Over the last five years, Christian Peacemaker Teams and Mennonite Church Canada worked tirelessly alongside Indigenous and ecumenical partners to support federal legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And this month, at long last, the Canadian government tabled Bill C-15: An act respecting the UN Declaration.
A consensus international human rights instrument, the Declaration was crafted by Indigenous peoples and representatives of nation-states over 25 years. It affirms the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples; rights aren’t “special” but “the minimum standards for the survival, dignity, and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world” (Article 43, UNDRIP).