Madam President,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of a group of countries. We attach great importance to the work of various mechanisms on the rights of indigenous people in the Human Rights Council. We call on these mechanisms to pay more attention to the issue of rights of indigenous people in Canada.

Canada for a long time pursued policies of ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide against indigenous people. From the 1830s to 1990s, an estimate of 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly taken away from their parents and sent to residential schools. These indigenous children lived in harsh conditions and suffered malnutrition, many falling victim to forced labor, abuse and rape. Some even became living medical experiments against humanity. At least 4,000 indigenous children in residential schools died of abnormal death. Canada has been persistently wiping out languages and culture of indigenous people. Over 40 indigenous languages are currently spoken by fewer than 500 indigenous people.

More than 600 indigenous communities are segregated by the Canadian government in 3,000 small and scattered “reservations,” without sufficient infrastructure, job opportunities, even safe drinking water. Indigenous women and girls are subject to violence, including forced sterilization in Canada. Indigenous communities have long suffered systemic discrimination in the society.

The Canadian government has tried to cover up facts and truth about persecution of indigenous people, refuses to take actions to right historical wrongs and protect the rights of indigenous people. The living conditions of indigenous people in Canada are deteriorating. The policy of genocide against indigenous people has become one of the root causes of systemic inequality, racism and racial discrimination in Canada today.

We urge the Canadian government to take concrete actions to conduct thorough investigation into genocide against indigenous people, disclose truth of the past, bring perpetrators to justice and provide victims with remedy and put an end to injustice of oppression and discrimination of the indigenous people. We call on the Human Rights Council and relevant mechanisms to continue to attend to serious violations of the rights of indigenous people in Canada, and take necessary actions to push the Canadian government to correct its mistakes.

Thank you, Madam President.

China, Belarus, Bolivia, Burundi, DPRK, Syria, Venezuela