ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A group representing Navajo communities is presenting its case to an international human rights body, saying U.S. regulators violated the rights of tribal members when they cleared the way for uranium mining in western New Mexico.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights based in Washington, D.C., decided earlier this year that the petition filed a decade ago by Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining was admissible. With additional testimony and exhibits being filed Thursday, the commission is expected to hold a hearing in the spring.

Lawyers for the Navajo group said the commission’s decision to hear the case marks the first time that the panel has found admissible a petition filed on behalf of an Indigenous community. It’s the second time for the panel to consider an environmental justice case against the United States. The first was a petition by Mossville Environmental Action Now regarding high cancer rates within impoverished communities in parts of Louisiana….