Canada, a Pariah State? Indigenous rights in Domestic and International Law
Former Chief of the Neskonlith Band in British Columbia, and
chairperson of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and Interior
Alliance of BC First Nations, Arthur Manuel has
been a leading advocate for the human rights of Indigenous peoples
in Canada. Currently, he is the spokesperson for the Indigenous
Network on Economies and Trade (INET), a network of Indigenous
organizations working to achieve recognition of Aboriginal and
Treaty Rights at the international level. INET has successfully
submitted three amicus curiae at the World Trade Organization and
one at the North American Free Trade Agreement on the Canada-US
softwood lumber dispute, arguing that the Canadian government's
non-recognition of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights is a subsidy to the
Canadian forest industry.
Manuel will address the emerging framework of domestic and
international law bearing on the rights of Indigenous peoples. He
has been a strong critic of the "extinguishment" policies of the
Canadian government, exemplified in the negotiating frameworks for
modern treaty agreements 鈥� the Comprehensive Claims policy, and its
British Columbia incarnation, the BC Treaty Process. Following in
the path of his father, the late George Manuel, President of the
National Indian Brotherhood and founder of the World Council of
Indigenous Peoples, Manuel has advocated for changes to bring
Canadian policy in line with standards set in Supreme Court
decisions like Delgamuukw and international human rights
instruments like the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. He has testified before United Nations bodies
such as the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and
the UN Committee on Civil and Political Rights, as well as before
the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
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Sponsored by: 91丝瓜视频 Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, QPIRG 91丝瓜视频, and the Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective.