WUNRN
The UN Human Rights Committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its State parties. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CCPR/Pages/CCPRIndex.aspx
Via Canadian Council of Muslim Women
Joint Statement: Canada Must Take
Action on the UN Human Rights Committee’s Review, Concluding Observations
(Ottawa, July 23, 2015) The state of
human rights in Canada has seriously deteriorated since the United Nations
Human Rights Committee last reviewed Canada’s record a decade ago. Today the
Committee released its concluding observations and recommendations to Canada on
its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR). They reflect the comment made by a member of the Committee to the
Canadian government delegation: ‘This is not the Canada I once knew.’
The Committee’s concluding
observations express serious concerns about new human rights issues, such as
the impact of the Anti-Terrorism Act, the chill on freedom of expression and
association, the failure to regulate the activities of Canadian corporations
operating abroad, the failure to provide health care to all refugees and
irregular migrants, and indefinite detention of non-citizens. They also express
concerns about long-standing issues on which too little progress has been made,
including Canada’s failed relationship with Aboriginal peoples, pay equity, discrimination
and violence against women, and inadequate implementation of international
human rights obligations. The Committee repeats its concern over Canada’s
failure to respect the rights of Aboriginal peoples. It takes Canada to task
for policies on Aboriginal title that, despite Canada’s claims to the contrary,
amount to pursuing extinguishment of Aboriginal rights, including title. The
Committee notes that the basic needs of many indigenous peoples are not being
met; that indigenous women and men are overrepresented in Canada’s prisons;
that child welfare services on reserves are underfunded; and that Canada has
still not completely eliminated the sex discrimination from the Indian Act. In
addition to correcting these failures, the Committee urges Canada to fully
implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Adding its voice to growing
international criticism, the Committee notes Canada’s failure to take adequate
action to address the crisis of murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women.
As a matter of priority, the Committee calls on Canada to hold a national
inquiry as recommended by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women, in order to coordinate police response, and address the root
causes of the violence.
During the review, Committee members
expressed alarm about recently adopted federal laws and State-sanctioned
activities that dramatically curtail the space for dissent, advocacy and
defending human rights in Canada. At stake are the fundamental freedoms of
expression, assembly and association; the very pillars of the human rights
system. The Committee calls on Canada to develop a well-structured dialogue
with civil society to ensure that defending human rights in Canada is respected
and supported. This includes an important recommendation that measures in the
Income Tax Act limiting the ability of charitable groups to pursue advocacy be
reformed.
The Committee also rejects Canada’s
position that it does not have human rights responsibilities towards
individuals and communities impacted by the activities of Canadian
corporations, particularly mining corporations, operating in foreign countries.
The Committee states that federal government must hold Canadian companies
firmly accountable for the human rights consequences of their operations in
other countries. There needs to be meaningful action on this front, including
the establishment of a legal framework that affords effective remedies for
victims, and an independent investigatory mechanism, echoing civil society
calls for the appointment of an Extractive Sectors Ombudsperson.
The Committee expressed regret about
Canada’s failure to comply with interim measure requests and with other views
of the Committee when it is reviewing individual complaints against Canada.
This growing pattern of disrespect for an independent expert UN body must end.
Canada needs to put in place measures to ensure full and prompt implementation
of all UN human rights recommendations. Canada has the human and financial capital
to heed the recommendations of the Committee, improve the implementation of its
human rights commitments, and re-emerge as a global leader on human rights
issues. The victims of human rights abuses cannot wait another ten years for a
set of similar recommendations that Canada meets with inaction.
This set of UN recommendations is
serious, important, and timely. This report needs immediate attention. That
will not happen until and unless there is meaningful engagement at the
political level. Federal, provincial and territorial ministers have not met in
Canada since 1988 to discuss Canada’s international human rights obligations.
It is time for them to come together and act.
The UN Human Rights Committee is
comprised of independent experts from around the world. The Committee reviews
the human rights compliance of countries that have ratified the ICCPR once
every five or six years. Canada ratified the ICCPR in 1976. Its last review was
in 2005.
Read the Committee’s Concluding Observations
Access the Canadian Civil Society Submissions to the Committee –
Scroll down to Canada.