WHAT: Statement to United Nations Human Rights Council by Indigenous and prison rights organizations in response to Canada’s Universal Periodic Review
WHEN: March 25, 2024
WHERE: 55th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland – live broadcast at https://webtv.un.org/en
Geneva, Switzerland – On March 25, 2024, Dene lawyer Jennifer Duncan is in Geneva to speak to the United Nations Human Rights Council on behalf of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the First Nations Summit, the BC First Nations Justice Council and Prisoners’ Legal Services. Duncan’s comments focus on Canada’s mass incarceration of Indigenous people, and call for a redirection of resources and authority from colonial prisons to Indigenous governments and organizations to decarcerate Indigenous people and build alternatives to address harm based on Indigenous legal systems and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Duncan will also call for an end to solitary confinement and solitary-like conditions and for Canada to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Ms. Duncan’s comments are in response to Canada’s Universal Periodic Review (“UPR”). The UPR allows United Nations member states to review the human rights records of their peers. Canada’s UPR took place at the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in November 2023, when Canada was questioned by several states about the mass incarceration of Indigenous people. At the meeting in March 2024, Canada’s Final UPR Report will be adopted, including which recommendations Canada will support.
Ms. Duncan’s comments are available here: Oral Statement Canada UPR 2024
Written comments from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the First Nations Summit, the BC First Nations Justice Council, the BC Assembly of First Nations and Prisoners’ Legal Services are available here.
Media Contact:
Jennifer Duncan
Barrister & Solicitor
JDuncan@duncanco.ca
778-840-8212