International Law and Native American Human Rights Violations Explored - Secret of a Long Journey
April 2013
International Law & Native American Human Rights Violations Explored: The Secret of A Long Journey with Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
Program Description:
Join Colorado author Sandra Shwayder Sanchez for an exploration of international human rights law as she discusses her latest novel, The Secret of A Long Journey. In particular, she will discuss the 1989 Federal Wildlife Sting Operation in San Luis Valley, go over the history and why it was considered politically motivated, and discuss how it violated the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Ms. Sanchez will juxtapose the Spanish Inquisition with human rights violations by the U.S. Government against Native Americans. She will discuss the history and purpose of the Inquisition and go over points outlined in an article she co-authored for the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy Vol. 15, Winter/Spring 1987, “Human Rights Violations by the U.S. Government Against Native Americans in the Passage and Enforcement of Pub. L. No. 93-531.”
She will discuss the fact that the Anti-Genocide Convention was drafted by the United Nations in 1946, but the U.S. did not officially sign onto it until 1986, and the fact that the Convention is not only against physical genocide but cultural genocide and how the U.S. continued to dishonor the rights of Native people to their own language, customs, etc.
If time allows, she will discuss the February 1990 trial of Russell Means after the October 1989 protest of the Columbus Day parade and the motion filed to drop the charges based on selective prosecution as well as First Amendment rights.
The purpose of the presentation is to raise awareness of historic, recent, and continuing discrimination against native people and put that into a historical context, as well as point out the importance of using international law to fight this discrimination.
Presented by Sandra Shwayder Sanchez, J.D.
Agenda:
11:30 am - 12:00 pm Registration
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Program
About the Faculty:
Sandra Shwayder Sanchez graduated George Washington High School in 1964. She attended St. John's College in Annapolis for one year where she met her first husband. They traveled in Europe, lived in N.Y. and D.C., and then “back to the land” in West Virginia in the seventies where she designed and oversaw the construction of an energy efficient house. After returning to urban life in D.C. she returned to college at University of Maryland, majoring in Psychology with a minor in the then new women's studies program, and received her divorce decree and her BA degree in 1982. She then moved back to Denver with her two daughters and received her JD from Denver University in 1986. She joined the National Lawyer's Guild during her first year of law school and was one of several Guild lawyers who represented clients entrapped in a Federal Wildlife Sting operation in the San Luis Valley in 1989 when and where she discovered the interesting historical mystery that inspired The Secret of A Long Journey. In 1989-1990 she represented Russell Means after the first of the Columbus Day Parade Protests and thereafter represented other Native clients in the Juvenile as well the Criminal courts. She also worked with Pen Tate II on federal employment discrimination cases before his death in 1993. Diagnosed with cancer in 1994, she took a break from law practice and devoted herself to writing novels, novellas, and short stories, literary fiction being another way of becoming a voice for people who are ignored and often oppressed in our society. Ms. Sanchez was remarried in 1994 and she and her husband moved from Denver to Nederland in 2005.
Location Information
CLECI Large Classroom
1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80203
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1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80203
Registration Fees
| Non Member | $39.00 |
| CBA Member | $25.00 |
| CBA International Law Section Member | $19.00 |
| CLEACCESSPASS | $0.00 |
| CLE Basic Pass Holder | $0.00 |
- General Credits: 1.00
- Ethics Credits:
- EDI Credits:
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