The Un Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Monitoring and Realizing Indigenous Rights in Canada
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POLICY BRIEF NO. 39 APRIL 2014 THE UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: MONITORING AND REALIZING INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN CANADA TERRY MITCHELL AND CHARIS ENNS KEY POINTS TERRY MITCHELL • The Government of Canada endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as a tool for protecting indigenous rights in 2010, but has Terry Mitchell is an associate made very little progress toward its implementation. professor in the Department of Psychology, in the Faculty of Science • James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous at Wilfrid Laurier University. She Peoples (UNSRRIP), recently declared that Canada faces a crisis when it comes to the is a registered psychologist with a human rights situation of indigenous peoples, ranging from adverse living conditions on private practice and is director of reserve to unaddressed violence against indigenous women. the Laurier Indigenous Health and • The Government of Canada should implement targeted measures to address the Social Justice Research Group. Her research focusses on the impacts of UNSRRIP’s concerns and improve the human rights situation of indigenous peoples colonial trauma, Aboriginal rights in Canada. and governance issues. INTRODUCTION Indigenous peoples in almost all countries experience a lack of recognition of their fundamental political and human rights. Worldwide, tensions remain between state policies and indigenous requirements for legal recognition, land access and treaty rights.1 Globally, indigenous peoples share the worst measures on all indicators of health, education, and social and political CHARIS ENNS participation, including nutrition, employment and income. Experts have Charis Enns is a Ph.D. candidate in global social governance at the often commented on the disparity in well-being between indigenous and non- University of Waterloo, based at indigenous peoples around the world. UNSRRIP Anaya’s recent visit to Canada the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Her research examines politics of international development, 1 While the Canadian Oxford Dictionary (which CIGI follows for its spelling conventions) spells “indigenous” global governance mechanisms and with a lowercase “i,” the convention in indigenous scholarship is to spell the word with a capital “i,” as it is indigenous land and resource rights. argued that indigenous peoples are subjects of international law rather than objects of the state. See Venne (1998). CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL 2 GOVERNANCE INNOVATION ABOUT THE PROJECT confirmed that it is no exception. Despite having high The lack of political power and autonomy — as well levels of human development as a country, Canada’s as human rights infringements — of over 340 million indigenous peoples “live in conditions akin to those in indigenous peoples worldwide have been major governance issues for over half a century. In the United States, Australia, countries that rank much lower and in which poverty New Zealand, Chile and Canada, tensions remain between abounds” (Anaya 2013). state policies and questions of Indian status, land access and treaty rights. UNSRRIP Anaya carried out an official visit to In the post-World War II period, recourse to global Canada in October 2013. He recognized Canada’s governance institutions has emerged as a major tool in the efforts to sustain, rebuild and reinvigorate indigenous goal of reconciliation to repair the legacy of past cultures and governments. injustices, “with the 2008 government apology for This project advances policy discussions on indigenous the residential schools and the creation of the governance and engagement at a time of unprecedented political change and indigenous empowerment globally, Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” and bringing together indigenous and non-indigenous scholars acknowledged that progress has been made since interested in the implications of global governance for indigenous peoples to study the impact of international the visit of his predecessor in 2003, to “remedy institutions and global governance policy documents in gender disparities in the Indian Act and to provid[e] promoting effective governance, legislative protection and culture survival for indigenous peoples. access to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for claims based on the Indian Act,” but concluded This project will produce a synthesis and comparison of indigenous engagement with the global governance his visit by declaring that there is an indigenous institutions, and with the policy contexts and models of rights crisis in Canada (ibid.). governance (self and state) of indigenous populations in settler nations within North America, Australasia and South America. Anaya discussed the multiple social problems facing indigenous peoples across Canada, including unacceptable disadvantages in living standards, education, health and employment, stating that “it simply cannot be acceptable that these conditions persist in the midst of a country with such great wealth” (ibid.). The UNSRRIP expressed grave concerns about the living conditions of First Copyright © 2014 by the Centre for International Nations peoples on reserves and among the Governance Innovation Inuit, and called on the Government of Canada to The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the address inadequate housing in these communities. authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Centre for International Governance Innovation or its Operating He articulated the link between overcrowded Board of Directors or International Board of Governors. housing, health problems, family violence and low educational achievement — issues that have been repeatedly emphasized by indigenous leadership This work is licensed under a Creative Commons in Canada. He also identified concerns over the Attribution-Non-commercial — No Derivatives Licence. high levels of distrust between indigenous peoples To view this licence, visit (www.creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). For re-use or distribution, please and federal and provincial governments. include this copyright notice. WWW.CIGIONLINE.ORG POLICY BRIEF NO. 39 APRIL 2014 THE UN Declaration ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: MONITORING AND REALIZING INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN CANADA 3 As well as a responsibility to address the rights A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNDRIP of indigenous peoples and improving Canada’s The United Nations reports that indigenous peoples reputation on the world stage, Canada’s own around the world are facing serious and protracted potential for future economic, social and sustainable struggles to assert their most basic human rights, development is contingent on closing the equality and in recent decades, the United Nations has taken gap between indigenous and non-indigenous steps toward addressing the issues they face. In 1982, Canadians. Indigenous peoples form the fastest- UN Special Rapporteur of the Subcommission on growing segment of Canada’s population, growing the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of nearly six times faster than the non-indigenous Minorities, José R. Martinez Cobo, released a study population (Statistics Canada 2013). A clear, about the systemic discrimination faced by indigenous unequivocal commitment to addressing the rights peoples (see UN Department of Social and Economic of indigenous peoples with an eye to ultimately Affairs 1982). The UN Economic and Social Council closing the inequality gap is needed. The Canadian (UNECOSOC) responded to these findings by creating government must work with indigenous peoples the Working Group on Indigenous Populations to identify significant and tangible solutions that (WGIP), tasked with focussing exclusively on address the current crisis and advance indigenous indigenous issues worldwide. rights. To this end, the Canadian Human Rights Commission should review and address the 2014 In response to the 1982 report on the discrimination report of the UNSRRIP, and establish federal, of indigenous peoples, several decades of consultation provincial, territorial and inter-ministerial and negotiation among indigenous and state leaders mechanisms for the implementation of the UNDRIP resulted in the signing of the UNDRIP. The declaration (see UN General Assembly 2007a). represents an important development in the recognition and internationalization of indigenous A critical means of addressing inequality between rights, as it provides an international rights standard non-indigenous and indigenous peoples is through for 148 member nations. Significantly, while existing the implementation, monitoring and evaluation international human rights treaties have been of the UNDRIP. By working to close gaps in the negotiated and drafted by experts, the UNDRIP is fulfillment of the individual and collective human the only UN instrument that was drafted with the rights of indigenous peoples, the economic and social extensive participation of the affected population. realities of indigenous peoples will also improve. The Government of Canada endorsed the UNDRIP In consultation with indigenous representatives in 2010, but has since made very little progress from around the world, the WGIP began drafting a toward its implementation. By implementing the declaration of indigenous rights in 1985. Developed standards articulated in the UNDRIP, Canada will over a period of eight years, the initial draft was improve government and indigenous relations, with submitted to the Subcommission on the Prevention a rights-informed approach