Professor James Hopkins is actively engaged before several international human rights bodies to protect Rio Yaqui traditional lands, promote culturally appropriate economic development, and remediate wide-spread environmental damage.

Professor Robert A. Williams, Jr. with the assistance of IPLP students and staff, represented the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group (which consists of six First Nations in British Columbia, Canada) on a Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Under the guidance of IPLP faculty and staff, students have worked with a team of lawyers and researchers to assist the Maya communities of southern Belize to secure and effectively exercise their rights over their traditional lands and natural resources.

IPLP represented the Border Action Network, a non-government organization whose mission is to protect the human rights of people affected by border and immigration policies, in a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Professor Mary Guss and Claudia Nelson, Director of the Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office, partnered on a will-writing project with the Allottees Association of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation.

The IPLP program worked with the Indian Law Resource Center and the Western Shoshone Defense Project to assist the Dann traditional family and other Western Shoshone groups to defend their land rights in precedent-setting proceedings before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Assisted by IPLP students and staff, Professor James Anaya was the lead counsel for the Awas Tingni community in the proceedings that led to the landmark judgment by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka (YATAMA), the main Indigenous political party in Nicaragua, sought to enable the full exercise of the right to political participation by the Indigenous peoples of the country's Atlantic Coast region.

IPLP faculty, staff, and students supported the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a position held by Professor James Anaya from 2008 to 2014. During his time as Special Rapporteur, Professor Anaya worked to promote the human rights of Indigenous peoples worldwide.

The IPLP Program worked with the Rainforest Foundation UK to develop a report concerning the international human rights regime and the obligations of state actors for the fair and equitable treatment of Indigenous peoples in Africa. In 2006 IPLP completed the project and released the report titled The Rights of the Pygmy People in the Republic of Congo.

The report was commissioned by Rainforest Foundation UK to help inform the consultation and drafting process for the proposed law on the promotion and protection of Congo’s Pygmies human rights. Released in 2006, IPLP’s report was instrumental to the adoption of a general law to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples in Congo, the first law of its kind on the African continent. After an extensive consultation process, the Senate and National Assembly of the Republic of the Congo passed a law recognizing the rights of Indigenous peoples on December 30, 2010.

Students participated in the Tribal Court Guardian ad Litem Program with the Tohono O'odham Nation judicial branch. Students were trained to represent children in the Tohono O'odham family court system as Guardian ad Litems, working alongside tribal social workers, juvenile probation offices, tribal court personnel, and family members to determine the best interests of children in the child welfare system and advocate on their behalf in court. Students were taught about the legacy of forced removal of Native American children from their families and received training to be culturally competent working within tribal communities. Most importantly, students learned how to be effective advocates for Native American families. After assisting the Tohono O'odham Nation with the placement of foster children in supportive homes, the Tribal Court Guardian ad Litem project came to a successful conclusion.

IPLP assisted the Indigenous peoples of Raposa Serra do Sol in Brazil with their petitions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Indigenous peoples of Raposa Serra do Sol sought legal recognition of their rights over their traditional lands and protection from threats and violence experienced at the hands of non-Indigenous farmers.

IPLP faculty, assisted by students, worked with the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Earth Justice, and the Center for International Environmental Law to submit a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the Inuit people of the Arctic regions, seeking relief from violations of their human rights experienced as a result of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions from the United States.

Robert A. Williams, Jr.
Regents Professor, E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Chair, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program
Email: lumbee@email.arizona.edu (link sends e-mail) 
Office Number: RH 308
Office Phone: (520) 621-5622