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UN Declaration on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Jeopardy in Canada |
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Written by Wire Services
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Monday, 26 June 2006 |
More than two decades of work to advance international human rights standards for the safety and well-being of Indigenous peoples is being jeopardized by the actions of the Canadian government, according to the Native Women's Association of Canada.
The newly created United Nations Human Rights Council stands poised to make a decision on whether or not a draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should be brought forward for adoption by the UN General Assembly later this year.
Canadian diplomats are reportedly lobbying aggressively at the Council and in national capitals around the world to have this decision put off for at least another three months, ostensibly so that its own outstanding concerns over the Declaration can be addressed.
However Canada has not offered any suggestions as to how this can happen. Indigenous peoples' organizations and human rights groups fear that momentum toward adoption of the Declaration will be lost if the decision is needlessly delayed.
Meanwhile, at home, statements by the Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs suggest that the Canadian government's objections to the draft Declaration are unlikely to be resolved even with a three month delay. This is a complete reversal in the crucial role that Canadian officials played in its drafting.
In a television interview on June 20 the Minister said the draft Declaration has to "go back to the drawing board." The next day he told Parliament that the Declaration is "inconsistent with the (Canadian) Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is inconsistent with our Constitution. It is inconsistent with the National Defense Act. It is inconsistent with our treaties. It is inconsistent with all the polices under which we have negotiated land claims for 100 years."
The Canadian government has not provided any substantiation of these claims and has not even indicated which sections of the Charter of Rights are allegedly infringed.
"Canada's actions are utterly irresponsible," says Bev Jacobs of the Native Women's Association of Canada. "Affirmation of the human rights of Indigenous peoples is already long overdue."
"There has been a very difficult process of consensus building over many years that has brought the Declaration to this point," says Alex Neve of Amnesty International. "Canada should not jeopardize the whole process by raising groundless objections at the last minute. Nor should Canadian officials push to defer the decision on adoption when there it's quite clearly no reason to believe that anything can be accomplished by this delay. We expect and need more from Canada at a time when the world stands watching to see if the new Human Rights Council will become a place where human rights do in fact take precedence over political interests." |
