Anniversary of the Global Adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: National Implementation More Urgent than Ever

September 11, 2020

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly 13 years ago, on September 13^th 2007, as a global minimum standard to address widespread, severe, and systemic violations of the collective and individual human rights of Indigenous peoples.

Since that time, the Declaration has been reaffirmed nine times by the General Assembly by consensus. No country in the world formally opposes it.

The Declaration does not create new rights. It affirms the pre-existing, inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples, which constitute the “minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples” globally. Implementation of the Declaration’s minimum standards within Canada is long overdue.