The international right to health for indigenous peoples in Canada

The prevalence of diabetes among First Nations is three times the national average10 and the tuberculosis rates for Inuit are three times higher than First Nations and seventy times the rate of non-Indigenous Canadians.11 This inequality in health status is difficult to reconcile with the fact that the right to health is part of the broader scope of human rights validated by both the United Nation [...] For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) refers to “the dignity and worth of the human person and the equal rights of men and women.”25 Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes “… the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”26 Article 10 of the Additional P [...] However, despite bi-annual meetings held since 1995 to deliberate and consider the content of the draft declaration, only two of the forty-five articles have been adopted.51 Although the Draft Declaration was to be adopted by the end of the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People in 2004, the lack of consensus on the remaining 43 articles has made this task difficult.52 The Working G [...] The 1999 Report of the Secretary-General on the Decade (Report) was the first of these evaluations and notes that the World Health Organization had adopted a resolution to consult with Indigenous people to “increase its attention to the health needs of Indigenous populations in a comprehensive and systematic way,”64 with “an overall strategy and programme of work for the Decade.”65 The Report also [...] Article 12 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights sets out a series of steps required to realize a right to health: 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.