organization:truth and reconciliation commission

Attawapiskat déclare l’état d’urgence après 39 tentatives de suicide depuis le 1er mars
▻http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/ontario/2016/04/10/001-attawapiskat-suicide-crise.shtml

http://img.radio-canada.ca/2016/04/10/635x357/160410_0b7hl_attawapiskat-ontario_sn635.jpg

Indigenous suicide is not just a mental-health problem

Conditions on reserves lag behind those in the rest of Canada in more respects than just suicide and health: Unemployment, lack of access to education and substandard infrastructure are factors too. Attawapiskat declared a state of emergency five years ago over a housing crisis that James Anaya, then UN Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples, said “seems to represent the condition of many First Nation communities living on reserves throughout Canada, which is allegedly akin to Third World conditions.”

Studies have pointed to economic hardships and the legacy of colonialism as key factors in high indigenous suicide rates. The January Statscan study, for instance – which reviewed findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey and the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey – found a strong connection between residential-school experience and suicidal thoughts. Doing more to prevent suicide was one of the recommendations of last June’s report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools.

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott said in a statement regarding the Attawapiskat suicide crisis that improving the wellness of indigenous peoples will require a focus on improving the socioeconomic conditions they face. “I have worked with the province to set up a joint action table so that federal and provincial governments can work together, hand-in-hand with First Nations leadership, to find concrete solutions,” Ms. Philpott said.

Canadian Attawapiskat First Nation suicide emergency

-isolated First Nation tribe in Kenora District, northern Ontario, Canada
–population around 2,000 on the reserve
former chief Theresa Spence had a hunger strike in 2013 to protest over the Canadian government not providing enough money, education and health care for the tribe
– had a state of emergency in 2011, the third in three years, due to low temperatures and insufficient housing

▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36012578

#santé #inégalités #santé_mentale #canada #natifs #désespoir

File Under: #Mahmood_Mamdani on #South_Africa’s much vaunted #Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission
▻http://africasacountry.com/mamdani-on-the-truth-and-reconciliation-commission

Because the (South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission) focused on perpetrators and overlooked the beneficiaries of mass violations of rights abuses – such as the pass laws and forced expulsions – it allowed the vast majority of white South Africans to go away thinking that they had little to do with these atrocities. Indeed, most did learn nothing new. The alternative would have been for the #TRC to show white South Africans that no matter what their political views – whether they were for, against or indifferent to apartheid – they were all its beneficiaries, whether it was a matter of the residential areas where they lived, the jobs they held, the schools they went to, the taxes they did or did not pay, or the cheap labour they (...)

#MEDIA #RW_Johnson

File Under : The #Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission
▻http://africasacountry.com/file-under-the-truth-and-reconciliation-commission

Because the (South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission) focused on perpetrators and overlooked the beneficiaries of mass violations of rights abuses – such as the pass laws and forced expulsions – it allowed the vast majority of white South Africans to go away thinking that they had little to do with these atrocities. Indeed, most did learn nothing new. The alternative would have been for the #TRC to show white South Africans that no matter what their political views – whether they were for, against or indifferent to apartheid – they were all its beneficiaries, whether it was a matter of the residential areas where they lived, the jobs they held, the schools they went to, the taxes they did or did not pay, or the cheap labour they (...)

#MEDIA #Mahmood_Mamdani #RW_Johnson #South_Africa