaluable resource for tribal leaders and communities to implement the key aims of the 2007 U.N. declaration. The Declaration is a far-reaching, aspirational document recognizing that Indigenous Peoples have a wide array of rights, including self-determination, equality, property, culture, religious freedom, health, and economic well-being, among others. The Declaration also calls on states to undertake legal reform that will remedy past violations and ensure current protections for Indigenous Peoples’ rights going forward.