The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Canadian implementation efforts for indigenous children and youth

Since playing the role of co-host at the 1990 World Summit for Children in New York, Canada has promoted the adoption of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child at home and abroad. What impact has this unprecedented international human rights document had on Canadian First Nations, Inuit and other Aboriginal groups? This paper looks at Canada's implementation of this UN Convention, and specifically at Canadian initiatives for indigenous children and youth. The Indian Act, upon which the Canadian government has based its control over Aboriginals since 1876, is explained. Five national organizations representing various Aboriginal perspectives have reviewed the federal government's efforts to honour the World Summit's‘First Call for Children,’ and the emergent issues for at-risk children's programming on- and off-reserve are reviewed. The‘best interests of the child’ ideology that has guided the developed world's notions of children's rights has evolved in a cultural and value-laden context that must now be left for indigenous social scientists, children and youth around the globe to decide for themselves.