A/HRC/54/31/Add.2 I. Economic, social and cultural rights 74. The housing crisis described in the Special Rapporteur’s 2014 report on the visit to Canada is still an urgent issue. Addressing housing insecurity is paramount to overcoming the cycle of poverty and marginalization that Indigenous Peoples continue to experience. Additionally, it is a key component of the process of reconciliation, as the current housing crisis is a direct consequence of the loss of lands and territories. Indigenous Peoples are more likely to live in substandard, overcrowded and culturally inadequate housing than the rest of the Canadian population. This situation constitutes a barrier to securing stable employment, education and access to social services. 75. Indigenous Peoples in urban, rural and remote communities navigating the rental housing market often face explicit and implicit racism from property owners in a market with limited affordable housing options. These individual experiences of discrimination, combined with systemic and institutional racism, amplify distrust of public institutions. As a result, Indigenous Peoples are less likely to seek access to programmes and services offered by public institutions than are non-Indigenous people. 76. There is a disproportionately high rate of persons with disabilities among Indigenous people in Canada, and significant barriers to the full realization and equal enjoyment of all human rights remain for these individuals. Indigenous Peoples with disabilities experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and continue to face unique barriers to accessing supports and services available to the broader population. There is a lack of accessible housing within First Nations on reserve and Inuit and Métis communities; options for persons with disabilities are limited because there is no federal accessibility requirement for housing. Many people experiencing physical and/or mental health disabilities and who require accessible housing and/or specialized care must leave their communities in order to have their housing needs met. This barrier can have a disproportionate impact, particularly on older persons who want, but are unable, to remain connected to their communities. 77. Canada created the National Housing Strategy and passed the National Housing Strategy Act, establishing the independent Federal Housing Advocate, mandated to look at systemic housing issues. The Advocate expressed concern over the disproportionate number of Indigenous Peoples living in housing precarity and stressed the urgent need to develop and deliver an adequately funded for-Indigenous, by-Indigenous urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing strategy that would equip Indigenous governments to respond to the housing crises in their communities. 78. In 2021, the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, under Indigenous Services Canada, instituted a programme to combat racism against Indigenous people, dedicating Can$ 126.7 million over three years to addressing racism against Indigenous people in the country’s health systems. The reasons for this are clear: Indigenous Peoples face unique barriers in accessing health services, due to historical mistrust and structural racism. 79. The death of Joyce Echaquan in 2020 highlights the devastating reality of racial discrimination in the health-care system. Ms. Echaquan, a mother of seven, was admitted to Joliette hospital, nearly 300 kilometres from her community of Manawan. She recorded a video capturing the racist comments of nurses shortly before she died without receiving the medical care she required. Indigenous Peoples are calling for the adoption of “Joyce’s Principle” to guarantee Indigenous Peoples the right of equitable access, without discrimination, to all social and health services, as well as the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 53 80. Forced and coerced sterilization has been identified as part of a continuum of violence against Indigenous women in the health-care systems by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, in the context of Senate hearings held in 2021 and 2022 and in a 2022 report on the situation 53 GE.23-13374 See https://principedejoyce.com/en/index. 15