A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH TO FOOD INSECURITY IN INUIT NUNANGAT

Abstract

The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization for Inuit in Canada, has voiced serious concern about the food insecurity crisis in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland comprising Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and the Northwest Territories (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, 2019). The widespread and disproportionate experiences of food insecurity in Inuit Nunangat requires critical examination, especially when access to adequate food has been identified as a human right (OHCHR, 2010). My research paper aims to explore this topic of food insecurity as a human rights concern in Inuit Nunangat. A human rights approach acts as both a pathway to investigate, and a tool to inform, policy development. Such an investigation is especially relevant given Canada’s international reputation and constitutional mandate to grant equal protection of rights to all citizens. In this essay, I review international and domestic human rights frameworks that intersect with Inuit food insecurity, in addition to evaluating Canada’s current interventions. I ultimately argue that, based on Canada’s commitments to uphold rights to food, health, and Indigenous self-determination, the government must increase the enforceability of food rights in domestic policy and, second, there must be strengthened collaboration between the government and Inuit partners to more appropriately conceptualize, and respond to, food needs in Inuit Nunangat.