Human rights must not be sacrificed in the name of development

The United Nation’s top human rights official has cited the case of the Lubicon Cree in a powerful call to ensure that the safety and well-being of Indigenous peoples is not compromised in the name of development.

In a statement to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said:

“When indigenous communities are alienated from their lands because of development and natural resource extraction projects, they are often left to scrape an existence on the margins of society. This is certainly not a sign of development. Many such projects result in human rights violations involving forced evictions, displacement and even loss of life when social unrest and conflict over natural resources erupt. This is certainly not what we mean by development.”

The High Commissioner went on to cite troubling examples of human rights violations against Indigenous peoples around the world, stating: “For example, intensive oil and gas development continues in northern Alberta, Canada in the areas where the long-standing land claims by the Lubicon Lake Nation remain unresolved.”

International human rights experts have long expressed concern over the failure to protect the rights of the Lubicon Cree in the face of massive oil, gas and oil sands development on their unceded territory.

• The High Commissioner’s August 9th statement
• Amnesty International’s latest report “Sacrificing Rights in the Name of Development.”
• Read the Special Rapporteur’s report to the UN Human Rights Council.
• Joint statement to the United Nations by prominent international human rights groups, Indigenous peoples’ organizations, faith groups and trade unions.
• Amnesty International’s 2010 brief to the UN Human Rights Committee on Lubicon rights.
• Summary of UN decisions and recommendations on the Lubicon case

Alberta oil spill: Lubicon Cree deserve answers

Read a factsheet on the background to the spill from Amnesty International

Hear a powerful personal account by community member and Greenpeace campaigner Melina Laboucan-Massimo

Take action

Clean water is a human right

“When the pump house runs out of water so does the school.” — Lubicon youth talk about what it’s like to live without clean running water in a new video

Lubicon youth working on a film about the lack of clean water in their community.

The Lubicon Cree live in the middle of the Alberta oil fields. Vast wealth has been taken from their land. In fact, the province’s share of this oil and gas wealth has been estimated to exceed $14 billion. Yet the Lubicon people live in conditions that would be unimaginable to most Canadians.

The Lubicon community of Little Buffalo has no running water and no sanitation system. Before the Alberta government permitted large-scale oil and gas development on their land, the Lubicon took their drinking water from the muskeg and the lakes and streams. They can no longer safely do so.

With ever more intensive forms of oil and gas development, including the beginning of oil sands extraction, there are increasing worries that even water deep below the ground may become unusable.

Watch the new video “Our Water” filmed by young people at the Little Buffalo School.

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From Homeland to Oil Sands: The impact of oil and gas development on the Lubicon Cree of Canada

More than 2,600 oil and gas wells have been drilled on Lubicon Cree land in northern Alberta, Canada. This intensive development has taken place against the wishes of the Lubicon people and has led to tragic consequences for their society. Even more destructive forms of development – including oil sands extraction – are planned for the future.

International human rights bodies have long been critical of the poverty, widespread ill-health and culture loss that has resulted from the near total destruction of the Lubicon economy and way of life. Until 1979, hunting, trapping and other traditional activities had made the Lubicon largely self-sufficient.

> Download the Amnesty International’s report (pdf, 0.5 mB)

> Read Press Release

Maps show the devastating impact of oil and gas development on Lubicon land

A series of maps commissioned by Amnesty International show the devastating scale of oil and gas development that has already taken place on Lubicon land. These maps also show that even more intensive forms of development are being planned.

> View the Maps

Lubicon youth speak out for justice

Lubicon students with UN Human Rights Committee members

“I’m standing up for what I believe in. This is the place that I come from.” -Daphne Ominayak, 16

Since the beginning of massive oil and gas development on their lands in 1979, young people in the Lubicon community have faced overwhelming poverty and a struggle to maintain their ties to the culture and way of life of their elders.

In 1990, the UN Human Rights Committee urged Canada to respect the rights of the Lubicon Cree and to reach a just resolution of their land dispute. If Canada had complied with this ruling, the lives of Lubicon youth would be very different today

To mark the anniversary of the historic UN ruling, Amnesty International, the Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers), KAIROS, and the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Agriculture Union (PSAC) sponsored a human rights essay contest at the school in the Lubicon community of Little Buffalo. The three contest winners, Leticia Gladue, Daphne Ominayak and Dawn Seeseequon, travelled to the United Nations in New York to meet with the UN Human Rights Committee.

Read the winning essays

Read other comments by Lubicon youth

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Human rights are for all people, without exception

For more than two decades, United Nations human rights bodies have been calling on governments in Canada to respect the rights of the Lubicon Cree. It’s time for us to say, “Enough is enough.”

Lubicon rights must be protected before another generation of Lubicon youth grows up facing poverty and injustice.

• If you can only spare a minute, please sign our online petition.
• If you have a few more minutes, tell your friends about our facebook page.
• If you can take ten minutes, please write a short letter to the Premier of Alberta.
• Or get together with friends and family to join our photo petition.
• If you have a half-hour, view our video documentary on the Lubicon struggle.

Learning from the Lubicon struggle

Lubicon trapper's cabin

The Lubicon struggle tells us a lot about Canada: about Aboriginal relations, human rights, justice, history and the environment. The following tools can be used to bring the Lubicon story into the classroom.

A teacher’s guide to the film “Our Land, My People: The Struggle of the Lubicon Cree” (PDF)

Downloadable slideshow with notes on the impact of oil and gas development on Lubicon lands (PowerPoint)

Lifesaver: a plain language human rights appeal on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples