An international indigenous rights regime has emerged over the last 30 years in response to the serious and protracted struggles that indigenous peoples globally experience in asserting their most basic human rights. A 2014 report confirmed that Canada, despite its strong legal frameworks, provides little exception to the human rights issue. Indigenous peoples globally have developed and advanced, after decades of dialogue and debate within the UN system and beyond, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The declaration now exists as an important international consensus document.
This special report is comprised of 11 papers, which provide reflections on the internationalization of indigenous rights and the relevance and positioning of UNDRIP within and by Canada. The papers were written by indigenous and non-indigenous scholars from a variety of disciplines including history, political science, law, psychology, sociology and Native studies. Contributors discuss the historical importance of the declaration and the conflicted nature of Canada’s relationship to it.
