Canadian Friends Service Committee’s vital work supporting Indigenous peoples’ human rights is rooted in building respectful relationships. As a Quaker peace and social justice organization, CFSC endeavours to ensure that its decisions and actions are grounded in Spirit. Many of our Indigenous partners are similarly guided by Spirit. Article 25 of the United Nations Declaration…
by Canadian Friends Service Committee
Tagged Indigenous Peoples’ human rights
Scroll down for a list of all articles about Canadian Friends Service Committee’s work in support of Indigenous peoples’ human rights.
Our work uses the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework and is always done in partnership with Indigenous peoples and human rights organizations. Our newsletter Quaker Concern comes out three times a year sharing stories from our Indigenous rights work and how we’re making a difference.
We cannot have peace without justice. Indigenous peoples do not have justice, and so we are led to walk alongside and support our Indigenous partners in their struggles for it.
Indigenous peoples globally continue to face discrimination, dispossession of their lands and resources, forced assimilation, and other grave human rights abuses. The UN Declaration is the most comprehensive international human rights instrument to specifically address their economic, social, cultural, political, civil, spiritual and environmental rights.
In its own words, the UN Declaration sets out minimum standards necessary for the “dignity, survival and well-being” of Indigenous peoples.
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted the Declaration on September 13, 2007. This historic adoption followed more than 20 years of deliberation and debate!
The Declaration affirms inherent or pre-existing collective human rights, as well as the human rights of Indigenous individuals. It provides a framework for justice and reconciliation, applying existing human rights standards to the specific historical, cultural, and social circumstances of Indigenous peoples.
IWe work with many organizations to hold Canada accountable to meet its responsibilities under domestic law and international law including the UN Declaration. Together with our partners we regularly produce joint statements, open letters, and educational materials.
Quakers need to develop and nurture relationships of trust and mutual respect between ourselves, others in Canada, and the Indigenous peoples of this territory.
The UN Declaration has shaped my life for 25 years
CFSC staff have a book club. Recently we finished reading and discussing Realizing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Triumph, Hope, and Action. I co-edited this book with CFSC associate, and long-time legal counsel with the Cree Nation Government/Grand Council of the Crees, Paul Joffe, and then staff at the First Nations…
Cultural revitalization in action: CFSC’s Reconciliation Fund
As you may know, CFSC’s Reconciliation Fund supports the grassroots, community-based efforts of Indigenous peoples in Canada working on cultural and language revitalization projects. Modest grants of up to $2,500 are typically awarded to individuals or groups that have not found funding elsewhere, and contribute towards the costs of cultural ceremonies, Elder or knowledge holder…
Discovering gifts of learning in Indigenous communities: a journey towards UN Declaration implementation
There’s never a dull moment at Canadian Friends Service Committee! This year, for me, that’s meant lots of travel. Have you ever experienced the joys of travelling to a new place to learn from people you’ve just met? In anticipation, I’m often nervous and excited. Travel at CFSC provides amazing experiences and exciting opportunities to…
Human rights are vital. How do we know when they’re implemented?
How can people verify that key humans rights are actually respected? For many years Canadian Friends Service Committee has focused on making sure that the vitally important rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration or UNDRIP) are implemented. How is the Declaration—which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called…
Watch accomplished experts offer hope on the path to reconciliation
This past November, I was excited to reconnect with Chief Robert Joseph—a hereditary chief of the Gwawenuk people—at an event for the release of his book, Namwayut. He has been Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and an honorary witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We first met in 2013 at…
Expanded Visions of Sustainability at the Expert Symposium
In the first few weeks at my new job at CFSC I got a text from Indigenous Rights Program Coordinator Jennifer Preston: “So! What do you think about coming to Vancouver?” With excitement I told her, “Of course, I’d love to.” A few weeks later I set off from my home office in Ontario to…
Breathing Life Into Treaty Relationships
We arrived at 7 am. The autumn sun warmed the Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest in North End, Winnipeg, Treaty 1 territory. We came to set up. Something was planned that had not happened for 150 years. We gathered to commemorate the 1871 making and signing of Treaties 1 and 2. As the sacred fire burned,…
Strong Spirits Soar in New York
In 2021 CFSC’s Reconciliation Fund provided grant funds to long-time CFSC partner Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel for her studies in documentary filmmaking at the New York Film Academy (NYFA). Ellen is an artist and land defender from the Kanien’kehá:ka community of Kanehsatà:ke. We are thrilled to support this critical decolonizing work. In her application to CFSC,…
A Milestone for Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation
F or many years CFSC has called on Canada to fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We are absolutely thrilled that an important piece of legislation toward this end, Bill C-15, received Royal Assent on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day. This is such a tremendous victory! We joined with…