On March 15, the United Nations General Assembly voted 170–4 to create a new Human Rights Council, effectively dissolving the oft-criticized Commission on Human Rights. Candidates for the Council will need to be elected by an absolute majority of 96 votes in order to secure a position, and once elected members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms.

Navajo and Hopi families residing on Big Mountain and the surrounding area of the Black Mesa in northern Arizona may be forced to relocate as a new senate bill, S1003 "The Navajo Hopi Land Settlement Act Amendments of 2005," goes before Congress.

The Gwich’in Steering Committee announced on October 25, 2005, the release of a new report outlining the implications of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as a violation of Gwich’in human rights under international law.

On June 20^th,  throngs of school children, teachers and parents shouted this appeal to officials of the United Nations as they paraded in front of UN headquarters on June 8, World Oceans Day. Organized by Global Response and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP), the marchers were decked out in sea turtle costumes and carried black painted turtle umbrellas. They displayed thousands of letters urging U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to take action against longline fishing, which kills 40,000-60,000 sea turtles annually.