Overview
On January 9, 2023, on the margins of the North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, the Honourable Marcelo Ebrard, Minister of Foreign Relations of United Mexican States, and the Honourable Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State signed the Declaration on the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice. The Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat led negotiations with the U.S. and Mexico before the signature of the Declaration on January 9, 2023 for the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice.
Many past generations of advocates across North America have worked and fought for societies that are not only diverse in their demographics but truly equitable, inclusive and committed to racial justice. For present-day generations, the racial reckoning in 2020 dramatically increased the urgency to address barriers to equity and racial justice. In the years since then, societal expectations have shifted, and legislative obligations have been introduced that reflect this. What we need now is a space for strategic conversations and for tangible actions to achieve the kind of change that is needed to realize the full vision of equity and racial justice in North America.
Supported by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, Colour of Poverty/Colour of Change and the Chinese Canadian National Council Social Justice and funded by the Canadian Government, Department of Canadian Heritage, the North American Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice is that space. We are building a trilateral network of equity experts to facilitate the exchange of information, share best practices and innovative strategies, and facilitate the pursuit of cross-border initiatives for tangibly advancing equity and racial justice in public policies and civil societies.
Opportunities to Make an Impact
CNERJ will be responsible for setting up the Canadian chapter of that trilateral network, and in doing so will actively engage with representatives of the community, business, media, academia, education, philanthropic, labour, arts, sport, and health sectors. We are looking forward to working in that space in the spirit of collaboration across borders and continuing improvement, nationally, and trilaterally.
The network is anticipated to pursue the following thematic priorities
- Seek opportunities to engage communities with lived experience of racism, discrimination, and hate
- Drive solutions to protect the rights of members of marginalized communities
- Advance health equity and economic inclusion
- Address racial and other disparities in the justice system
- Assist in access to the ballot
- Provide educational opportunities
- Reflect the diversity of the three countries in their federal public services workforce
- Bring researchers and activists together across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico
To support our efforts, we are developing an environmental scan of critical issues on
- Income and wealth accumulation
- Employment levels in the federal and other public services
- Educational achievements
- Interactions with law enforcements and justice
- Representation in media
- Hate and violence based on human rights protected grounds
- Disparities in health, including the social determinants of health
- Representation in arts and culture
- Access to social and public service, including housing
- Representation in business
- Political participation
Vision, Mission & Values
Vision
This Partnership will share best practices and commit to taking concrete steps domestically and trilaterally to combat systemic racism, discrimination, and hate while striving towards cohesiveness between national laws and mutual commitments to international human rights conventions.
In this context, CNERJ-RCEJR will:
- Establish the organizational structure, strategic plan, workplan, membership, and network of the Chapter
- Establish and oversee the processes and opportunities for cross-border information and collaboration for Canadian organizations and individuals working in the priority areas of the Partnership across Canada and in Mexico and the United States
- Identify challenges and barriers, as well as evidence-based remedies, related to racism and hate
- Support the development and implementation of a national civil society agenda for anti-racism and hate that would be the focus at a national gathering organized by the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation
- Develop indicators and performance impact measurement protocols and processes to track and report publicly on progress.
Mission
CNERJ-RCEJR will facilitate the exchange of information, share best practices and innovative strategies, and facilitate the pursuit of cross-border initiatives developed across the three countries for advancing equity and racial justice in public policies and societies, and help identify further action areas for the Partnership. CNERJ-RCEJR will set out to engage diverse sectors in this discourse to establish collaborative strategies that can support actions to achieve equity and social justice based on the specific, evidence-based concerns and needs of each community engaged in the Network.
We also:
Further, meta-research to be conducted by the Network through the involvement of the Experts as well as community-based research will present evidence-based strategies for change that can be employed by those involved in the Network. Building such a collaborative approach will enable those involved to focus on what is required of and by each involved in the Network. This will enable the development and implementation of a national and Tripartite Network agenda to support actions in the coming years.
Values
CNERJ-RECJR upholds the principles of equity, anti-racism, and decoloniality within the framework of transformative social change. We believe that these values can only be achieved through understanding how our societies embedded racism and other discriminatory barriers and putting forward strategies to eliminate and remedy these barriers.