The Ontario Human Rights Commission has released a report, Right at home: Report on the consultation on human rights and rental housing in Ontario (in PDF) that focuses on housing as a human right, and sets out a framework for collective action to identify, remove and prevent discrimination in rental housing. You can read more about the report on the Wellesley Institute blog, "Powerful historic report links housing rights to housing action" and read a number of backgrounders on the Ontario Human Rights Commission site.

Recently the Canadian government enacted legislation that gives the same human rights to First Nation members living on reserve as Canadians in the rest of Canada. Previously, native people on reserves were exempt from the Canadian Human Rights Ac. When the Act was passed in 1977, Native reserves were only going to be temporarily excluded from the Act while the federal government made significant changes to the Indian Act. This did not happen, leaving residents of reserves vulnerable to potential abuses by the federal government or their chiefs and council. For more information about the changes to the human rights legislation for reserve members, take a look at the following:

• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada - Repeal of Section 67 of the Canadian Human Rights Act - Frequently Asked Questions
• CBC story - Human rights protection extended to reserves
• Centre for Constitutional Studies - Federal Human Rights Legislation Now Applies to Reserves
• Canadian Human Rights Commission - Canadian Human Rights Commission Applauds Extension of Rights Laws to First Nations

The Canadian Parliament has endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by a majority vote after Canada, along with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand voted against it in the U.N. in September 2007. The Declaration affirms the human rights of indigenous people based on indigenous origin or identity and affirms indigenous people's right to self-determination. The Conservative party has been opposed to the Declaration and voted against the endorsement. Read more on the Amnesty International Canada site and in an article on the site, Indian Country, "Endorsing their rights".

PIVOT Legal Society, the Carnegie Community Action Project, and the Impact of the Olympics on Community Coalition have launched a complaint to the UN about the living conditions of residents in Vancouver's single room occupancy hotels. The formal complaint letter, facts of the complaint and supporting documentation is on the no place like home website.

Do Canada's social programmes satisfy our obligations under human rights treaties to which Canada is a signatory? What have UN treaty bodies said regarding Canada's compliance with its international human rights treaty obligations, particularly in respect of government obligations to have and maintain adequate social programmes? In this new, succinct and readable publication, Human Rights Treaty Obligations: The Consensus on Canada (in PDF), the Poverty and Human Rights Centre documents the consensus of the UN treaty bodies in major areas affecting the lives of poor Canadians. Advocates and lawyers, working with international human rights law, will find this law sheet indispensable. Also, watch for more Law Sheets to come from the Poverty and Human Rights Centre, on poverty issues and Canada's obligations under international human rights law.

BCPIAC is is taking a test case to court on the new identification rules on voting in a federal election. As of June 2007, even if you are a registered voter, you will be refused a ballot on election day unless you prove both your identity and your residential address and there are limited ways of doing this. Many people do not have a residential address including people who are homeless, many people in rural areas where street numbers are not assigned, and many rural Aboriginal reserves. All of these people will lose the right to vote if the new restrictions stand. Read more in the attached document, "Voter ID Challenge," on the BCPIAC website and on www.streamsofjustice.org.

As Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, hundreds of Holocaust survivors, students, and members of youth movements protested against the state's neglect of Holocaust survivors, many who are living in poverty (from www.haaretz.com - "Hundreds protest at Knesset over state neglect of Holocaust survivors"). According to an article on BBC, "Holocaust survivors 'in poverty'," 40% of survivors in Israel, around 170,000 people, are living below the poverty line. Most of those living in poverty have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the last ten years. Survivors from Germany, and other western European countries who arrived in Israel after WWII are entitled to receive a pension from their former countries as well support from Jewish organizations. Listen to a story on NPR, "Israel Struggles to Care for Holocaust Survivors." (Audio)

For the past eight years native groups have been asking the BC government for an inquiry into the death of Frank Paul. Frank Paul, a Mi'kmaq man from New Brunswick, died of exposure after police left him in an alley. After a corrections officer came forward with new information on the case, the Solicitor General agreed to call an inquiry into Frank Paul's death. On the same day the chief of the Vancouver Police announced he was stepping down.

First Nations people across Canada have become increasingly unhappy with the Conservative government's policies on First Nations issues. According to an article in the Straight Goods, "Deep-sixing the Kelowna Accord and UN Declaration," the Conservative government has refused to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as the Kelowna Accord. Though far from perfect, the Kelowna Accord was an agreement between Aboriginal peoples and federal, provincial and territorial governments that set out benchmarks for addressing Aboriginal poverty and marginalization the areas of education, health, housing and economic opportunities. Ottawa has recently pushed to extend human rights protection to people living on reserves but some First Nations leaders are calling this a smoke screen to other issues such as poverty. Read the CBC article, "Rights legislation a smoke screen: First Nations leader," about the issue.

The United Nations has adopted the first Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The convention strives to end discrimination based on ability and includes any type of disbility from physical to mental illness. It covers civil and political rights, accessibility, participation and inclusion, the right to education, health, work and employment and social protection. For more information read a CBC story, "UN adopts landmark bill for disabled rights."

Pivot's report, Beyond Decriminalization: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reform presents the results of two years of research and in depth discussions with eighty-four sex workers from various aspects of the sex industry in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. The report moves beyond the question of criminal law reform by looking at what kind of reforms would be required in a number of different areas of law including labour, municipal, immigration, and family law, in order to protect sex workers in the event that the adult sex industry is decriminalized. Katrina Pacey, Pivot lawyer and author of the report says, "The bottom line is that sex workers want access to the same legal and human rights protections that are afforded to other Canadians. Decriminalization is only the first step to making this possible." Pivot's Sex Work page has more information on their work to empower sex workers to determine the laws they would like to see governing sex work.

Not only is Canada's federal government failing in its obligations to ensure that Canadians have access to the human right to adequate housing, according to a decision of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in May of 2006 (in PDF), but the Canadian government doesn't appear to be concerned about housing and human rights abuses internationally. According to the Habitat International Coalition's Housing and Land Rights Network, the Canadian government sided with a handful of other countries in opposing a resolution before the United Nations' Human Rights Council for a high-level commission of inquiry into human rights and humanitarian abuses in Lebanon. In addition to a thousand or more deaths, and many thousands of people injured, it is now estimated that a million or more people have been forced from their homes in Lebanon.

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued many criticisms regarding Canada's poverty laws. It was noted the neither minimum wages nor income assistence meat the basic needs of Canadians. The committee also critiqued the Employment Insurance program. It was also urged that Canada reopen certain land claims and consult aboriginal peoples on land use issues, as well as rectify the laws which discriminate against aboriginal women. For more information read UN: Canada's Poor Face 'Emergency'.

The UN's recommendations (in PDF) specifically mention cuts to civil legal aid (they refer to British Columbia in particular), insufficiency of minimum wage and welfare to maintain an adequate standard of living across the country, and problems with workfare programs. They highlight the fact that poverty rates remain very high among disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups such as Aboriginal peoples, African-Canadians, immigrants, persons with disabilities, youth, women and single mothers.

The UN's recommendations (in PDF) specifically mention cuts to civil legal aid (they refer to British Columbia in particular), insufficiency of minimum wage and welfare to maintain an adequate standard of living across the country, and problems with workfare programs. They highlight the fact that poverty rates remain very high among disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups such as Aboriginal peoples, African-Canadians, immigrants, persons with disabilities, youth, women and single mothers.

Social justice groups from Canada report on Canada’s disappointing performance under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) tells the committee Canada must re-invest in women. Other reports being submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OHCHR) Committee of the United Nations can be found at the OHCRH website. Craig Foye was in Geneva on behalf of anti-poverty groups in Hamilton, Ontario and you can read about his experience in his blog on Hamilton legal clinics' website.

The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) has launched a campaign that tracks Canada's commitment to the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Covenant states that every person has the right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to be free from hunger, to have a job, be paid fair wages and get an education. NAPO is asking for personal experience(s) of poverty in Canada to include in their report to the United Nations.

In December 1995, the General Assembly proclaimed the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006). In December 1996, the General Assembly declared the theme for the Decade as a whole to be "Eradicating poverty is an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of humankind." The theme for the International Day for Poverty Eradication 2005 is "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals - empowering the poorest of the poor." The UN's website has information, logos, posters and downloadable pamphlets, the Make Poverty History website and the October 17, 2005 website for events planned worldwide. Download the National Anti-Poverty Organization's (NAPO) 6 page 'October 17 Kit' (in PDF) for background information and objectives for the day as well as some suggestions on activities.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Canada and voiced their concerns over Canada's security certificate process where non-citizens are detained based on secret evidence and deported without trial. A press release of the UN's concerns and an essay by the BC Civil Liberties Association emphasize why this evidence impedes human rights.

Amnesty International released a report critical of Australia's mandatory detention of immigrants and refugees. The report recommends that Australia urgently make comprehensive amendments to the policy to ensure that no person is detained in violation of their human rights. More information about this policy is available on Amnesty Internation's website in a section entitled "What's Happening to Refuggees?"