The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a document outlining the rights of indigenous peoples all across the world. This document has become the framework that Canada and British Columbia are using to ensure indigenous peoples have the rights they deserve. One such right is Article 3, which states:

“Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development.”

To learn a bit more, here’s a short video explaining Article 3.

I chose this article as I was interested in the concept of self-determination and how Canada would accomplish this, especially given its not-so-great history. If it hasn’t already been made clear, self-determination is the concept that indigenous communities can make their own decisions over issues that affect them. Essentially, it means that indigenous communities should be treated as a nation and have the powers to control their nation in ways that benefit them.

Obviously, in Canada, laws such as the Indian Act took gigantic leaps backward in upholding this fundamental right. Due to many reasons, laws like the Indian Act remain in Canadian law and continue to dictate the lives of indigenous communities. This means that for many indigenous communities, they do not have control over their land and resources, making it extremely hard to freely pursue economic development.

The good news is that indigenous opinion is much more often being considered when making decisions. One such example is the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), which is the legislative framework for reconciliation in British Columbia. In DRIPA, section 4 requires the creation of an action plan in cooperation with Indigenous peoples to ensure it meets the guidelines set out by UNDRIP. Overall, ensuring consultation with indigenous peoples is an important part of self-determination, as it is a sign of cooperation between two independent nations.

Moving forward, I’m very interested to see what changes the government as well as society will make to better address Article 3 and the rest of UNDRIP as a whole.

See you next time,

Nolan