BACKGROUND Living in a community with lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher mortality. However, few studies have examined associations between community socioeconomic characteristics and mortality among the First Nations population. DATA AND METHODS The 1991-to-2006 Census Mortality and Cancer Cohort follow-up, which tracked a 15% sample of Canadians aged 25 or older, included ...

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps people in 174 countries and territories to help themselves, focusing on poverty eradication and democratic gover-nance. In support of these goals UNDP is frequently asked to help create and implement policies that are more responsive to the needs of ordinary people, and to help societies rebuild in the aftermath of war and humanitarian emerg...

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was the first legally binding instrument explicitly focused on how human rights apply to people with disability. Amongst their obligations, consistent with the social model of disability, the Convention requires signatory nations to recognise that “ . . . persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal ...

Knowledge systems Some of the ways in which First Nations and non-First Nations people "know" the world are profoundly different. The term "First Nations knowledge systems" refers to the ways in which knowledge, records, ideas and information are generated, disseminated and maintained within First Nations communities and nations. These systems are ancient and rooted in complex oral cultures, an...

BACKGROUND We sought to determine the modifying effects of age and multimorbidity on the association between First Nations status and hospitalizations for diabetes-specific ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC). FINDINGS We identified 183,654 adults with diabetes from Alberta Canada, and followed them for one year for the outcome of hospitalization or emergency department (ED) visit for...

We explored whether rising income in nations is associated with increasing subjective well-being (SWB), with several advances over earlier work. Our methods are improved in that across time, the same well-being questions were asked in the same order, and we employed broad and equivalent representative samples over time from a large number of nations. We also assessed psychosocial factors that m...

In June 2012, the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will take place in Brazil to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). UNCED was a momentous international event that produced Agenda 21, a platform for action that recognized “to achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all p...

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNEP United Nations Environment Programme This report reflects the results of the UNESCO/UNEP project on “Youth, sustainable consumption and life styles”, which was launched in March 2000. The project was framed around a survey on the consumption patterns of young people in 24 countries and six country case studies. The results of...

Historical and archeological information about the First Nations People of Newfoundland and Labrador is used to estimate their approximate numbers, diet, fisheries and harvesting impacts on the marine ecosystem. Estimates of First Nations numbers at first contact include approximately 700 Beothuk and 300 Inuit. It is assumed that they consumed approximately 365 tonnes of food a year, and that t...