October 17, 2011
Since 1993, today has been recognized by the United Nations, and its members around the world, as International day for the eradication of poverty 2011. Today, October 17, 2011, the United Nations...
Government Policy, Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights, Unemployment, Welfare, Women, Workers' Rights, International
October 7, 2011
Each played an important role in recent political conflicts of very different natures, but all three winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 have campaigned for greater equality for women, and...
Government Policy, Human Rights, Women, International
October 3, 2011
On the heels of Pivot's recent announcement that they will not be participating in the Missing Women's Inquiry, two more groups have withdrawn.
The Women's Memorial March Committee and the Downtown...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, Violence, Women, British Columbia
August 31, 2011
Poverty in Canada has been updated by author Dennis Raphael.
With the original foreword by Jack Layton and an updated foreword by Rob Rainer, the book's second edition contains new data and a new...
Homelessness, Human Rights, Poverty Research, All of Canada
August 24, 2011
An August 23rd Editorial in the New York Times investigates how economic inequalities affect access to justice. While the piece targets the situation in the United States, it's conclusions are just...
Human Rights, Legal Aid, International
August 3, 2011
The B.C. Missing Women Inquiry will examine the question of why it took so long to investigate and apprehend convicted murderer Robert Pickton. The Attorney General for B.C., Barry Penner, has denied...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, Violence, Women, British Columbia
November 17, 2010
Sharon McIvor will file a complaint against Canada at the United Nations. She says, "Canada continues to discriminate against Aboriginal women and their descendants in the determination of...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, Women, All of Canada, International
November 15, 2010
For the past four years, the federal government has refused to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, claiming that Canada could not support resource rights, the right to...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, All of Canada, International
July 15, 2010
In this article based on his address to the Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences on May 29th, 2010, the former leader of the NDP summarizes the journey of...
Government Policy, Human Rights, Poverty Research, Welfare, All of Canada
June 19, 2009
In October 2008, the BC Supreme Court struck down Victoria's bylaw banning people from erecting tents or other structures in city parks. The judge ruled that due to the lack of housing and shelter,...
Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights, British Columbia
June 10, 2009
The Poverty and Human Rights Centre is intervening to to support homeless people in the Tent City Case. The appeal will be heard in the British Columbia Court of Appeal on June 10 and 11, 2009. The...
Homelessness, Human Rights, British Columbia
December 10, 2008
Today on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the National Council of Welfare (an advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development) released an...
Human Rights, Poverty Research, Welfare, All of Canada, International
December 5, 2008
Latin American workers who helped build the underground tunnel in Vancouver for the Canada Line have won a human rights tribunal against their employers, SELI Canada Inc. and SNC Lavalin Constructors...
Ethnicity and Race, Human Rights, Workers' Rights, British Columbia
August 10, 2008
According to a report, One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games (in PDF), released by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, 1.5 million people have been...
Housing, Human Rights, International
August 4, 2008
Pivot Legal Society, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and the United Native Nations have filed a human rights complaint against the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Disability, Homelessness, Human Rights, British Columbia
July 13, 2008
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,...
Housing, Human Rights, Ontario
June 28, 2008
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...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, All of Canada
May 1, 2008
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...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, All of Canada, International
April 21, 2008
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...
Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights, British Columbia
January 2, 2008
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, All of Canada
November 6, 2007
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...
Homelessness, Human Rights, British Columbia, All of Canada
April 16, 2007
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...
Human Rights, International
February 27, 2007
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...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, Violence, British Columbia
January 7, 2007
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...
Aboriginal and First Nations, Human Rights, All of Canada
December 13, 2006
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...
Disability, Human Rights, International
September 17, 2006
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...
Human Rights, Legal Research, Women, Workers' Rights, All of Canada
September 4, 2006
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...
Housing, Human Rights, All of Canada
June 10, 2006
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...
Human Rights, All of Canada
May 21, 2006
The UN's recommendations (in PDF) (Link removed - no longer exists) specifically mention cuts to civil legal aid (they refer to British Columbia in particular), insufficiency of minimum wage and...
Human Rights, All of Canada
May 21, 2006
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...
Human Rights, All of Canada
May 7, 2006
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...
Human Rights, All of Canada
April 1, 2006
The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) (Editor's note, May 2010: NAPO now called Canada Without Poverty) has launched a campaign that tracks Canada's commitment to the United Nations...
Human Rights, Organizing, All of Canada
October 2, 2005
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...
Human Rights, International
June 29, 2005
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...
Human Rights, All of Canada
June 29, 2005
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...
Human Rights, Immigrants and Refugees, International
January 23, 2005
The New Brunswick legislature has given final approval to a private-members bill that will protect the poor from discrimination. The amendment to the New Brunswick Human Rights Act - available online...
Human Rights, New Brunswick
July 5, 2004
On June 30, 2004 the New Brunswick government passed an amendment to the New Brunswick Human Rights Act to include "social condition" as a protected ground in the Act. Throughout the Act all...
Human Rights, New Brunswick
July 5, 2004
A recent B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled that a government policy which bans people with severe disabilities from hiring relatives as personal care attendants is discriminatory. Frances Kelly, a...
Disability, Human Rights, British Columbia
May 3, 2004
An amendment to the Human Rights act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of a social condition, such as poverty, could impact the distribution of welfare. This amendment was put forward with...
Human Rights, Welfare, New Brunswick
January 13, 2004
West Coast LEAF, the Poverty and Human Rights Project and the Community Legal Assistance Society are concerned about the impact on single mothers of recent cuts to welfare rates and tightened...
Human Rights, Welfare, British Columbia
