From Press Release
below:
“a wide range of organizations and individuals who have followed the
process renewed their call for the government of Canada to withdraw its
opposition to the Declaration as adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. This
call was supported by Amnesty International Canada, the Assembly of First
Nations, Canadian Friends Service Committee, Inuit Circumpolar Conference
Canada, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice
Initiatives, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Quebec Native Women,
Rights and Democracy, and Kenneth Deer, Mohawk.
[Press Release]
For immediate release
June 28, 2007
“Lost
year” for the rights of Indigenous peoples worldwide:
Canada
must stop stalling on vital United Nations declaration
Indigenous peoples,
social justice organizations and independent experts today urged the government
of Canada to stop obstructing an important instrument adopted one year ago by
the UN Human Rights Council.
On June 29, 2006 the
Human Rights Council voted to adopt the long awaited Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples. However, the UN General Assembly has still not given the
Declaration its final approval because a small number of states, including
Canada, have insisted that further consultation is needed.
The Canadian government
has recently endorsed a proposal to renegotiate the vast majority of the
Declaration, a process that might never reach conclusion.
“These delaying tactics
are utterly unacceptable,” says Grand Chief Ed John, British Columbia First
Nations Summit Task Group. “Around the world, Indigenous peoples face daily
threats to our very survival. We urgently need to move forward with
implementing the Declaration as adopted by Human Rights Council. Indigenous
peoples can’t afford another lost year.”
The text approved last
June by the Human Rights Council was the product of more than 20 years work in
the UN, including a 11 year negotiation process in which Canada played a
leading role. Although senior Canadian officials encouraged the government to
support the Declaration, the Harper government has denounced its provisions as
incompatible with the Canadian Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
These claims have never been substantiated.
“International human
rights instruments are needed to guide states in overcoming the gaps and
failures in their laws and policies that lead to human rights abuses,” says
Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada. “So when the
Canadian government says the current text of the Declaration could lead to
demands to rethink Canadian laws and policies, it is criticizing the
Declaration for doing exactly what an international human rights instrument is
supposed to do.”
When the Declaration
came before the Council last June, Canada said that more time was needed to
improve the Declaration and build broader support among states.
“What Canada is really
doing is playing a spoiler role,” says Sherry Lewis, Executive Director of the
Native Women’s Association of Canada. “Government ministers are demanding the
rewriting of articles that their officials helped draft in the first place.
They are calling for renegotiation of articles on which there was consensus in
the working group that finalized the text. And they are calling for changes
that would bring the Declaration well below the standard of existing
international law.”
Canada has recently
endorsed a proposal forwarded by a group of African states to rewrite the
Declaration so that all its provisions would be subject to national law and the
discretion of national governments.
“The purpose of
international human rights instruments is to encourage all states to rise to a
higher standard, not to endorse their current, deplorable practices,” says Mary
Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. “This kind of unprincipled
opposition to the UN Declaration is squandering Canada’s reputation as a global
champion of human rights.”
Today, a wide range of
organizations and individuals who have followed the process renewed their call
for the government of Canada to withdraw its opposition to the Declaration as
adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. This call was supported by Amnesty
International Canada, the Assembly of First Nations, Canadian Friends Service
Committee, Inuit Circumpolar Conference Canada, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, KAIROS
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, the Native Women’s Association of
Canada, Quebec Native Women, Rights and Democracy, and Kenneth Deer, Mohawk.
For more information
please contact:
Beth Berton-Hunter
Media & External Communications Officer
Amnesty International
416-363-9933 ext 32
416-904-7158 Mobile
bberton-hunter@amnesty.ca
http://www.amnesty.ca