STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1332

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: S.B. No. 16

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 16 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN AS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require that the Hawaiian version of a law be held binding if the law in question was originally drafted in Hawaiian and then translated into English.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and two individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies.

Your Committee finds that in 2007, the United Nations adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and this measure would contribute to the growing international movement for the protection of the rights of the world's indigenous peoples.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the Hawaiian version of a law shall be binding if:

(A) The law was originally drafted in Hawaiian and the English version was translated based on the Hawaiian version; and

(B) The law has not been subsequently amended, codified, recodified, or reenacted in English; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 16, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 16, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair