This draft declaration represented a 13-year-long effort of intense collaboration among members of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to foster, through nine sections and various articles, international rights for Indigenous peoples regarding equality; self-determination; freedom from threats of genocide or ethnocide; allowances for the maintenance of distinct identities, history, religion and cultural heritage; and health.
CIHR's IAPH and the Tripartite Cooperation Agreement
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) applauds the International Day of Worlds' Indigenous People and respects all of the rights of the draft declaration through the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health (IAPH).
Created in July 2000, and led by Scientific Director Dr. Jeff Reading (of Mohawk descent), the IAPH seeks to reduce the health disparities that affect the lives of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. The Institute is forging new partnerships, based on research excellence, with researchers and communities that respect Aboriginal values and cultures, while engaging Aboriginal Peoples to become health researchers themselves.
Chief among IAPH's innovative partnerships is the Tripartite Cooperation Agreement between CIHR, the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Medical Research Council of Australia, signed in 2002. This partnership aims at improved knowledge sharing between Aboriginal and research communities, and at increased research capacity among Indigenous Peoples. The development of the International Collaborative Indigenous Peoples Research Partnership (ICIHRP) initiative is a commitment towards these objectives.
In July 2005, through the ICIHRP initiative, CIHR provided $5.5 million in funding for three Global Indigenous Health Research projects. According to the Tripartite Cooperation Agreement, the funding support will actually total $12.3 million, due collaborative investment from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, over five years' time.
The three projects examine various concerns of the health spectrum:
These projects, along with the nature of the partnership itself, signify an innovative collaboration among researchers that will, no doubt, lead to advanced global health knowledge and reduce health disparity among Indigenous Peoples.
The spirit of research collaboration among Canada, Australia and New Zealand may also inspire other countries to join the crusade to work together and, as Minister Dosanjh said, "work with Indigenous communities to address critical health issues of Indigenous Peoples."
From left to right: His Excellency Graham Kelly, The New Zealand High Commissioner to Canada; Ian Potter, CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health Advisory Board member; Dr. Jeff Reading, Scientific Director of CIHR's Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health;
His Excellency Tony Hely, the Australian High Commissioner to Canada.
