United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: First Nations children in Canada should not have to wait for justice
For Immediate Release
April 24, 2026. First Nations children in Canada should not have to wait for justice. The law is clear. This is the message shared at the 2026 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held in New York City these past few weeks.
“Domestic remedies are being exhausted for ending discrimination against First Nations in Canada,” says Cindy Blackstock, PhD., Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.
Canada is ignoring legal binding orders of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which they are signatories. Our First Nations children are subjected to lengthy service gaps, delays, and systemic barriers that no other children in Canada face which are on-going harms.
“On behalf of our First Nations children, we respectfully call on the 2026 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and the international community to urge Canada to comply fully and in good faith with its domestic human rights decisions and its international legal obligations,” says Judy Wilson (Red Hummingbird) who attended the UNPFII as part of the BC Native Women’s Association.
“Canada must work with First Nations to implement proven, rights-based solutions & framework of the ‘Loving Justice Plan’ to end discrimination.”
First Nations leadership, experts, and children co-developed The Loving Justice Plan, a comprehensive, evidence informed collective national plan grounded in substantive equality, prevention, and First Nations led solutions.
“In response to the CHRT order, instead of cooperating with First Nations to co-develop a single plan, Canada developed and implemented its own plan, despite not being approved by the Tribunal,” says Cindy Blackstock
All First Nations children are entitled to substantively equal, culturally grounded services consistent with their rights to dignity, safety, and wellbeing.
To quote Mary Teegee-Gray, Chair of the Our Children Our Way Society, “We cannot forget that our children are gifts from the Creator and must be treated with love and respect. Asking for justice for our most valuable ones is not just a legal order or an Indigenous or Human right… it is an inherent right.”
Watch: Judy Wilson (Red Hummingbird) at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
For further information contact:
Dr. Cindy Blackstock, PhD., Executive Director
- First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
- [email protected]
Chief Pauline Frost, Chair, National Children’s Chiefs Commission
The National Children’s Chiefs Commission was created 19 years after the Caring Society and the Nations in Assembly took a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that said Canada was discriminating against First Nations Children. In 2016, the CHRT finally agreed. See the big picture steps along this path in the “NCCC Timeline“.
The National Children’s Chiefs Commission is hosted by the Our Children Our Way Society
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, NYC images from left to right:
- Judy Wilson (Red Hummingbird) Elder/Knowledge Keeper OCOW/NCCC and BC Native Women’s Association with Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief (Quebec/Labrador) Francis Verreault-Paul
- Judy Wilson, Elder Knowledge Keeper, OCOW, NCCC & BCNWA
- Gena Edwards, President BCNWA & her delegation with Katisha Paul (centre), Women’s Representative, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
- Em-Haley Kukutai Walker, New Zealand Representative
- Judy Wilson delivering speech to the UNPFII
- UNPFII 2026 Panel Members holding the 2026 World Report
- New Zealand Youth – 15 years old