PART THREE: PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS responsibilities in relation to cultural or religious practices within minority communities that affect the rights of women. In their reports, States parties should pay attention to the contribution made by women to the cultural life of their communities.946 RECOGNITION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS FRAMEWORK IN CANADA PART THREE In February 2018, the Prime Minister of Canada announced that the Government would develop a framework for recognition and implementation of indigenous rights, consisting of both legislation and policy. The framework was designed to support indigenous peoples’ rights as recognized and affirmed in section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, while also aligning with the articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Government’s approach proclaimed a commitment to effecting a “shift from a sovereign-to-subjects rights-based approach to a nation-to-nation inherent jurisdictional approach”.947 The Government recognized indigenous self-government as part of the country’s emerging system of cooperative federalism. Relationships (nation-to-nation, government-togovernment, and Inuit-Crown), including treaty relationships, therefore include: • developing mechanisms and designing processes which recognize that Indigenous peoples are foundational to Canada’s constitutional framework; • involving Indigenous peoples in the effective decision-making and governance of our shared home; • putting in place effective mechanisms to support the transition away from colonial systems of administration and governance, including, where it currently applies, governance and administration under the Indian Act; and • ensuring, based on recognition of rights, the space for the operation of Indigenous jurisdictions and laws.948 Aspects of the country’s previous efforts in this regard have been the subject of criticism, in particular, for not sufficiently safeguarding gender equality, including the rights of women and girls, especially as concerns gender-based violence.949 As the Human Rights Committee’s statement makes clear, it is illegitimate for States to decline to act on responsibilities to protect in cases of harmful practices within minority or indigenous communities, based on the logic that such communities – and their right to community autonomy – renders them separate and hermetically sealed jurisdictions, exempt from the application of other human rights. Indeed, Governments worldwide have had to grapple practically with how to ensure gender equality, the rights of the child, and the rights of minorities within minorities and other aspects, while at the same time respecting minority and indigenous rights requirements.950 Other treaty bodies have engaged with similar questions, largely adopting positions harmonized with the Human Rights Committee’s position articulated in general comment No. 28 (2000). These questions implicate both the role of public authorities vis-à-vis minority and indigenous communities, but also as concerns parallel “customary” legal systems operating in majority religious or traditional settings. In a statement to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 946 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 28 (2000), para. 32. 947 Centre for International Governance Innovation, UNDRIP Implementation: More Reflections on the Braiding of International, Domestic and Indigenous Laws: Special Report (Ontario, 2018), p. 100. Available at www.cigionline.org/static/documents/documents/UNDRIP%20 Fall%202018%20lowres.pdf. 948 Government of Canada, “Principles respecting the Government of Canada’s relationship with indigenous peoples” (Ottawa, 2018), p. 9. Available at www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/principles-principes.html. 949 Emma LaRocque, “Re-examining culturally appropriate models in criminal justice”, in Aboriginal and Treaty Rights in Canada: Essays on Law, Equality, and Respect for Difference, Michael Asch, ed. (Vancouver, UBC Press, 1997). 950 For extensive exploration of these questions, see International Council on Human Rights Policy, When Legal Worlds Overlap: Human Rights, State and Non-State Law (Versoix, 2009). 137