Keeping Treaty Promises with First Nations to Advance Reconciliation and the Sustainable Development Goals across Canada

Keeping Treaty Promises with First Nations to Advance Reconciliation and the Sustainable Development Goals across Canada

Since countries committed to sustainable development in international law and policy at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),[1] the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)[2] and other instruments were adopted, global consensus regarding the importance of sustainable development has evolved, at least through rhetoric and international accords. Over the last 25 years, sustainable development has become an essential part of the negotiation, interpretation and implementation of international law, as well as a core element in the national and local laws of a number of countries, and has come to play a significant role in law and policy of Canada. Once seen as an aspirational principle of international environmental law, commitments to sustainable development are now being included in the object and purpose of global accords addressing key challenges on climate change, water, energy, health, education, trade and investment.[3] In the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, for instance, countries commit to reduce greenhouse gases, and also to support sustainable development of clean energy, forests and other resources, globally, as well as to promote societal and economic inclusion.[4]

To crystallize and coordinate the global policy commitments, in 2015 a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted internationally at the United Nations, including by Canada, as an agenda to 2030 and beyond. While there has been progress in analyzing and tracking efforts to achieve the SDGs at the international level, globally, regionally and nationally,[5] there are very important gaps in ensuring that country-level governance systems can integrate and support SDG achievement, locally on the ground. In Canada. across nearly all 17 SDG targets, some of the most significant gaps exist for indigenous peoples.[6]  This is due in part to long-standing historical, economic, social and environmental conditions and barriers which are only now being discussed openly through Canada’s national reconciliation process.[7]

Achievement of the SDGs among First Nations across Canada provides a pathway to support reconciliation and finds a basis in a range of binding treaties and customary laws existing between the Canadian government and First Nations and Indigenous communities. First Nations treaties – historical and modern alike – are extremely important to sustainable development for Indigenous peoples in Canada, recognising key (and hard-won) rights and obligations.[8] The possible synergies between advancing sustainable development and realizing Indigenous rights is beginning to advance significant discussion in policy and environmental literature, including among Indigenous legal scholars and experts. However, the area is underexplored academically and in the broader public realm, especially across law, governance, environment and development studies fields in Canada. Recent international surveys demonstrate that Indigenous community rights and concerns are reflected across nearly all of the SDGs.[9]

Historically, State-supported environmental, economic and social policies have perversely led to alienation or exclusion of Indigenous groups. Control over essentially important Indigenous natural resources and knowledge was seized, as often as not, once appropriated, the resources and knowledge were mismanaged and degraded.[10] While today, alternative efforts are being used among Indigenous groups, activating laws and policies on sustainable development to improve well-being and advance community priorities,[11] and an enormous scope for as-yet-unrealized opportunities to improve, especially in terms of how legislation, policy and governance systems today intersect with Indigenous environmental, economic and social rights.[12] Internationally, Indigenous peoples have become increasingly involved in norm-making and implementation on sustainable development, especially in the Arctic through the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.[13]

Development of policy approaches for advancement of the SDGs provides a unique opportunity for both engagement and reconciliation with First Nations across Canada.P

~ From Blog Post Marie-Claire Cordonier-Segger, Leverhulme Visiting Professorship and SSHRC Insight Development Grant