UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

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UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• This is a Declaration which makes the opening
  phrase of the UN Charter, We the Peoples
  meaningful for 370 million Indigenous persons all
  over the world.
• Victoria Tauli-Corpuz Chair, UN Permanent Forum
  on Indigenous Issues

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 43
• The rights recognized herein constitute the
  minimum standards for the survival, dignity and
  well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 3
• Indigenous peoples have the right to
  self-determination. By virtue of that right they
  freely determine their political status and
  freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
  development.

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• Convention on Civil and Political Rights /
  Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• All peoples have the right of self-determination.
  By virtue of that right they freely determine
  their political status and freely pursue their
  economic, social and cultural development.
• All peoples may, for their own ends, freely
  dispose of their natural wealth and resources
  without prejudice to any obligations arising out
  of international economic co-operation, based
  upon the principle of mutual benefit, and
  international law. In no case may a people be
  deprived of its own means of subsistence.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 32
• Indigenous peoples have the right to determine
  and develop priorities and strategies for the
  development or use of their lands or territories
  and other resources.
• States shall consult and cooperate in good faith
  with the indigenous peoples concerned through
  their own representative institutions in order to
  obtain their free and informed consent prior to
  the approval of any project affecting their lands
  or territories and other resources, particularly
  in connection with the development, utilization
  or exploitation of mineral, water or other
  resources.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 29
• Indigenous peoples have the right to the
  conservation and protection of the environment
  and the productive capacity of their lands or
  territories and resources. States shall establish
  and implement assistance programmes for
  indigenous peoples for such conservation and
  protection, without discrimination.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 24
• Indigenous peoples have the right to their
  traditional medicines and to maintain their
  health practices, including the conservation of
  their vital medicinal plants, animals and
  minerals.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 12
• Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest,
  practise, develop and teach their spiritual and
  religious traditions, customs and ceremonies the
  right to maintain, protect, and have access in
  privacy to their religious and cultural sites
  the right to the use and control of their
  ceremonial objects and the right to the
  repatriation of their human remains.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 13
• Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize,
  use, develop and transmit to future generations
  their histories, languages, oral traditions,
  philosophies, writing systems and literatures,
  and to designate and retain their own names for
  communities, places and persons.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• "Indian and Northern Affairs and Foreign Affairs
  Canada initially advised...that they were
  recommending that Canada support the adoption of
  the draft Declaration.
• Ministerial briefing note obtained through
  Freedom of Information request

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Its very sweeping. It's very radical. We
  don't support it. It's not a text that has ever
  been agreed upon by a previous Canadian
  government
• former Minister of Indian Affairs, Jim Prentice,
  June 20, 2006

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• ...this Declaration has no legal effect in
  Canada... It is therefore inappropriate... to
  promote the implementation of this Declaration
  with respect to Canada.
• Canadian government statement to the UN Human
  Rights Council, 26 September 2007

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• In Canada, you are balancing individual rights
  vs. collective rights, and (this) document ...
  has none of that By signing on, you default to
  this document by saying that the only rights in
  play here are the rights of the First Nations.
  And, of course, in Canada, that's inconsistent
  with our constitution.
• Minister of Indian Affairs, Chuck Strahl, Tories
  defend 'no' in native rights vote, The Montreal
  Gazette, September 14, 2007

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• The Declaration contains some of the most
  comprehensive balancing provisions that exist in
  any international human rights instrument.
• In our considered opinion, it is consistent with
  the Canadian Constitution and Charter and is
  profoundly important for fulfilling their
  promise. Government claims to the contrary do a
  grave disservice to the cause of human rights and
  to the promotion of harmonious and cooperative
  relations.
• Open Letter by 101 Canadian legal experts

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Five hundred treaties have been signed over the
  past 250 years. The government does not support
  the declaration because that declaration
  jeopardizes those treaties, the enforceability
  and the meaning of them.
• Minister of Indian Affairs, Jim Prentice, House
  of Commons, June 21, 2006

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• Article 37
• Indigenous peoples have the right to the
  recognition, observance and enforcement of
  treaties, agreements and other constructive
  arrangements concluded with States or their
  successors and to have States honour and respect
  such treaties, agreements and other constructive
  arrangements.
• Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as
  diminishing or eliminating the rights of
  indigenous peoples contained in treaties,
  agreements and other constructive arrangements.

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UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

• We believe the UN Declaration on the Rights of
  Indigenous Peoples is unique as a universal
  framework for improving implementation of
  existing rights of indigenous peoples in all
  countries of the world.
• Government of Norway, during review of Canadas
  human rights record at the UN Human Rights
  Council, February 2009