Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2012 / July / 03 / UBC professor’s research makes global impact
Policy & Social Change

UBC professor’s research makes global impact

July 3, 2012

Asst. Prof. Margo Tamez from the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC's Okanagan campus will present research findings at a UN human rights conference in Switzerland this month. Photo credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University Photography

Asst. Prof. Margo Tamez from the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC's Okanagan campus will present research findings at a UN human rights conference in Switzerland this month. Photo credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University Photography

Margo Tamez attends high-profile sessions on Indigenous rights

Margo Tamez has been invited by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present research findings on the impacts of militarization on Indigenous peoples, their lands and territories on international borders.

An assistant professor of Indigenous Studies and Gender-Women’s Studies in the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC’s Okanagan campus, Tamez will present during the 5th Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), held July 9 to 13 in Geneva, Switzerland. EMRIP provides the Human Rights Council with thematic advice, in the form of studies and research, on the rights of Indigenous peoples.

“Being selected to participate is an enormous honour,” says Tamez. “It comes with a significant responsibility to uphold the principles of Indigenous elders, women, families, youth and workers in regions of North America which have been brutally marginalized in U.S. domestic policy decisions related to border security.”

In May, Tamez and research collaborator Ariel Dulitzky, clinical professor of law and director of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas, submitted a study to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) related to human rights violations impacting Indigenous peoples on the Texas-Mexico border in connection with the U.S. border wall.

Tamez plans to inform the EMRIP of this ground-breaking study, which highlights the severity of the detrimental social, economic, and political impacts of border militarization and Indigenous land dispossession directly tied to the construction of the Texas-Mexico border wall across the lands of the  Kickapoo, Tigua, and Lipan Apache Indigenous communities.

The 5th Session of EMRIP will bring together representatives from states, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, civil society, inter-governmental organizations and academia. High on the agenda is the global importance of the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the country level within nation-states and a knowledge exchange about the challenges Indigenous peoples face in achieving this internationally recognized goal.

“I am thrilled to have the chance to work in collaboration with some of the world’s top experts and innovators in Indigenous rights and social movements,” says Tamez.  “I look forward to learning more about high-level UN internal mechanisms, as well as gaining deeper understandings of Indigenous women’s roles as researchers, community advocates and international diplomats.”

— 30 —

Media Contact

Jody Jacob
E-mail: Jody.Jacob@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences (prior July 2020)

Trending Stories

  • How one student connects AI innovation to wildfire research
  • Robotics, AI advancing wildfire, agricultural research at UBCO
  • Psychedelic mushroom microdoses can improve mood, mental health
  • UBCO professor researches electric passenger light rail for Okanagan Valley
  • Made in Canada breakthrough is a gamechanger in heart valve technology
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

TikTok icon Linkedin icon

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility