Mae Manupipatpong, Attorney, International Program: “The environmental harms don’t just stop at arbitrary borders, and cultural rights don’t really either.”

Canada’s decision effectively silences Tribes as slew of gold and copper mines upriver in British Columbia threaten ecological hotspot

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), consisting of Alaska Tribes rooted along Canada’s transboundary rivers, requests that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights call on Canada and B.C. to adopt and implement precautionary measures to prevent irreparable harms to SEITC resulting from the impending approval and construction of the Eskay Creek Revitalization Project, a large gold and silver mine in the transboundary Unuk River in British Columbia.

Ramin Pejan, Attorney, International Program: “I think if we interpret Desautel, it’s very clear from the evidence we’ve submitted that we meet the threshold legal test for recognizing SEITC and its tribes as protected under the Canadian Constitution.”

New and diminished engagement with U.S. Tribes violates Provincial law

Mining pollution threatens the sovereign rights of the Tsimshian in Southeast Alaska. Assistant Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission Lee Wagner tells what that means for her community.

Mae Manupipatpong, Attorney, International Program: “Toxic water pollution doesn’t stop at the Canadian border. And human rights obligations don’t either.”

SEITC briefs the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights on Canada’s violations

A group of Alaska Tribes with roots along Canada’s transboundary rivers, the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), submitted a brief to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights requesting a hearing on the looming threats of several risky and under-regulated gold mines in British Columbia.

Ramin Pejan, Attorney, International Program: “The ownership of the Unuk River and the territory and the use of that river is integral to their culture, to their subsistence. It goes back thousands of years before these borders were in place.”

Tlingit Tribes originating along the Unuk River want a say in risky mining proposals

Prepared for Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) as part of a petition submitted to Canadian environmental regulators affirming their historic presence along the Unuk River, which is threatened by rapidly expanding transboundary mining.

The Taku, Stikine, and Unuk rivers flow across the Canada-United States border, from headwaters in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia through Southeast Alaska to the sea. These watersheds are some of the largest and most productive salmon habitats remaining in the world. Alaska Native and First Nations peoples have harvested salmon and caribou from…

Petition from the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) addresses Canada’s failure to regulate and prevent threats from large-scale mining operations in British Columbia

Decision by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to admit a petition from Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC), alleging that Canada’s failure to regulate and prevent threats from large-scale mining operations in British Columbia constitutes a violation of SEITC member Tribes’ internationally recognized human rights.

Petition (updated in July 2020) to the Inter-American Commission On Human Rights seeking relief from violations of the rights of the members of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission resulting from hard-rock mining in British Columbia, Canada

Southeast Alaskan Tribes have brought a human rights petition against Canada to protect the fish at the center of their cultures.

Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission submits human rights petition to Inter-American Commission