Happy National Indigenous Peoples’ Day! 🎉 To mark the occasion, the federal government has released its Action Plan regarding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. What’s it all about? 🤔
Exactly two years ago, Canada adopted the Act, which aims, among other things, to ensure that federal legislation complies with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to implement an action plan to achieve the objectives of the Declaration.
The Action Plan was drawn up following consultations with various Indigenous governing bodies and organizations across the country. It addresses various rights covered by the Declaration, such as the rights to self-determination, self-governance, treaty recognition and implementation, lands, territories and resources, culture, spirituality, language and education. While a step in the right direction, the Action Plan is nevertheless not a complete solution to ensuring respect for UNDRIP rights, nor does it fully meet the expectations of the various First Nations and Inuit co-drafters.
The Action Plan is divided into five chapters: shared priorities for Indigenous peoples, First Nations priorities, Inuit priorities, MĂ©tis priorities, and Indigenous Modern Treaty Partner priorities.
Dionne Schulze is pleased to highlight the unprecedented inclusion in the Action Plan of the creation of an independent mechanism for oversight, monitoring, recourse and remedy in matters of Indigenous peoples’ rights, managed by Indigenous peoples. Another novelty in the Canadian legal landscape stemming from the Action Plan is the federal government’s commitment to ensuring that Canadian intellectual property laws and regulations respect UNDRIP rights.
Dionne Schulze has developed leading expertise regarding UNDRIP. In fact, Elisabeth Patterson took part in April in a panel discussion on UNDRIP at the Grand Rassemblement 2023 des Peuples autochtones et des municipalités du Québec , with the support of Joëlle Perron-Thibodeau. Last November, Ms. Patterson also gave a presentation with the help of Sara Andrade explaining how incorporating the Declaration into Canadian law could place greater emphasis on the need to obtain the consent of Indigenous peoples. You can find her presentation here. Rose Victoria Adams also led an engagement session on UNDRIP with Inuit organizations Qarjuit Youth Council and Makivvik Corporation.
#undrip #nationalindigenousday
The Action Plan : https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/declaration/ap-pa/ah/pdf/2023-06-20_UNDA_Action_Plan_EN.pdf
Elisabeth Patterson’s presentation (in French only) : https://lnkd.in/eakEEfWR
