In November 2021, as part of a coalition of concerned advocates, FAFIA joined Human Right experts in submitting a Request for Early Warnings and Urgent Action Procedures to The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in relation to the imminent threat to Indigenous peoples and territories in British Columbia, Canada. You can read the joint submission here, along with the coalition letter to Prime Minister Justice Trudeau.
In response, CERD has adopted a letter related to the information submitted by the coalition organizations during its 106th session (11-29 April 2022). Read the full letter here.
In the letter, “the Committee requests the State Party to provide information on the measures taken to:
(a) Cease the construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the Coastal Gas Link pipeline, until free, prior and informed consent is obtained from, respectively, the Secwepemc people and the Wet’suwet’en people, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult;
(b) Engage in negotiations and consultations with the Secwepemc and We’suwet’en communities affected by the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Coastal Gas Link Pipeline and to report on the results of those negotiations and consultations;
(c) Prevent and duly investigate the allegations of surveillance measures, practices of arbitrary detention, instances of excessive use of force against protesters, in particular those belonging to the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, by the RCMP, CIRG, and private security firms;
(d) Cease the forced eviction of Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples;
(e) Guarantee the right of peaceful assembly of indigenous peoples, including the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples;
(f) Review, in consultation with indigenous peoples, the legal and institutional framework with a view to ensuring that the right to consultation and to obtain free, prior and informed consent is adequately incorporated in domestic legislation in a manner which is in compliance with international human rights obligations and jurisprudence, including the Committee’s general recommendation No. 23 on the rights of indigenous peoples.”