Buffalo River Dene Nation: Canada Opposed the United Nations Draft Declaration of Indigenous Rights
On June 29, 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a Draft Declaration of Indigenous Rights. The Declaration affirms the right of self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, including the right to traditional territory and resources, and the right of Indigenous Peoples to oversee their own education in their own languages. It was passed by a vote of 30-2–-
There are several high-profile territorial confrontations occurring in Canada today, including the standoff with the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Confederacy) in Caledonia in southern Ontario; the encroachment of multinationals onto the Lubicon Lake First Nation in northern Alberta; the struggle of the Secwepemc people over plans to convert their territory, Skwelkwek’welt, into a ski resort in B.C.; the deforestation of the homeland of the Haida; and the marginalization of the Innu of Nitassinan.
“It is no coincidence that the Canadian government so adamantly opposes the adoption of the Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” says Adelard Blackman, special emissary for Buffalo River Dene Nation in
The people of Buffalo River Dene Nation were removed from their traditional territory in 1952, purportedly to establish the
Ghislain Picard, regional chief of
The Canadian government has been garnering some criticism from the international community regarding its stance on the declaration. The London-based foreign affairs magazine, The Economist –- hardly a left-wing publication -- lambasted
On the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous on August 3, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan noted that of the more than 370 million Indigenous Peoples living in some 70 countries, “Much remains to be done to alleviate the poverty faced by many indigenous people, to protect them against massive violations of human rights, and to safeguard against the discrimination …”
To this end, Annan sees the Declaration as “an instrument of historic significance for the advancement of the rights and dignity of the world’s indigenous peoples.”
Harper’s Indian affairs minister, Jim Prentice, cited legal conflicts between the declaration and Canadian laws as the reason for his government’s opposition. But Mary Simon, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (