A/HRC/36/46/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 33/12, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples visited the United States of America from 22 February to 3 March 2017. The Special Rapporteur expresses her gratitude to the Government of the United States for its invitation and full cooperation. 2. The purpose of the visit was to assess the impacts of energy development projects — including resource development through extractive industries, hydroelectric power, geothermal exploration — and wind and solar projects on Indian tribes living both within and outside of reservations. Special attention was paid to the Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous peoples, including the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other tribes indirectly affected by the pipeline. 3. During her 10-day visit, the Special Rapporteur visited Fort Yates, Fort Berthold and Bismarck in North Dakota; Washington, D.C.; Albuquerque in New Mexico; Window Rock in Arizona and Boulder in Colorado. She met with federal and regional representatives of the federal Government in Washington, D.C., and representatives of North Dakota, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. 4. The Special Rapporteur visited several tribal communities, met with leaders from across the Great Plains and held the first-ever virtual consultation. She also met with a wide range of civil society and human rights organizations working on indigenous peoples’ rights. 5. Energy development is of critical concern for many reasons. First, when tribes are able to leverage the resources on their land, they can enact economic development in a selfdetermined manner, which would enable them to exercise their sovereignty. Second, the impacts and effects of energy development occur on a much larger scale than other types of economic development as it directly affects the lands and territories where indigenous peoples live and which are vital to their society, spirituality and culture. Currently, nearly 20 per cent of the untapped energy resources in the United States are located on or near Indian lands, 1 which means an even greater potential for renewable energy. Thus, a comprehensive view of all forms and phases of energy development — including exploration, implementation and reclamation — is necessary to understand the benefits and risks of development for indigenous peoples in the short and long term. II. Legal, institutional and policy framework 6. The United States has ratified international treaties relevant to the rights of indigenous peoples, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and has made reservations with respect to those treaties. 7. In 2014, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2 noted that indigenous peoples continued to be disproportionately affected by negative health impacts from extractive and manufacturing industries and recommended the clean-up of any remaining radioactive and toxic waste with particular attention to neglected indigenous peoples. It urged the intensification of efforts to prevent and combat violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women in particular and to ensure that all cases of violence against women were effectively investigated, perpetrators prosecuted and sanctioned and victims provided with appropriate remedies. It also urged that measures be 1 2 See Indian Energy Development hearing before the Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, 110th Congress, 1 May 2008. CERD/C/USA/CO/7-9. 3