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.

Rachel Singleton-Polster and Jennifer Preston at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York 2018

A Week at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Every year CFSC participates in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII), as the lead for Friends globally. The theme this year was the critical topic of Indigenous Peoples’ collective rights to lands, territories, and resources. People often ask, “What do you do at the UN?” In answer, we offer a few daily…

Engaging with Indigenous Peoples in BC’s Northwest

During the first week of February I traveled with CFSC associate member Paul Joffe to northwest British Columbia to make presentations on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Such presentations, and dialogue on Indigenous concerns, are critical for human rights education.   Last year Paul and I had presented in Prince Rupert…

Indigenous rights legislation was a key topic of a 2017 symposium in Quebec

Advancing Legislation on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

CFSC proudly worked with partners in the Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples to host a symposium, Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Priorities, Partnerships and Next Steps, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Declaration. Our Symposium took place at the University of…

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2017

What’s in a Typical Day at the UN?

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is of critical importance in the struggle to transform relationships based on colonialism and oppression to ones based on human rights and mutual respect. We know how significant the UN Declaration is to Indigenous Peoples, and we work for its full implementation through being active allies…

Colombia

Common Ground of Indigenous Struggles in Colombia and Canada

There are striking parallels between Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Colombia. This is a hemisphere where efforts have been made since contact to eliminate Indigenous Peoples through policies of physical and cultural genocide. While there are clear differences, the shared experiences are of structural discrimination and destructive policies leading to marginalization, displacement, and barriers to…

Does language matter?

Does Language Matter?

CFSC’s values are Friends testimonies: peace, integrity, equality, simplicity, and respect for all creation. How can we live these when it comes to our choice of language? What is the line between being respectful and failing to speak with honesty and integrity? At the national level, how can the right to free speech be appropriately…

Reconciliation

Using the UN Declaration as the Framework of Reconciliation

Over nine years have passed since the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly of the UN. Indigenous Peoples in Canada have used the Declaration to advance their claims in court and will continue to do so. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) relied heavily on the…