Applying International Human Rights Law in Tribal Disenrollment Action

Interesting read on The Application of International Human Rights Law
to Tribal Disenrollment Actions by GREG RUBIO

Here's the money quotes:

CONCLUSION

The disenrollment of the Cherokee Freedmen by the Cherokee tribe
provides the Freedmen with legitimate grounds to pursue a civil rights
claim under domestic law. Unfortunately, however, the present
construction of federal Indian law and, particularly, the present
application of tribal sovereign immunity against ICRA claims leave
the Freedmen without access to the federal courts, and instead resigns
them to seek a remedy in tribal courts. Where, as with the Cherokee,
tribes do not assure adequate remedy for civil rights claims against
themselves, civil rights plaintiffs like the Freedmen should considerpursuing remedies under international human rights law.

This Article has explained how, in the case of the Freedmen’s potential claim,there are at least two international human rights instruments by which the Freedmen could seek to bind the United States for the
disenrollment violations.

The degree to which such an adverse ruling
would impact U.S. Indian law policy is largely hypothetical. If this
sort of action became a recognized and regular threat, however, the
United States might consider amending the ICRA in a way that would
compel the Cherokee and other tribes to take the individual rights of
their citizens more seriously.



Read the rest of Greg Rubio’s article here