The Role of Human Rights in Advancing Justice for Native Hawaiians: Infusing Indigenous Human Rights with Kanaka Maoli Values

Hawai‘i’s history is marked by profound injustices to the Native Hawaiian people—Kānaka Maoli—whose ancestral relationship with the land has long been recognized through cultural practice and constitutional law. This article contends that Hawai‘i’s modern legal framework, including its public land trust system, must be evaluated through an Indigenous restorative justice lens. In doing so, it proposes the application of a contextual legal framework grounded in four Kanaka Maoli values: moʻomeheu (cultural integrity), ʻāina (land and natural resources), mauli ola (social determinants of health and well-being), and ea (self-governance). These values not only reflect Indigenous jurisprudence but offer a pathway to repair harms rooted in colonization and systemic dispossession.<br><br>The article uniquely integrates this framework with international human rights norms—particularly the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ICCPR, and ICERD—to assess the State of Hawai‘i’s responsibility to Native Hawaiians. It uses Act 236 (formerly House Bill 499), a 2021 law enabling lease extensions of public trust lands, as a case study that reveals the State’s failure to uphold its constitutional and fiduciary obligations to Native Hawaiians. Despite overwhelming opposition from the Native Hawaiian community, the law was passed without meaningful consultation or free, prior, and informed consent, raising serious questions about the State’s commitment to restorative justice.<br><br>By fusing Kanaka Maoli values with international human rights frameworks, this article offers a powerful analytical tool to evaluate state action and inaction. It reframes legal analysis in Hawai‘i through an Indigenous rights-based perspective, advocating for reforms that align state policy with its trust obligations and the evolving standards of international Indigenous law. This synthesis has broader implications beyond Hawai‘i—providing legal scholars, advocates, and policymakers a model for advancing Indigenous justice wherever colonial legacies persist.