Conference Title: Participation of Indigenous Peoples in the UNDRIP Implementation in Canada – Prospects and Challenges in Light of Parallel International Law
Conference date: September 21, 2018
Location: Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Room/s TBA
Proposal abstracts due: June 30, 2018
The need for constructive engagement on the prospects of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) to facilitate change in the lives of Indigenous Peoples becomes more important since Canada has pledged to implement the declaration. This conference is a contribution to the discussion on what considerations should inform Canada’s UNDRIP implementation and looks at challenges and strategies that may influence UNDRIP implementation outcomes. The considerations that should guide UNDRIP’s implementation are diverse, and if implementation is to be meaningful, must cut across economic, cultural, legal and social spectrums. The focus is intended to be on substantive implementation and not directly on the variety of formal mechanisms of implementation, although for some paper proposals the two may be closely intertwined.
Issues that the conference particularly wants to address include: (1) climate change and the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, (2) how Canada’s trade agenda fits with UNDRIP implementation, (3) implementation of various concrete rights found in UNDRIP such as Indigenous women’s rights, labour rights, and language rights, (4) international economic law and the protection of intangible Indigenous rights (in conventional terms, intellectual property, moral rights and so on) in Canada. Further, (5) the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their intersection with the domestic application of international law are also a relevant dimension of the conference theme. A final priority theme is (6) the role of UNDRIP and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) with respect to corporate social responsibility and legal accountability, and related state obligations, in extractive industries in Canada and abroad.
The conference also welcomes participation in a non-academic format from Indigenous community members.
The International Law Association (Canada) and the Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at Osgoode Hall Law School invite abstracts on these topics or on other key issues relevant to the implementation of UNDRIP in Canada. The conference will be held on September 21, 2018; if your proposal is selected, you are asked to supply your draft paper by September 1, 2018, or, if any delay occurs with the paper, expected to have completed at least an overview-of-argument paper in the region of 2000-2500 words as a condition of participation. Please submit your abstracts to ilaconference@ila-canada.ca. Abstracts should be a maximum of 200 words and submitted by June 30, 2018.
Limited funding may be available to assist those who have no other resources to attend the conference. Along with your abstract, please indicate whether you will need assistance with (a) travel (if so, indicate your starting destination) and (b) accommodation for two nights.
Participants retain all rights in their papers for post-conference publication in the venue of their choice, with the proviso that the conference version of the paper be acknowledged at the start of the publication.