Distinctions-based Approach

Through the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act), the Province has adopted a distinctions-based approach to advancing reconciliation and implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PDF, 150KB).

A distinction-based approach means that the Province’s work with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit will be conducted in a manner that acknowledges the specific rights, interests, priorities and concerns of each, while respecting and acknowledging these distinct Peoples with unique cultures, histories, rights, laws, and governments.

Indigenous Peoples' rights are recognized and affirmed in Section 35 (1) of the federal Constitution Act, 1982. However, not all rights are uniform or the same among or between all Indigenous Peoples.

A distinctions-based approach may require that the Province’s relations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit include different approaches or actions and result in different outcomes.

A distinctions-based approach primer (PDF, 168KB) has been developed to assist the provincial government in building an understanding of the legal basis for, and core elements of, a distinctions-based approach in all of the Province’s relations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit in what is now British Columbia.