Nine years after declaration first adopted, Canada to implement UNDRIP

International Inuit representatives Aili Liimakka Laue, Dalee Sambo, Tim Aqukkasuk Argetsinger, Sarah Jancke and Natan Obed pose for a photo May 9 at the United Nations’ 15th Session of the Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues. The federal government on the same day announced its plans to lift its permanent objector status to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. (PHOTO COURTESY OF SARAH JANCKE)

Canada’s minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Carolyn Bennett, announced May 9 that the federal government will lift its permanent objector status to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Bennett made the announcement May 9, nine years after the declaration was first adopted, as the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which runs May 9 to May 20 in New York City, got underway.

The UNDRIP, adopted in 2007, recognizes the basic human rights of Indigenous peoples, including their right to self-determination, lands and languages. Although not legally binding, the document is considered a key tool in helping Indigenous groups fight discrimination and marginalization in their home countries.

Canada initially opposed the declaration. Stephen Harper’s Conservative government later endorsed the UNDRIP, but only referring to the declaration as an “aspirational” document.

Before it was elected in 2015, the federal Liberal government campaigned on a platform to implement the declaration, a promise it appeared poised to fulfill during the UN indigenous issues forum.

But the government offered few details on how the declaration would be implemented.

“I think what this allows is for us to proceed with a conversation with Canadians,” said Bennett during a May 9 news conference.

“But it’s also a step in us pursuing a full reconciliation process that is based on the principles within the UNDRIP, [by] breathing life into section 35.”

Section 35 is the part of Canada’s constitution that recognizes and affirms Aboriginal rights.

But critics of the May 9 announcement question how the federal government can implement the UNDRIP through that constitutional framework, and particularly how Canada will obtain “free, prior and informed consent” from groups ahead of development on Indigenous lands.

“It’s important that we understand that these are rights,” Bennett said. “That being able to seek free, prior and informed consent, and moving forward in a way that everyone is together is the goal.”

Just last month, NDP MP Romeo Saganash re-introduced his private member’s bill, Bill C-262, which would require the federal government to harmonize Canadian laws with the UN declaration.

His first bill, introduced prior to the last election, was defeated by the Conservative majority in the House of Commons on May 6, 2015.

“[It’s] not just a priority, but a top priority,” Saganash said at an April 21 press conference.

But Bennett said May 9 that the government cannot go forward “just on a private member’s bill.”