A new People’s Report for Canada warns that the country continues to champion human rights and sustainable development abroad while failing to deliver on basic economic and social rights at home. Released on International Human Rights Day, the report assesses Canada’s implementation of commitments from World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) 1995 to WSSD2 in Doha and since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its conclusion is clear:
Canada has the resources to end poverty, hunger, and gender inequality, but longstanding policy choices are preventing progress.
OTTAWA/TORONTO – 10 December 2025
On International Human Rights Day, the WSSD2 People’s Report for Canada Network releases the People’s Report on WSSD 2025 for Canada, a national assessment of Canada’s implementation of commitments made since the first World Summit for Social Development (WSSD1) in 1995, the Second WSSD in Doha, and the adoption of the SDGs. The report was developed with contributions from the 91ɫ UNESCO Chair.
The central finding is clear: Canada has the capacity to end poverty, eliminate food insecurity, and advance gender equality, but long-standing policy choices and weak accountability continue to undermine progress.
“For many decades, Canada has promoted human rights and sustainable development on the world stage while allowing inequality, homelessness, and hunger to deepen at home,” said Josephine Grey, UN Observer for domestic issues to WSSD 1995 and co-author. “WSSD2, the SDGs and our human rights commitments offer a roadmap. This report shows how Canada can finally act on it.”
Key Trends
The report documents a “thirty-year slide” beginning with the 1995 federal budget, which cut core social programmes the same day Canada helped negotiate the Copenhagen Declaration. Key findings include:
- Income security and housing: Welfare and disability supports remain below poverty lines while homelessness and encampments have surged nationwide.
- Food insecurity: Rising food bank use reflects inadequate incomes and unaffordable housing, not inevitability.
- Gender inequality: Women, girls, and gender-diverse people face heightened vulnerability, especially lone-parent families and survivors of violence.
- Lack of accountability: Canada lacks the institutions and mechanisms needed to implement economic and social rights, UN summit commitments, the 17 SDGs, and climate obligations.
Recommendations for a Rights-Based Future
“Canada stands at a crossroads,” said co-author Sheila Regehr from the Basic Income Canada Network. “We can continue on the path of decline, or we can show that a wealthy, diverse country can live up to its human rights obligations in practice, not just in speeches.” New proposals in the report include:
- A rights-based pathway to income adequacy, starting with immediate increases to meet the Market Basket Measure plus a dignity margin
- Legislated targets for non-market housing and a national plan to end chronic homelessness
- A Food Sovereignty Act with binding targets to eliminate severe food insecurity by 2030
- Full implementation of the MMIWG Calls for Justice and the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence
- Creation of a Federal Human Rights Office and independent oversight mechanisms
The report underscores Canada’s unique opportunity to model a peaceful, equitable, and sustainable future with the expertise and diversity of its population.