Canada & The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

This book provides guidance on Canada’s constitutional framework for Indigenous rights, the UNDRIP, and how these regimes interact with each other, including the uncertainties that remain in this rapidly developing area of Aboriginal law.

On September 13, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – a landmark achievement that spans over two decades of work. The UNDRIP establishes the minimum standards for the dignity, survival, and well-being of Indigenous peoples while setting clear responsibilities for states in upholding these standards.

In 2016, Canada committed to integrating the UNDRIP into its framework in line with the Canadian Constitution. Since then, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Canada (federal government) have enacted legislation aimed at realizing this commitment and paving the way toward true, lasting reconciliation. However, these significant legal advances raise important questions:

• What do these legislative enactments mean in practice for Indigenous peoples?
• How will potential incompatibilities and inconsistencies between Canada’s constitutional framework and the UNDRIP be resolved?
• How are Canadian courts addressing these challenges?

Canada & the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by Thomas Isaac and Grace Wu offers a commentary on Canada’s relationship with the UNDRIP. It traces this relationship from the UN’s development of the UNDRIP, through Canada’s evolution of its position on the UNDRIP over time, to Canada’s current and ongoing efforts to implement the UNDRIP’s standards.

The book seeks to provide practitioners, scholars, and others who operate in the field of Aboriginal law with guidance on Canada’s constitutional framework for Indigenous rights, the UNDRIP, and how these regimes interact with each other, including the uncertainties that remain in this rapidly developing area of Aboriginal law.