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Excerpted from:

KANAKA MAOLI (HAWAIIAN PEOPLE) SUBJECTED TO GENOCIDE AT THE HANDS OF U. S. AND STATE

by

Ka Ho'okolokolonui Kanaka Maoli Judges

Having heard extensive and compelling testimony on the islands of O'ahu, Matai, Moloka'i, Kaua'i and Hawai'i from August 13-19, 1993, receiving voluminous documentary evidence in support and corroboration of the testimony, and having engaged in a number of site inspections during the same period, the Ka Ho'okolokolonui Kanaka Maoli (People's International Tribunal, Hawai'i 1993) has arrived at certain general recognitions and findings from which it is prepared to advance preliminary recommendations. It should be noted that a full report detailing and amplifying these results will be issued by the Tribunal within a period of six months.

The Tribunal finds that:

  1. Between the years 179O and 1826, the United States violated na kanawai (Kanaka Maoli law) through a series of actions impugning the sovereignty of the Lahui Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian people and nation). These actions also violated elements of customary international law, as well as the fundamental commitment of the United States, expressed in its own Declaration of Independence, to respect the inalienable rights of all people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

  2. During the period of 1826 and 1893, the United States accelerated its interventions in the internal affairs of Lahui Kanaka Maoli, abridging and impairing its sovereign functioning and right to self-determination. In addition to violations of na Kanawai and customary law, these actions violated the terms of at least three ratified and binding treaties...

  3. In 1893, the U.S. openly supported, both diplomatically and through deployment of military force, a coup d'etat conducted by alien immigrants against the legitimate govermnent of Lahui Kanaka Maoli. Thereafter, for a period of five years, the U.S. openly supported the usurping regime by use of armed force against the indigenous population of Hawaii. In 1898, the U S. annexed Ka Pae'aina o Hawai'i (the Hawaiian archipelago), neither obtaining the consent of, nor even consulting the Kanaka Maoli. Self-evidently, these actions violated na kanawai in the most massive and fundamental ways....

  4. Following annexation, the United States forcibly subordinated, degraded and systematically dispossessed the Kanaka Maoli. In 1959, utilizing the mechanism of an invalid plebiscite which denied indigenous Hawaiians the right to express their will with regard to their political status or the disposition of their territory, the U. S incorporated Hawai'i into the Union as a state. ... this action contravened Article 73 of the United Nations Charter ... Under provision of Article 20 of the Charter of the Organization of American States. ...

  5. Lahui Kanaka Maoli Sovereignty has not been extingushed by the illegal actions of the United States. The overthrow of 1893 and purported annexation ... merely changed the nature of the operative state, but did not remove the inherent right of the people to sovereignty.

  6. The effective ability of indigenous Hawaiians to assert their legitimate right to self-determination has been denied. The Kanaka Maoli are morally and legally entitled to reassert this right under provision of U.N. General Assembly Resolution 1514.

  7. The federal government and government of the state of Hawai'i, have imposed and maintained a "blood quantum" system of identification upon the Kanaka Maoli which is alien to their cultural traditions, whlch is socially and politically divisive, and which has worked to their economic disadvantage. Blood quantum is ethnocidal, and is contrary to the virtual entirety of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

  8. The Kanaka Maoli have been subjected to ongoing processes of genocide, both physical and cultural, at the hands of the U.S. government and the government of the State of Hawaii, acting in concert with a range of commercial interests, since at least as early as 1850. The conduct of the ... governments violates na Kanawai, as well as the 1948 Convention for Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ...

  9. The Kanaka Maoli have exhausted all existing peaceful avenues for rectifying the multiplicity of wrongs done to them. Consequently, they are entitled, on an urgent basis, to explore potentially more productive approaches, such as mediated negotiations with the U.S. Department of State.

Recommendations:

  1. The Tribunal recommends that the U.S. and the world recognize the sovereignty - and the right to self-determination - of Lahui Kanaka Maoli under provision of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ... other elements of international law.

  2. The U.S. and the world should acknowledge the right of Lahui Kanaka Maoli to decolonization under the provisions of UN Resolution 1514.

  3. Kanaka Maoli lands ... should be returned to the control of Lahui Kanaka Maoli without delay ...

  4. Blood quantum standards of identification should be immediately suspended. Lahui Kanaka Maoli itself should determine the composition of its citizenry, free from external interference. ...

  5. The U.S. in negotiations and interactions with the Lahui Kanaka Maoli, should observe the provisions of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the minimum standards to be followed. ...


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