Canada drops opposition to UN indigenous rights declaration

Canada will no longer be the lone objector among the world’s countries to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

The move would lift the qualifications to this country’s endorsement of the declaration. Those qualifications were officially registered by the previous Conservative government over concerns that the document’s requirement for the “free, prior and informed consent” of indigenous people on issues that affect them could be interpreted as a veto over development and other decisions made in the broader public interest.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, who are in New York this week to attend the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said they will officially announce on Tuesday Canada’s decision to drop the qualifications to the declaration.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-drops-objector-status-on-un-indigenous-rights-declaration/article29946223/