"Stakeholder Report to the UN Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review Working Group", October 2019

Indigenous peoples increasingly find themselves the targets of arrests and violence when defending their lands from resource extraction by industries operating without their free, prior and informed consent. This report addresses the criminalization and suppression of peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock, North Dakota by the United States... federal, state and local governments working with private security forces...The [US] has failed... to prevent and protect against the use of excessive force and unlawful arrests and to investigate, punish, and provide reparations for human rights violations against DAPL water protectors... [The] U.S. is failing to uphold its obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples... We call upon the UPR working group to urge the United States to... [r]eview criminal proceedings against DAPL water protectors... and urge prosecutors to have... arrestees exonerated and political prisoners released... Adopt a regulatory framework to monitor and report on the corporate conduct and human rights...to prevent future violations against indigenous peoples and their lands... [and reject] or amend legislation, including critical infrastructure laws, that violate rights to free speech and assembly.