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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 12:32 p.m., Thursday, February 22, 2007

Trask to speak on Akaka bill, more at UH symposiums

Advertiser Staff

 

Attorney and Hawaiian activist Mililani Trask plans to address the Akaka bill and ongoing court challenges involving Native Hawaiian rights tomorrow in the first of a series of symposiums at the University of Hawai'i.

Advertiser library file

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The first of four symposiums at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa campus featuring attorney and Hawaiian activist Mililani Trask takes place from 4:30 to 8 p.m. tomorrow at Halau o Haumea of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.

Trask, who has been working for more than a decade at the international level for Hawaiian and indigenous rights, will speak tomorrow on the Akaka bill, ongoing court challenges involving Native Hawaiian rights and institutions, and developments at the United Nations.

From 4:30 to 8 p.m. March 9, at Classroom 2 of the William S. Richardson School of Law, Trask will speak on the history of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, its current status and the objections of the United States and other states.

From 2:30 to 4 p.m. March 16, at Saunders Hall Room 624, she will speak on racism in United States jurisprudence and she will examine U.S. domestic case law dealing with people of color and Native Americans.

The final session takes place from 4:30 to 8 p.m. April 4 at Halau o Haumea and will focus on the history of Hawai'i before the U.N. Trask will look at recently filed briefs before under the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights to which the United States is a signatory and claims advanced by Hawaiians and Alaskan Natives against the United States.

In 2001, Trask was nominated and appointed by the president of the Economic Social Council of the U.N. as Pacific representative to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.