The Journal of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights

Canada, Genocide of Indigenous peoples and the International Court of Justice

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Assistant Professor, Institution for Research and Development in the Humanities (SAMT), Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Is it possible for genocide to be committed only by states with totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes? Events and studies in Canada over the past few decades prove the opposite. A wealth of Canadian state documents, witnesses, officials’ confessions, and surveys show that the genocide of Indigenous peoples as the main owners of the land was carried out in a very slow, lethal, and mostly non-lethal manner against this population. The article, while reviewing the facts of the case in the light of case law and related international documents, considers the option of bringing an action against the state of Canada in the International Court of Justice to reiterate to the members of the international community the need for appropriate action. Reconsider their approach to the people under their jurisdiction so that they do not commit genocide as the most heinous international crime, and thus we witness a day without repeating the unbelievable stories of a generation of people trying to destroy other generations.
Keywords

Subjects


Bibliography
 

 

“Actions taken by the Government of Canada since the launch of the inquiry.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1559566331686/1559566355192.

“Declaration of Canada recognizing the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.icj-cij.org/en/declarations/ca.

“An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/bill/C-15/third-reading.
“Canada’s Failure to Effectively Address Murder and Disappearance of Aboriginal Women ‘Grave Rights Violation’ - UN Experts.“ accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15656&LangID=E.
“China policies could cut millions of Uyghur births in Xinjiang.” accessed September 13, 2021, Cate Cadell, https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-amid-accusations-genocide-west-china-polices-could-cut-millions-uyghur-2021-06-07/.
“Constitution Act of 1867” (13 September 2021), https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/FullText.html.
“Decades of Missing Indigenous Women a 'Canadian Genocide' – Leaked Report.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/31/canada-missing-indigenous-women-cultural-genocide-government-report.
“Discrimination of Aboriginals on Native Lands in Canada.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/discrimination-aboriginals-native-lands-canada.
“Forced Sterilization of Indigenous Women in Canada.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://ijrcenter.org/forced-sterilization-of-indigenous-women-in-canada/.
“Indigenous People in Canada.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people.
“Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/

“Indigenous Women Still Forced, Coerced into Sterilization: Senate Report.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://globalnews.ca/news/7920118/indigenous-women-sterilization-senate-report/.

“Ontario judge sides with Sixties Scoop survivors.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-judge-sides-with-60s-scoop-survivors-damages-to-be-decided/article34015380/.
 “Request for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius 1965.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1290041?ln=en.

“Residential School Histories & Memoirs.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://epl.bibliocommons.com/list/share/69643431/675287927.

“Residential Schools in Canada.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools.

“Statement by the Prime Minister on the findings around the former Marieval (Cowessess) Residential School in Saskatchewan.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2021/06/24/statement-prime-minister-findings-around-former-marieval-cowessess.

“Status of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women." accessed September 13, 2021, https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4#12.
“Status of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-1&chapter=4.
“Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-11&chapter=4.
“Status of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-4&chapter=4#EndDec.
“Sterilization of Indigenous Women in Canada.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sterilization-of-indigenous-women-in-canada.

“Submission to the Government of Canada on Police Abuse of Indigenous Women in Saskatchewan and Failures to Protect Indigenous Women from Violence.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/19/submission-government-canada-police-abuse-indigenous-women-saskatchewan-and#_ftn24.

“The Aboriginal languages of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016022/98-200-x2016022-eng.pdf
“Why the Muscowequan Residential School Remains Today.” accessed September 13, 2021, https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/still-standing/.
“With Discovery of Unmarked Graves, Canada’s Indigenous Seek Reckoning.” accessed September 13, 2021, Ian Austen, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/world/canada/indigenous-residential-schools-grave.html.
Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), ICJ Reports 2007.
Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia), ICJ Reports 2015.
Arashpour, Alireza, and Majid Zahmatkesh.  “The Capacity of the Contemporary International Law in Recognition of the Concept of Cultural Genocide”, International Law Review 34 (2018): 197-227. [In Persian]
Azari, Hadi. “Defining Genocide in the Light of ICTY and ICTR Decisions”, Journal of Legal Research 5, (2006): 55-84. [In Persian]
Azizi, Sattar, and Mohammad Hadji. ”The State Responsibility for Commission of Genocide: Confrontation or Interaction with Transitional Justice Process”, Journal of Legal Research 8 (2016): 147-182. [In Persian]
Azizi, Sattar. “Elements of the Crime of Genocide in the Jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice and ad hoc International Criminal Courts”, International Law Review 24 (2007): 9-34.   [In Persian]
Bagherzadeh, Rezvan,  and Mehdi Hossein Tabrizi. ”The Feasibility of the Criminalization of Politicide with Emphasis on International Instruments: International Law in Harmony with Reality”, International Law Review 37 (2020): 225-252. [In Persian]

Bocock, Ryan, “The Gambia, Myanmar and the International Court of Justice– A Path to Justice?.” at: https://grojil.org/2019/12/09/the-gambia-myanmar-and-the-international-court-of-justice-a-path-to-justice/

Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, ICJ Reports 1996.
Brown v. Canada (Attorney General), 2017, ONSC 251, at: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2017/2017onsc251/2017onsc251.html
Cassese, Antonio. “Article 6.” in The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Law: A Commentary, edited by Antonio Cassese, Paola Gaeta, and John Jones, 335-350. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Cassese, Antonio. “Is Genocidal Policy a Requirement for the Crime of Genocide?,” in The UN Genocide Convention: A Commentary, edited by Paola Gaeta, 128-136. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
CCPR/C/CAN/CO/6, 13 August 2015.
CEDAW/C/51/D/19/2008, 27 April 2012.
CEDAW/C/CAN/CO/7; CEDAW/C/CAN/CO/8-9, 2016.
CERD/ C/CAN/CO/21-23, 13 September 2017.
Gambia vs. Myanmar, Declaration of Judge Skotnikov, 2020.
Gambia vs. Myanmar, ICJ Reports 2020.
Kittichaisaree, Kriangsak. International Criminal Law, translated by Behnam Yousefian, and Mohamad Esmaili. Tehran: Samt, 2004. [In Persian]
Marshall Islands v. UK, ICJ Report 2016.

Maučec, Gregor. “Protecting Minorities from Discrimination and Mass Violence through Provisional Measures Indicated by the International Court of Justice.” International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 27(2020): 337409.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2014), p. 41, at, http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Indigenous-Women-BC-Canada-en.pdf.
Momtaz, Djamchid. Foreword, in, The Role of International Court of Justice in Promotion and Development of International Law (Collected Essays), Tehran: Iranian Association for United Nations Studies, 2009. [In Persian]
Moss, Wendy, Elaine Gardner-O'Toole. “Law and Government Division, Aboriginal People: History of Discriminatory Laws.” (1991), at: https://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp175-e.htm,
Northern Cameroons, ICJ Reports 1963.
Prosecutor v. Akayesu, Trial Chamber, 2 September 1998.
Prosecutor v. Goran Jelisi, IT-95-10-A, 5 July 2001.
Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Volume 1a, at: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf.
Reclaiming Power and Place: Vol: II, Supplementary report: Quebec, at: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_Report_Vol_2_Quebec_Report-1.pdf.

Religion and Spirituality of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, at: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/religion-of-aboriginal-people.

Sadat Meydani, S. Hossein. International Court of Justice: Evidence, 2th ed., Tehran: Jangal, 2012. [In Persian]

Schabas, William. “Genocide,” Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Online Version, 2007.

Schabas, William. The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute. Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016.

South West Africa cases, ICJ Reports 1962.
Status of pending cases under the Optional Protocol to CEDAW as of 27 October 2020, at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW/PendingCases.docx.

Supplementary Report: Genocide, in Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, at: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/.

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, A/RES/61/295, at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/609197?ln=en
Werle, Gerhard, and Florian Jeßberger. Principles of International Criminal Law. 4th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Woolford, Andrew, and Jeff Benvenuto “Canada and Colonial Genocide.” Journal of Genocide Research 17, (2015): 373-390.
Send comment about this article
Enter Name.
Enter a valid email address.
Enter a vaid affiliation.
Enter comments (At leaset 10 words)
CAPTCHA Image
Enter Security Code Correctly.