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A United Methodist representative to the United Nations and a Native American representative submitted April 13 oral testimony on indigenous people and religious intolerance in the United States to delegates of the 55th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The United Methodist Church prays for a rule of law for all peoples based on respect for justice, human rights, religious freedom and tolerance," said Liberato Bautista, General Board of Church and Society's assistant general secretary of the United Nations Office.

Bautista gave the testimony with Peggy Francis Scott of the Dineh Nation (Navajo) in Arizona, following a report from Abelfattah Amor, an UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. Amor, a Tunisian national, presented the commission with a report linking human rights violations and religious intolerance in the United States, China, Pakistan, Iran, Greece, Sudan, India, Australia and Germany. Several countries and non-governmental (NGO) delegations, including the World Council of Churches, spoke from the floor.

In early February 1998, Amor investigated charges of religious and human rights violations by the US government against the Dineh people in Black Mesa, located in the northeastern region of Arizona. The special rapporteur is an independent expert that reports only to the Commission and the UN General Assembly.

The complaint, filed by several members of traditional Dineh people to the UN Human Rights Commission, accused the United States of destroying 4,000 ancient Anasazi ruins and sacred burial sites. Additionally, the complaint charged that US federal laws have denied them access to water, legalized the confiscation of their livestock, prevented the gathering of firewood to heat their homes and prohibited any housing improvements.

Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society, led an interfaith delegation of non-governmental organizations, which included Bautista, to meet with Amor during the Feb. visit to Black Mesa, the Dineh tribal land. United Methodist Bishop William Dew (Phoenix Area) and Thomas Butcher of the Desert Southwest Annual Conference joined Fassett. The NGO representatives were invited by the traditional Dineh to witness the on site visit of Amor.

"[Amor's] visit in Black Mesa is historic and symbolic in that, at a low point in the struggle of our people, he lifted our hopes, awakened our dreams, and lent an understanding ear to our prophecies", said Scott. "But more remains to be said about the Dineh situation."

US Public laws 93-531 and 104-391, also known as "relocation laws", have forced the traditional Dineh off their ancestral lands, relocating more than 12,000 Dineh since 1974. Today, only 3,000 remain in the area.

In the commission report, Amor observed that the US Supreme Court's jurisprudence points to "no enforceable safeguards for worship at sacred sites."

Scott noted that the Dineh's ancestral land has also been threatened by the coal mining practices of multinational corporations and urged US government to enforce laws protecting their land, including the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the Antiquities Act. "The unsustainable environmental practices of runaway multinational mining corporations inflict environmental racism upon us", said Scott.

"The US government must recognize that no territorial settlement should ever deprive Indigenous Peoples of their right to remain on their traditional land or to practice their religion thereupon", Scott asserted. "Our land is sacred and we do not believe it should be expropriated from us. The US government cannot and must not subordinate our survival as a people to economic interests whose dividends we do not partake from."

Asserting the United Methodist policy supporting the "needs and aspirations" of America's native peoples as they struggle for their survival, Bautista indicated that the denomination supports the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. He also urged the Human Rights Commission to extend the mandate of the investigation of religious intolerance in the United States.

Scott and several Dineh members were part of the general board's delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The General Board of Church and Society is registered at the United Nations as an international NGO in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.