|
Indigenous Rights: Canada Needs Reckoning with Continued Impact of Residential Schools
“Residential schools affected everything about how we live. They targeted and destroyed our strong family unit, the basic foundation of our communities” --Charlie Furlong, a community leader of the Gwich'in people of Canada’s Northwest Territories, on the chilling legacy of Canada’s forced assimilation of indigenous cultures.

The past year has seen historic developments in the ever-stronger struggle of peoples across the planet united in their unwavering demands for justice and dignity. The popular uprisings of the Arab Spring led by young, courageous activists toppled dictators and inspired millions around the world. The ongoing violence and repression in Syria and Egypt demonstrate the long road that lies ahead for these societies to regain their humanity, but no one doubts anymore the power of masses to demand a state acts as a guarantor of rights rather than a repressive power. Ratko Mladic was arrested after sixteen years on the run, closing the circle for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY),the first international war crimes court after the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals. From Nepal to Peru, from Canada to Brazil, from Colombia to Kenya, societies worked to come to terms with the legacies of troubled pasts, grappling with the pain of victims and their rightful claims to truth, accountability, and redress. We at ICTJ did our best to be there in 2011, to stand with communities who embarked on the difficult journey of reckoning with the past for the sake of a peaceful future. These are some of the images and words that tell our story of 2011.