How Canada has Fared in Upholding the Rights of Indigenous People? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Amid Canada's struggles in tackling its pressing human rights concerns, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in a recent review, has come out strongly to urge the country to improve its treatment of the aboriginals. Dickson (2018b) acknowledges that the UNHRC conducts periodic appraisals of how the UN member-countries manage human rights issues and offer suggestions for improvement. So far, Canada has participated in the 2009, 2013 and 2018 reviews. The 2018 review has seen the country reach a milestone by being the first occasion that a minister has overseen the submission of the country's human rights records (Dickson, 2018b).

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Despite the Canadian government's efforts to ensure that the indigenous families are protected by the law, there is still a huge room for improvement. In this line, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada's Justice Minister, echoed the review's recommendation that the State must bolster its measures in the provision of civil rights and freedoms to the indigenous people (Dickson, 2018b). The nation's current approach is grounded on progress as opposed to perfection and, in my view, it may take a while before the aboriginals are pretty much satisfied with how the federal government manages their burning issues. Among the areas of concern by the UNHRC is the need to facilitate federal investigations into the cases of missing and slain aboriginal girls and women and the over-representation of indigenous women in prisons (Dickson, 2018a). These are challenges that the government ought to address before the next UNHRC review if Canada is to be recognized for making remarkable strides in the fight against the exploitation of its aboriginals. To that end, government officials are deliberating on whether to extend the investigations for another two years to provide justice for the affected individuals.

Nonetheless, regardless of the considerable amount of work that needs to be done, the country's determination to look after the indigenous communities cannot go unnoticed. For instance, Jody Wilson-Raybould has reaffirmed the government's commitment towards ensuring that the commission probing into the murder cases considers the natives' opinions of the events that transpired when some of their women went missing and were eventually killed (Dickson, 2018a). This step will enable the identification of the chief causes of these crimes as well as understand the lived experiences of native women who have previously fallen prey to such ill-treatment. Moreover, to actualize this breakthrough, the government is abolishing boil-water advisories within the native groups and plans to enforce the 94 proposals for improvement from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In light of the review's response that the Canadian government still denies millions of its citizens an equal opportunity to live and prosper, Jody Wilson-Raybould maintains that she is assessing the Criminal Code whilst the government tries to implement fair legislation (Dickson, 2018b). However, these efforts continue to fall short of fulfilling the State's most pressing human rights' needs. This inadequacy can be further supported by the harms that past federal legislation inflicted on the LGBTQ2 community, which has prompted Trudeau to apologize (Dickson, 2018a). For that reason, the 2018 report from the UNHCR is, unsurprisingly, similar to the 2013 report with regards to the recommendations given. Irrespective of the progress made, I think that Canada should heed to the UNHCR's suggestions to focus on the LGBTQ2 rights, homelessness, appeasement and gender equity to fully realize an impartial State that recognizes and safeguards the rights of every civilian.

References

Dickson, J. (2018a). Canada not doing enough on issues facing Indigenous women, UN human rights council says | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/un-raybould-indigenous-treatment-1.4659893

Dickson, J. (2018b). Canada Must Do Better For Indigenous Peoples: UN Human Rights Group. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/05/11/un-human-rights-council-canada-indigenous_a_23432906/