Media release
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
Canadian government must play a more principled and constructive role
February 12, 2004

Amnesty International Canada
Canadian Friends Service Committee
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Rights and Democracy

Canadian human rights and social justice organizations are welcoming Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham's recent statement of support for the proposed United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but continue to urge Canada to rethink its negotiation strategy so that real progress can be made toward the timely adoption of the much needed human rights standard.

A draft text for the Declaration was presented to the UN Human Rights Commission almost ten years ago. The international community made a commitment to have it adopted by the UN General Assembly before the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People in December 2004.

Today, with the end of the international decade only 10 months away, only two of 45 articles have been accepted by the states participating in the debate.

Canada's recent contributions to these negotiations have not been constructive. For example, in the area of lands and resource rights, Canada has suggested replacing the proposed international standards found in the draft declaration with a call for states to uphold national laws and practices, however flawed or biased they may be.

On Monday, February 2, Bill Graham told public consultations at the Department of Foreign Affairs that international adoption of the Declaration was a priority for his department. The Minister also announced plans to consult domestically with Indigenous peoples' organizations about the draft Declaration later this month.

"These are positive developments," said Jean-Louis Roy of Rights and Democracy. "I hope that it means the government is genuinely prepared to put its own negotiating position on a more constructive footing and to affirm the human rights of Indigenous peoples."

With the support of the Grand Council of the Crees, four major Canadian human rights organizations -- Amnesty International Canada, Canadian Friends Service Committee, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives and Rights and Democracy -- have called on the government to demonstrate publicly that its negotiating position on the Declaration will help advance the human rights protections so badly needed by Indigenous peoples around the world.

In a joint statement the human rights groups asked Canada to accept that the Declaration must build on existing international laws and standards, that Indigenous peoples must not be arbitrarily denied any of the rights that the international community has already accepted as the rights of all peoples, and that none of the articles of the Declaration should be subject to loop-hole language that condones lower or non-existent national standards.

The human rights organizations also called on the government of Canada to help advance the negotiation process by detailing which of the articles of the draft Declaration it is now willing to agree to as written and to detail its specific objections to any of the articles of the draft Declaration it is not prepared to support. The groups urged the government to work closely with Indigenous peoples' organizations to find language that all could support.

The four human rights organizations are urging members of the public to let the government know that they support a strong Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"Effective international protection for the rights of Indigenous peoples is important not only to Indigenous peoples but to all Canadians," said Margaret Clare Ford, Clerk of the Canadian Friends Service Committee. "All Canadians should join us in urging their government to make a clear public commitment to a principled and constructive negotiating position that will see a meaningful Declaration on Indigenous Rights adopted by the United Nations."

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KAIROS
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
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