Canada Finally Backs UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights

Canadian Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett announced Monday that Canada will now fully support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, removing its status as a permanent objector to the document.

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"We are fully adopting this and working to implement it within the laws of Canada, which is our charter," Bennett said at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

Under the previous Conservative government, Canada only begrudgingly endorsed the document, noting it was not legally binding.

As in other parts of the Americas, multinational mining and resource extraction companies are interested in gaining access to Indigenous territories located within Canada and face stiff opposition from Indigenous peoples.

 

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, first adopted in 2007, affirms the right of self-determination of Indigenous peoples and defends the principle of free, prior, and informed consent, which says governments and companies must receive approval before engaging in extraction activities in Indigenous territories.

Canadian Minister of Justice of Canada, Jody Wilson-Raybould, the first Indigenous person to occupy that post in Canada, also attended the UN Forum.

The Forum convened for its fifteenth session this Monday centered around the theme of “Indigenous peoples: conflict, peace and resolution.”

“Since its establishment, the Permanent Forum has expressed great concern over the continuation of conflicts affecting indigenous peoples in different parts of the world,” said Alvaro Pop, the incoming Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in a press release.

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Pop is a Mayan Q’eqchi ́ from Guatemala and has been a champion of Indigenous peoples in Latin America.

“We want to draw attention to the particular challenges faced by Indigenous peoples in conflict, and the important contributions that Indigenous peoples and their traditions and practices can make to conflict prevention and lasting peace,” added Pop.

The issue of conflict resolution is particularly pertinent for Indigenous peoples in the Americas as the region has been witness to regular clashes between Indigenous peoples and resource extraction companies.

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As an example, the resistance of the Lenca people to a hydroelectric project in Honduras is linked to the assassination of Indigenous environmental activist Berta Caceres. Suspects with ties to the company behind the project have already been detained.

The region's longest-running armed conflict, between the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is expected to draw to a close in 2016. Indigenous peoples in Colombia have been one of the groups most affected by the five-decade-long conflict.

Monday's opening session featured a ceremonial welcome by the traditional Chief of the Onondaga Nation, Todadaho Sid Hill.

More than 1,000 participants attended the two-week long forum. The fifteenth session of the forum is the first to take place under a reformed work structure, approved in 2014. Official sessions will be broadcast live online.