UNDRIP Project

Breathing Life into Our Living Tree and Strengthening our Constitutional Roots: The Promise of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act

For an in depth view of the UNDRIP Act please follow the link below to read Indigenous Legal Scholar Naiomi Metallic’s work: Breathing Life into Our Living Tree and Strengthening our Constitutional Roots: The Promise of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

Read Breathing Life into Our Living Tree and Strengthening our Constitutional Roots: The Promise of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act by Naiomi Metallic.

In the first part of this paper, Indigenous Legal Scholar and Law Professor, Naiomi Metallic explains how the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applies to Canadian law, and how the federal UN Declaration Act affirms the Declaration’s status in Canadian law, as well as commits the federal government to future substantive implementation of the Declaration, including the review of existing laws and policies to ensure conformity with the Declaration.

In the second part she explains that in the case of s 35 of the Canadian Constitution, the UN Declaration, and the complimentary UN Declaration Act, holds significant promise to address long-standing problems in the Supreme Court’s approach to section 35 by filling the sparse section 35 ‘box’ with a detailed elaboration of Indigenous rights, and associated government obligations. UNDRIP also supplies key context, values and principles and specific provisions to overcome the long-lasting impacts the doctrine of discovery has had on Canadian law, as well as situate Indigenous collective rights as universal fundamental human right that all Indigenous groups in Canada are entitled to.