The next steps for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

OTTAWA—On this day in 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, Calif., “We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” the preamble states. The UN was set up to uphold the dignity of humanity, to practice peace with each other, and bring justice and international law to bear. It was a place to transcend temporal politics for the good of humanity. While there may be disagreement about the UN’s mark on the world, it’s hard to imagine where we would be without it. One of the pieces of the larger UN ecosystem is the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). After too many years of delay, Canada has finally tabled its plan to implement it domestically. At first read and on the face of it, the plan looks great. Much of the plan includes continued actions, which reflects that some work has already started. That’s good news. But a deeper read leaves too many questions. Many actions are vague, with no real deadlines and no targets. For example, UNDRIP and all that is moral demands that Indigenous Peoples receive equitable and safe health care. There’s some wording in the action plan to address this, except it is so vague as to be almost completely immeasurable. There’s no urgency, there’s no timeline, there’s no note of funding to get it done. How about addressing the racism plaguing police forces? Not a single word. It's time to wave the red flag that a federal action plan to implement UNDRIP will not resolve some significant challenges in the provincial and territorial realm. Addressing some fundamental issues and systemic change to implement UNDRIP is going to require the feds, provinces and territories (FPT) to sit down together and figure it out. We need a new table to bring all levels of government and Indigenous Peoples together to ensure coherent national standards for UNDRIP. We can call it an accord or whatever you want, but UNDRIP implementation will be haphazard and piecemeal without a new structure. We could even structure it like the UN, act like we are all working here together to uphold the dignity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. We could almost imagine a table of the leaders working together, doing the hallway influencing, supporting each other to address fundamental inequities that put Indigenous Peoples’ lives at risk. Can’t you see it? It should not be such a stretch of the imagination that FPT tables actually work together in the best interest of citizens. The more likely scenario is this: the federal departments will spend two years arguing over whether they all have to participate, or they can just skate and leave it to the two departments titled "Indigenous." Central agencies will refuse to do anything or change any policy because they seem genetically unable to change. If we ever build this table, we’ll get a few provinces yelling like schoolchildren on a playground about jurisdiction and refusing to do the work together. British Columbia might politely decline to come to the table because they have their own UNDRIP law already, and refuse to support others. It will all collapse within months because political leaders will choose votes over Indigenous human rights. Others have attempted to describe the loss of professionalism in politics today. There’s no question that the refusal to work well together across jurisdictions is not in the best interests of Canadian citizens. The only interest at play here is about political parties trying to win at all costs, and Indigenous Peoples get left behind. We bear the cost. It’s time to bring back professionalism to the practice of politics. But that’s up to us as voters. Go to those partisan barbecues this summer and tell your MP that he/she/they must represent Indigenous citizens. Attend the riding events and tell your MP that the mudslinging was supposed to be left on the school playground and has no place in politics. Otherwise, politics will be a barrier to UNDRIP for the next generation, and we’ll have this very same discussion again in five years. Rose LeMay is Tlingit from the West Coast and the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. She writes twice a month about Indigenous inclusion and reconciliation. In Tlingit worldview, the stories are the knowledge system, sometimes told through myth and sometimes contradicting the myths told by others. But always with at least some truth. The Hill Times

The next steps for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

A federal action plan to implement UNDRIP will not resolve some major challenges in the provincial and territorial realm. We need to bring all levels of government and Indigenous Peoples together to ensure coherent national standards.

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The next steps for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

A federal action plan to implement UNDRIP will not resolve some major challenges in the provincial and territorial realm. We need to bring all levels of government and Indigenous Peoples together to ensure coherent national standards.

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