The Western Shoshone are collecting signatures for a nationwide petition that calls on the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to immediately address the human rights abuses that the United States government has committed against them, Oxfam reports on its Web site. The petition asks the committee "to help stop US violations against [the Western Shoshone], and to demand reform of US laws and policies that allow for the theft and destruction of indigenous lands." The petition follows the tribe’s August 2005 appeal to the UN to halt US gold mining and nuclear development plans on Western Shoshone land, which extends through portions of California, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho. According to a report posted by the Western Shoshone Defense Project, the United States government missed a December 31 deadline to answer the CERD’s questions about charges of federal harassment of the Western Shoshone people. For more information or to sign the petition, visit: http://ga0.org/campaign/shoshone_petition.
