Press Release: AKNWRC Celebrates HB239 Becoming Law, Extending Victim Advocate Privilege Protection to Alaska Tribal Advocates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 22, 2026

AKNWRC CELEBRATES HB239 BECOMING LAW, EXTENDING VICTIM ADVOCATE PRIVILEGE PROTECTION TO ALASKA TRIBAL ADVOCATES

FAIRBANKS, AK — The Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center (AKNWRC) celebrates the passage of House Bill 239 (HB239), marking a significant improvement in state law for Tribal survivors, Tribal advocates, and Tribal governments across the state. HB239 includes Section 61, which extends victim advocate privilege protection to Tribal government agencies under Alaska Statute AS 18.66.250. This amendment closes a legal gap that has left Tribal survivors without confidentiality protections when working with Tribal victim advocates.

“This is a critical victory for Alaska Native survivors, and we thank Representative Andrew Gray and Senator Claman for their leadership in sponsoring and advancing this amendment, and Governor Dunleavy for allowing HB 239 to become law,” said Tami Truett Jerue, Executive Director of the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center. “For years, Tribal survivors have had to navigate a two-tiered system of justice where their confidential communications with private advocates or local government advocates are protected under state law, but their communications with Tribal advocates are not. HB239, Section 61, corrects that injustice. Now, survivors in Tribal communities will have the same legal protection that Alaska law already provides to other survivors. This amendment and much-needed improvement mean public safety improves across all of Alaska.”

The amendment was born from months of consultation with Tribal leaders, Tribal advocates, and Tribal justice systems across Alaska. It emerged as a critical priority when Tribal governments and advocates identified the gap in AS 18.66.250 as a barrier to survivor safety and effective advocacy.

“Section 61 is straightforward and powerful,” said Rick A. Haskins-Garcia, Director of Law, Policy, and Tribal Justice at AKNWRC. “It adds two words to state law: ‘or tribal.’ Those two words recognize that Tribal governments are sovereign entities whose victim advocates deserve the same legal standing as advocates working for local governments or private organizations. Tribal advocates have been doing extraordinary work with limited resources and without legal protection. Now they have the tools they need. Survivors in Tribal communities can disclose safely. Advocates can document comprehensively. Cases can move forward. This is what partnership between Tribal and state systems looks like. It is not special treatment. It is equal treatment.”

Under HB239, Section 61, confidential communications between survivors and advocates working for Tribal government victim counseling centers are now protected under Alaska law. Survivors can no longer have their disclosures subpoenaed by abusers’ attorneys or discovered in civil litigation, and Tribal advocates can document their work comprehensively without fear that detailed case notes could be used against their clients. The privilege protection applies to the same limited exceptions that protect communications with other victim counselors under Alaska law.

HB239 passed the Alaska Senate on May 19, 2026, by a vote of 20–0. The House approved Senate amendments and concurred on May 20, 2026, by a vote of 39–1. The Governor did not veto the bill within the 20-day deadline (excluding Sundays), and it automatically became law. The original Tribal advocate privilege amendment, HB 384, was incorporated into HB 239 during the legislative process.

HB239 also includes provisions addressing sexual assault kit tracking (HB62), enhanced penalties for crimes against 16 and 17-year-olds (HB101), healthcare professional accountability (HB242), victim address confidentiality (SB31), and AI-generated child sexual abuse material (SB247). Together, these provisions strengthen victim protections and public safety across Alaska.

About the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center:

Organized in 2015, the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center is a Tribal nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against women with Alaska’s 229 Tribes and allied organizations. AKNWRC board members are Alaska Native women raised in Alaska Native Villages and have 153 years of combined experience in Tribal governments, nonprofit management, domestic violence, and sexual assault advocacy (both individual crisis and systems), and grassroots social change advocacy at the local, statewide, regional, national, and international levels. AKNWRC’s philosophy is that violence against women is rooted in the colonization of Indigenous Nations.

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