Leaders ignore their responsibilities at their peril. Across the globe, people are organizing in extraordinary numbers, with a sense of common purpose that unites them across race, gender, age and social condition.
By Ketty Nivyabandi & Alex Neve*
2020 has been a tumultuous year for human rights.
Like a mirror held to our faces, COVID-19 has unveiled our deepest inequities: Older people, women, Indigenous peoples, Black and racialized communities, refugees and migrants, low-income and homeless people, and those living with disabilities have borne the brunt of the pandemic.
The failure to respect the land and resource rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada once again led to confrontation and violence, notably in Wet’suwet’en Territory at the beginning of the year and the Treaty-protected Mi’kmaq lobster fishery more recently.
Demands for action to address systemic racism against Indigenous, Black and racialized peoples in Canada grew more urgent, particularly with respect to police violence.