Amid the current election excitement and heightened national focus on the politics of women’s issues, Congressional efforts to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) have garnered considerable attention. Among the new VAWA provisions which passed through the Senate and are the subject of some controversy is one that would acknowledge the inherent authority of…
On a sunny September day in New York City in 2007, the United Nations General Assembly gathered to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). The event marked the culmination of three decades of intense international work by thousands of indigenous leaders and the start of a new chapter in…
Last month, the United States Senate moved to close a jurisdictional loophole that for decades has allowed non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence in Indian country to evade prosecution. Senate Bill 1925, the carefully crafted reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act or VAWA, would allow Indian tribes to prosecute non-Indians for dating violence and domestic…
