Native group decries human rights violations at Bears Ears

Native group decries human rights violations at Bears Ears

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Native American advocacy group is appealing to an independent expert with the United Nations Human Rights Council to order the United States to respond to ongoing human right violations it says are happening at Bears Ears National Monument.

The Deseret News reported Tuesday that Utah Dine Bikeyah leaders say ongoing grave robbing and looting of cultural artifacts merit action and intervention.

Utah Dine Bikeyah wants the independent expert to direct the United States to respond to the human rights violations and to formally adopt the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into law.

The advocacy organization is one of many at the center of a fight over changes to monument’s boundaries in southeast Utah.