“Lost year” for the rights of Indigenous peoples worldwide: Canada must stop stalling on vital United Nations declaration
28 June 2007 - Indigenous peoples, social justice organizations and independent experts today urged the government of Canada to stop obstructing an important instrument adopted one year ago by the UN Human Rights Council.
On June 29, 2006 the Human Rights Council voted to adopt the long awaited Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the UN General Assembly has still not given the Declaration its final approval because a small number of states, including Canada, have insisted that further consultation is needed.
The Canadian government has recently endorsed a proposal to renegotiate the vast majority of the Declaration, a process that might never reach conclusion.
“These delaying tactics are utterly unacceptable,” says Grand Chief Ed John, British Columbia First Nations Summit Task Group. “Around the world, Indigenous peoples face daily threats to our very survival. We urgently need to move forward with implementing the Declaration as adopted by Human Rights Council. Indigenous peoples can’t afford another lost year.”
The text approved last June by the Human Rights Council was the product of more than 20 years work in the UN, including a 11 year negotiation process in which Canada played a leading role. Although senior Canadian officials encouraged the government to support the Declaration, the Harper government has denounced its provisions as incompatible with the Canadian Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These claims have never been substantiated.
“International human rights instruments are needed to guide states in overcoming the gaps and failures in their laws and policies that lead to human rights abuses,” says Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. “So when the Canadian government says the current text of the Declaration could lead to demands to rethink Canadian laws and policies, it is criticizing the Declaration for doing exactly what an international human rights instrument is supposed to do.”
When the Declaration came before the Council last June, Canada said that more time was needed to improve the Declaration and build broader support among states.
“What Canada is really doing is playing a spoiler role,” says Sherry Lewis, Executive Director of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. “Government ministers are demanding the rewriting of articles that their officials helped draft in the first place. They are calling for renegotiation of articles on which there was consensus in the working group that finalized the text. And they are calling for changes that would bring the Declaration well below the standard of existing international law.”
Canada has recently endorsed a proposal forwarded by a group of African states to rewrite the Declaration so that all its provisions would be subject to national law and the discretion of national governments.
“The purpose of international human rights instruments is to encourage all states to rise to a higher standard, not to endorse their current, deplorable practices,” says Mary Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. “This kind of unprincipled opposition to the UN Declaration is squandering Canada’s reputation as a global champion of human rights.”
Today, a wide range of organizations and individuals who have followed the process renewed their call for the government of Canada to withdraw its opposition to the Declaration as adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. This call was supported by Amnesty International Canada, the Assembly of First Nations, Canadian Friends Service Committee, Inuit Circumpolar Conference Canada, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Quebec Native Women, Rights and Democracy, and Kenneth Deer, Mohawk.
For more information please contact:
Beth Berton-Hunter
Media & External Communications Officer
Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.ca
Source: Amnesty International Canada
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