UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples finally allowed to visit Canada
First Nations groups welcome visit from UN official later this year
BY MICHAEL WOODS, POSTMEDIA NEWS APRIL 29, 2013
OTTAWA - First Nations groups say they are eager to speak with a special UN official who will visit Canada later this year to examine its human rights record toward Aboriginal Peoples.
It was revealed last week during Canada's periodic review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the federal government will allow the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, to visit.
Anaya has written multiple times since February 2012 asking for permission to visit; he was ignored until recently.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will also send delegations to Canada. A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said the visits are expected to take place later this year.
"We receive these types of visits regularly. They give Canada an opportunity to talk about our strong human rights record," department spokesperson Ian Trites said.
A spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt said the government would use the special rapporteur's visit to "share details of the concrete steps that our government has taken since 2006 to invest in, for example, First Nation education, housing, safe drinking water and economic development."
Special rapporteurs aren't always treated warmly in Canada. Last year, the Harper government condemned the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, after he decried Canada's ‘self-righteous' attitude towards hunger and poverty. At the time, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq called De Schutter "ill-informed" and "patronizing." When his report came out last month, she called it "one-sided" and said it had "no credibility."
First Nations groups expressed cautious optimism about the international representatives being granted permission to visit.
"This will be an opportunity to build awareness of indigenous issues and solutions at the international level," National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo said in a statement Monday. "We hope to work closely with the United Nations representatives to show not only the harsh realities but also the solutions driven by and for our people as the essential path forward."
Aboriginal groups have increasingly used international forums to mobilize public opinion and to pressure the Canadian government, said Queen's University policy studies Prof. Kathy Brock, who specializes in aboriginal self-governance.
"The politics of shame are very powerful," she said. "Canada is a voice on human rights worldwide, so it doesn't want to have its international reputation blemished by serious oversights of human rights."
Brock said Ottawa granting the visit indicates the Conservatives aren't ashamed of their record, and are hoping the UN will take notice of the progress they feel has been made. Such visits can also give more vulnerable people a forum to be heard, she said, and add legitimacy to certain issues.
Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, said the visits allow for in-depth, meaningful studies of countries' human rights records. The last mission to Canada by the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in 2004, resulted in 26 recommendations to the federal government and other groups.
The test this time, Neve said, is whether the government creates a process to address the current human rights ‘implementation gap,' which sees recommendations fall by the wayside.
"It's a good thing to hear that Canada is now going to be receptive and cooperative, but of course it's all really illusory if, at the end of the day, whatever recommendations that come out of that process don't get implemented."
That said, Canada's participation in the process helps set an example for the rest of the world, Neve said.
"We want all governments to be cooperating with UN reviews, to be allowing special rapporteurs in to scrutinize their record," he said. "If we're not doing that, then we're hardly in the position to encourage other states to do so."
Teresa Edwards, Director of International Affairs and Human Rights at the Native Women's Association of Canada, said NWAC has long been lobbying for the international envoys to be allowed to study the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. The group says nearly 600 indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered in the last two decades.
"When we've tried every measure to work with the Canadian government domestically and we don't see progress happening here, we always reach out to the UN," said Edwards, who attended last week's periodic review in Geneva.
"We've had success in the past with international interventions, and we hope that this is just another positive step," Edwards said. "It's a step in the right direction, and we are hopeful."
Most of the countries that spoke at Friday's UN review expressed concern about the treatment of indigenous women in Canada, Edwards said. "I think the pressure's on."
The government says it has taken concrete steps to address the issue, such as investments in law enforcement, improving the justice system and developing community safety plans specifically for aboriginal communities.