Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver – Today is the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, who number more than 370 million in some 70 countries around the world.
The First Nations Summit would like to take this opportunity to respectfully acknowledge this day in British Columbia, the traditional territory of 26 distinct Indigenous Peoples, 203 First Nations (Bands), and 32 Aboriginal languages.
Today provides an important opportunity to recognize and celebrate that this past June, a majority of members of the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to move the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on to the United Nations General Assembly for ratification. We encourage all state governments, Canada in particular, to accept the declaration when it comes before them this fall for ratification during the United Nations General Assembly so that the world’s Indigenous People may begin the long road to stability and prosperity.