Strength!: U.N. officials denounce ‘inhuman’ treatment of Native American pipeline protesters

washingtonpost) - The United Nations' special rapporteur on the rights of freedom of association and peaceful assembly released a forceful statement Tuesday, calling out U.S. security forces for using violence against protesters peacefully opposing the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota, as well as what he called “the inhuman and degrading conditions” those arrested faced in detention.

The official, Maini Kiai, is a reputed human rights lawyer from Kenya who also traveled to the United States this summer to survey mounting racial tensions in the lead-up to last week's presidential election. His statement on the protests in North Dakota, which are largely being carried out by Native Americans, was endorsed by a slew of other high-ranking U.N. officials, including special rapporteurs on drinking water, the environment, free speech, cultural rights and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Kiai said that security forces, both public and private, had used unjustified force in dealing with and detaining more than 400 protesters.

“Protesters say they have faced rubber bullets, tear gas, mace, compression grenades and beanbag rounds while expressing concerns over environmental impact and trying to protect burial grounds and other sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe” on whose land the ongoing pipeline construction is taking place, according to the statement provided by Kiai's office.

The statement notes that Kiai acknowledged that some protesters had resorted to violence, too, but that the response of security officials was disproportionate and targeted protesters who were doing so peacefully.

U.N. officials have been taking U.S. security forces and its government to task more frequently. For instance, in September, a U.N.-affiliated group released a report that concluded that the country's history of slavery justifies reparationsfor a large portion of its African American population. “There has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent,” the report stated. (FullText)