Honourable colleagues, I rise today on the traditional unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe to wish each of you a happy Human Rights Day as we mark the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, yesterday, the seventieth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Today also concludes the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence and the United Nations’s year-long campaign, #StandUp4HumanRights, which called on us all to:

. . . take action for greater freedoms, stronger respect and more compassion for the rights of others.

The UN’s statement on the declaration’s seventieth anniversary reminds us that, by design, it “empowers us all.” The declaration’s fundamental premise is that each one of us is entitled to the full range of human rights and that it is everyone’s responsibility to defend the human rights of those at risk of discrimination and violence. By so doing, we reaffirm our own humanity.

[Translation]

Two years ago, I rose to give my first speech in this chamber. In honour of Human Rights Day, we had undertaken a study on the overrepresentation of Indigenous women in Canadian prisons.

A lot has happened since then.

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[English]

The horrific statistics I quoted to you in 2016, that 36 per cent of women in federal prisons are Indigenous, now stands at 40 per cent.

Furthermore, the Office of the Correctional Investigator singled out the over-representation of Indigenous peoples in prison in Canada as one of the most pressing human rights issues that this country faces.

Much has happened in these two years, but the underlying and inexcusably increasing marginalization, victimization, criminalization and institutionalization of too many remain appallingly unchanged.

Moreover, as the Honourable Irwin Cotler asserted today, internationally, “2018 has seen an almost unprecedented assault on human rights amidst a culture of impunity.”

Honourable senators, we must uphold human rights here in Canada and around the world. On this Human Rights Day, let us join together to continue to work with and for those whose voices are too often not heard, ignored or, worse still, permanently silenced. Thank you, meegwetch.