UN declaration to help First Nations achieve self-determination, Bellegarde says
Passing a new law to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will get First Nations closer to self-determination, National Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Assembly of First Nations said Wednesday.
“The declaration is a tool for building a better relationship with Canada, in which our inherent treaty rights will be affirmed, respected and upheld,” Bellegarde said at a virtual forum organized by his advocacy organization to discuss the issue.
The Liberal government introduced the long-awaited legislation, Bill
C-15, in December after a previous version of the bill died in the Senate ahead of the 2019 election.
Bellegarde said C-15 has real potential to change the way Ottawa treats
Indigenous rights, noting that First Nations should determine how they want to engage with the work of implementing the declaration, or UNDRIP, into the Canadian legal system.
The proposed law would require the federal government to work with First Nations, Métis and Inuit to do everything needed to ensure Canadian law is in harmony with the rights and principles contained in the UN declaration.
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said reforming Canadian laws to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights as stated in UNDRIP is the responsibility of both the federal government and the provinces.
“That’s a tough, tougher long-term task,” Miller said Wednesday at a news conference in Ottawa.
He said although it’s highly symbolic, the new law sets forth a set of principles as a guiding light to guide the government’s interactions with Indigenous Peoples.
The UN declaration, which Canada endorsed in 2010, affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination and to their language, culture and traditional lands.
It also spells out the need for free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples on anything that infringes on their lands or rights, but C-15 does not include a definition of such consent.
Bellegarde said UNDRIP is a product of decades of hard work by Indigenous Peoples from around the world, and it now enjoys consensus as a global minimum standard.