E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.3 page 7 15. While the federal responsibility for First Nations people living on reserve lands, Inuit, Métis and non-status Indians rests with the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, a number of responsibilities in relation to Métis and non-status Indians also rest with provincial governments. Numerous bands and communities are still struggling to obtain their own reserves. III. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN CANADA: PRIORITY ISSUES 16. The human rights situation of the Aboriginal people of Canada results not only from the different geographical settings and their socio-cultural variety, but also from the different approaches of public policy and the complex set of laws and jurisdictions governing relations between the State and the various categories of Aboriginal populations. 17. The Canadian Human Rights Commission views the social and economic situation of Aboriginal people as among the most pressing human rights issues facing Canada. While the Commission is not mandated to monitor the human rights of First Nations under the Indian Act, as stated in section 67 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, it has called for special measures, such as an Aboriginal Employment Preferences Policy. Canada has not yet ratified Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. 18. Aboriginal peoples are represented by numerous publicly recognized organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Métis National Council, the Inuit Tapiriit Kantami, the Native Women’s Association as well as regional and local councils of chiefs and others. A. Treaty rights and other constructive arrangements 19. The specific rights of Aboriginal peoples are in part recognized in 11 numbered and other treaties between the Government and specific Indian nations signed during the nineteenth and part of the twentieth centuries. Land claims settlements or agreements concluded after 1973 are known as “modern treaties”. Whereas these treaties recognize certain rights of First Nations, some Aboriginal representatives consider that they are framed so as to lead to the extinguishment or relinquishment of their ancestral Aboriginal rights in exchange for final compensation, something the texts of many modern treaties themselves appear to confirm. 20. Some First Nations have accepted this solution but others consider releasing their constitutionally recognized and affirmed rights through a negotiated settlement as unacceptable. Government authorities have assured the Special Rapporteur that the new treaties do not imply the extinguishment of rights, but a number of Aboriginal representatives who met with him consider that the modern treaties approach does in fact continue to lead to the “release” or extinguishment of rights. In 1999, in its concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Canada (CCPR/C/79/Add.105) the Human Rights Committee recommended that the practice of extinguishing inherent Aboriginal rights be abandoned as incompatible with article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a recommendation that the Special Rapporteur fully supports.