Special Rapporteur Welcomes Presidential Clemency For Indigenous Leader Leonard Peltier

GENEVA (24 January 2025) – The Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Albert Kwokwo Barume, has commended the decision by outgoing United States President Joe Biden to issue an Executive Grant of Clemency for Indigenous leader Leonard Peltier, who has been imprisoned for nearly 50 years.

The decision, signed on 19 January 2025, commutes the remainder of Peltier's life sentences to home confinement.

“Leonard Peltier has spent most of his life in prison, subjected to criminal proceedings that raised concerns regarding international due process standards,” Barume said. “Although this clemency cannot restore the decades of life he has lost, it provides an opportunity for him to receive proper medical care and reconnect with his People. It is an important gesture by the United States toward the country’s Indigenous Peoples.”

Peltier is a member of the Chippewa and Lakota Nations, who was forcibly removed from his family at the age of nine by government agents and sent to a boarding school, severing his connection to his culture and heritage. In 1976, Peltier was arrested in Canada, extradited to the United States, and convicted of murder in connection with the deaths of two FBI agents during a confrontation with indigenous activists at Pine Ridge reservation. He received two life sentences.

“Over the years, Mr. Peltier has maintained his innocence, and concerns have been raised about the fairness of his trial and about his legal representation,” the Special Rapporteur said. “Mr. Peltier has also suffered from serious health conditions, which prison authorities have been unable to properly address.”

In 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Peltier’s imprisonment constituted arbitrary detention and called for his immediate release. In 2024, the previous UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, visited him in the detention center.

In his report of 2012 on the human rights situation of Indigenous Peoples in the United States, the then UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples urged clemency for Leonard Peltier, as part of a process of necessary reconciliation with Native Americans in the context of historical and ongoing injustices. Indigenous leaders in the United States have reiterated calls to successive U.S. presidents for them to pardon or provide clemency for Leonard Peltier.

The Presidential order acknowledges concerns about Peltier’s imprisonment while maintaining the original conviction. It permits Leonard Peltier to serve the remainder of his sentence under home confinement, offering him the opportunity to address his medical needs and spend time with his loved ones.

The expert said that the clemency decision does not condone violence or diminish the gravity of events that led to Peltier’s conviction.

“States have a duty to ensure due process for all defendants at every stage of criminal proceedings, including parole hearings, as required by international law, and to comprehensively address patterns of wrongful treatment of Indigenous Peoples and individuals,” he said.

“The decision reflects the need for justice and fairness in the treatment of indigenous peoples, and highlights the importance of addressing systemic issues within the criminal justice system, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their background, are afforded their fundamental rights.” Barume said.

Albert Kwokwo Barume, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples

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