A/HRC/54/31/Add.2 In response to the Special Rapporteur’s recommendation, and Call to Action 41 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Canada established the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. On 3 June 2019, the National Inquiry delivered its final report, Reclaiming Power and Place, which set out 231 Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and the Canadian public. 19. Indigenous Peoples are leading conservation efforts in Canada through the Indigenous Guardian programme and other initiatives. To further these initiatives, in December 2022, at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada announced that it would provide Can$ 800 million over seven years for large Indigenous-led conservation projects covering almost 1 million square kilometres of land. 20. Finally, Canada has advanced representation of Indigenous Peoples in political and public life at the highest levels by appointing Indigenous women to the office of Governor General and to the Supreme Court of Canada. IV. Key challenges remaining 21. The socioeconomic situation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada has not significantly improved since previous reports under the mandate. The negative legacies of colonization and racial discrimination continue to cause displacement of Indigenous Peoples and dispossession of their lands and resources, creating situations of homelessness, low educational achievement, unemployment, poverty, poor health and well-being outcomes, addiction, depression and suicide. Indigenous women and girls, two-spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse persons and persons with disabilities are overrepresented in almost all aspects of housing insecurity, homelessness and poverty and are disproportionately affected by violence and discrimination. 22. The challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada are all interconnected. The overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples in the child welfare and correctional systems can lead to addiction, homelessness and becoming missing or murdered. In order to tackle the issue in an effective manner, the structural racism and intergenerational trauma caused by the residential school experience should be addressed comprehensively. A. Residential schools and the discovery of unmarked graves 23. Indigenous Peoples continue to face serious obstacles to achieving full enjoyment of their individual and collective rights. The current human rights situation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada cannot be fully understood without considering the negative legacy of the Indian residential school system and the intergenerational trauma it created. 24. Over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were separated from their families and forced to attend government-funded schools between the 1870s and 1996. The residential school system was characterized as genocide by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The House of Commons unanimously recognized the residential school system as genocide on 27 October 2022, building on the findings of the Commission and the National Inquiry. During his “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada in July 2022, Pope Francis issued an apology at Maskwacis, Alberta, to survivors for the Catholic Church’s role, pursuant to the Commission’s Call to Action 58, and has acknowledged the residential school system as genocide. 25. Survivors shared with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission stories of children who were there one day then disappeared the next, of newborn babies burned in incinerators, and of children being forced to dig the graves of classmates who died. 26. “Indian residential schools”, more appropriately termed “institutions”, were largely hidden in the history of Canada until the 2021 discovery of 215 unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia, which captured the world’s attention. Investigations into unmarked graves and efforts to collect archival information have revealed GE.23-13374 5