THE ADVOCATE 871
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
applies to each unsolved case of missing and murdered Indigenous women
and girls. International human rights standards require investigations to be
capable of providing evidence sufficient to bring to justice all those found to
be involved in unlawful deaths and ensuring redress to families of victims.22
LRWC is also concerned about the rights of Indigenous land rights
defenders to advocate and peacefully protest without being threatened,
attacked or criminalized.23 LRWC has been concerned about attacks against
Indigenous land rights defenders while engaged in peaceful protests against
the use of their lands for pipelines or other purposes without free, prior and
informed consent as prescribed by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (“UNDRIP”).24
LRWC volunteers intervened25 at the September 2021 session of the UN
Human Rights Council,26 underlining the findings of UN experts that denial
of Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination is “a root cause of atrocities,
such as residential schools, murdered and missing indigenous women
and girls or stolen children, as well as the negative impacts on health, economic
and social well-being and justice”.27 While Canada and British Columbia
have passed legislation toward implementing UNDRIP, Canada has
failed to take adequate steps to ensure full redress for Canada’s violations of
Indigenous peoples’ rights, including rights to land and resources.
China’s Persecution of Lawyers and Defenders: A Strategy to Deny Access to
Justice
LRWC continues to express grave concerns about China’s thwarting of
access to remedies for violations of human rights, particularly since the
beginning of the “709 Crackdown” (July 9, 2015) against hundreds of human
rights lawyers.28 China actively persecutes lawyers, defenders and journalists,
subjecting them to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance
(incommunicado detention in unknown locations) and severe forms of torture.
China also actively works to water down or resist UN resolutions
addressing human rights violations in countries such as Afghanistan, Myanmar
and the Philippines.29
Myanmar: Continued Increases in Extrajudicial Killings and Arbitrary Detentions
The situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate. Since our report in the
May 2021 edition of the Advocate, the military junta’s extrajudicial killings
of civilians, including children, have increased to more than 1,100. Arbitrary
detentions increased to more than 8,200. LRWC continued its advocacy
for lawyers and defenders in danger in Myanmar by joining with other
international NGOs in a statement to the September sessions of the Human
Rights Council seeking a UN Security Council referral of the situation in
Myanmar to the ICC.30