Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chief RoseAnne Archibald has called on the United Nations to investigate Canada’s possible role in human rights abuses related to residential schools.
Ms. challenged. Archibald theUN Monday, at a press briefing held within the framework of the 21st session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in New York.
He requested that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in collaboration with other representatives of the international body, examine the role of the Canadian government in the residential school system. This request follows the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves in the areas of a former residential school for Aboriginal children in Canada.
I no longer call them schools because there is no school I have attended burying children in unmarked graves, Ms. Archibald. Canada and the member states of the United Nations should not look the other way.
The Head of the Assembly of First Nations is calling for the case to be subjected to a full legal process, with criminal prosecution, sanctions and reparations.
He also sent a written request to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
At her press briefing, RoseAnne Archibald spoke about the discovery of more than 200 unmarked graves near the former Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Indian residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia, and 700 others near Marieval. , in the community of Cowessess, Saskatchewan.
Canada should not have the right to investigate on its ownsupported the native leader.
Please help us to ensure that such things do not happen again. Not just for us, but for everyone.
Canada will cooperate
In its most recent federal budget, Ottawa provided $ 10.4 million over two years for the Department of Justice to appoint a special interlocutor, whose mandate is to work with Indigenous populations to protect and preserve unmarked graves. .
Canada’s Minister of Justice, David Lametti, has indicated that a possible United Nations investigation will not affect the work of this interlocutor.
We will not block this kind of procedure if the United Nations decides to proceed, he said. We will always work with the United Nations.
Ms. also wants. Archibald that the International Criminal Court will conduct its own investigation into human rights abuses related to residential schools in Canada.
He stressed the need for any investigation into Canada’s role in this matter to be impartial and independent.
He believes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) could not have been involved in the investigation, as it had itself removed children from their families to take them to residential schools.
More than 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools in Canada from 1830 until the last school closed in 1997.
RoseAnne Archibald explained that this intergenerational trauma still affects survivors and their descendants. Moreover, many of them have poor command of their own language.
These institutions are designed to kill the Indigenous in every childunderlined Ms. Archibald.
The 21st session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will continue through Friday, May 6th.
Source: Radio-Canada
