Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 1: Broaden the concept of human rights to incorporate international human rights principles as reflected in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Indigenous legal traditions, in the Code and BCHRT operations and practice.

Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 2: Advocate to add Indigenous identity as a protected ground to the Code. Current grounds of discrimination under the Code (including based on race, colour, ancestry or religion) do not adequately address the discrimination Indigenous Peoples report experiencing. This would send a message of inclusion and reflect the individual and collective nature of Indigenous human rights.

Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 5: Identify and remove procedural barriers within the BCHRT.

Guiding recommendations

Recommendation 6: Increase the training for and number of lawyers available to support Indigenous Peoples in bringing human rights complaints, with an emphasis on Indigenous lawyers.

Immediate procedural steps

Recommendation 7: Consider these recommendations remedial measures, and implement active and concerted efforts to address the underrepresentation of Indigenous complainants accessing the BCHRT. Create an affirmative access program for Indigenous Peoples.

Immediate procedural steps

Recommendation 8: Create a staff/tribunal committee tasked with developing the Expanding Our Vision Implementation Plan. Indigenous lawyers and cultural leaders or academics with knowledge of human rights should be recruited to join these efforts. The Expanding Our Vision Implementation Plan should include immediate steps to be taken in the first 6 months, and then be renewed on a yearly basis.

Incorporate Indigenous laws

Recommendation 10: The BCHRT should actively engage with Indigenous Peoples, working with the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, Indigenous lawyers, and law schools, to incorporate Indigenous laws into a renewed human rights process which reflects Indigenous approaches for protecting human rights.

Incorporate Indigenous laws

Recommendation 11: The BCHRT, working in concert with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, could approach other human rights agencies to institute an Indigenous ombuds office across jurisdictions, per the recommendation of the MMIWG2S Inquiry.

Increase Indigenous involvement within the BCHRT

Recommendation 16: Offer human rights clinics in remote regions (going back regularly) to both teach about human rights and to assist with filing claims. Approach law schools for options to work jointly in providing these clinics regionally and to create regional expertise.

Coordinating human rights responses across jurisdictions

Recommendation 21: The BCHRT should discuss with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) a coordinated process for sorting jurisdictions between the federal and provincial bodies when Indigenous Peoples bring a human rights complaint. An agreement to triage claims between the CHRC and BCHRT would assist Indigenous complainants.