MKO Asks United Nations to Apply UNDRIP To Legacy Resource Development Agreements

Press Release

April 28, 2025

Onandaga Territory, United Nations Headquarters, New York – Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Inc. Director of Intergovernmental Relations, Brennan Manoakeesick, asked the United Nation Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) to call upon Member states to review all existing Resource Development Agreements with Indigenous Peoples to make sure these legacy Agreements are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

During an UNPFII session held in the United Nations Headquarters on April 25, 2025, Mr. Manoakeesick said that MKO “recommends that the Permanent Forum call upon Member states to engage in a process of Collaborative Co-development with Indigenous Peoples to develop and enact legislation that will require the review of those arrangements entered into with Indigenous Peoples prior to the adoption of the Declaration.”

The MKO Director of Intergovernmental Relations stressed to the UNPFII that such reviews were particularly necessary where Resource Development Agreements with Indigenous Peoples “purport to provide a ‘social licence’ to construct and operate major resource development projects.”

“The objective of such a review is to assess the consistency and compliance of these prior arrangements with the Declaration,” continued Mr. Manoakeesick.

MKO emphasised that the Permanent Forum has consistently recommended that a human rights-based approach to development be applied by Members States, the UN system and other intergovernmental organizations in the earlier Millenium Development Goals as well as set out in the current the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.

The MKO Director of Intergovernmental Relations added that, “consistent with this objective, we further recommend that the Permanent Forum call upon Member states to recognize and adopt ‘Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples’ as a required “Key Input” or a ‘Primary Driver of Change’ in every regulated Integrated Resource Plan or Operational Plan further to these pre-Declaration arrangements.”

Referring to the vast system of water diversion and hydroelectric developments in Manitoba, Canada, Mr. Manoakeesick told the UN Permanent Forum, “these pre-Declaration arrangements with Indigenous Peoples – and the operation of the energy projects they authorize – do not reflect a human rights-based approach to development that is consistent with the Declaration nor reflect programmes and policies consistent with the Millenium Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.”

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For more information:

Jill Macyshon, Communications Officer

Email:  jill.macyshon@mkonorth.com

Web:   https://mkonation.com/

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