Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, I will make the statement, and then Leslie and I will respond to questions and comments from the committee. Thank you to this committee for inviting the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development to contribute to your study on the long-term effects on surviv

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, as I stated at the beginning of my presentation, the situation in Rwanda following the genocide obliged the international community to focus almost entirely on the humanitarian disaster that was a result of these terrible events. Obviously, the pure economic and socia

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I do know that within a number of non-governmental organizations there are Rwandan Canadians active. I would have to come back to you on whether any specific initiatives would have been initiated or supported directly by the diaspora as such.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Absolutely. I may ask my colleague Ms. Norton whether she has details on some of the initiatives that would have been supported through the multilateral mechanism. In terms of the bilateral program, I made a brief reference to a project with CECI that directly addresses that iss

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would again go back particularly to the project I cited that works with the Quebec-based NGO CECI, which works with survivors of sexual violence and supports the strengthening of these 11 associations of women throughout the region. They deal with a wide range of issues around

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. I would refer to my opening remarks about the series of resolutions that have been passed in the Security Council and of Canada's role in co-sponsoring at least one of those and in being very much involved in their development. The United Nations now has a zero tolerance pol

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We took part in that, yes, very much. That, I think, is a big indication of the change in global attitudes, and implementing that change in attitude into tools that help address things like immunity is a key issue.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, the issue of restitching a nation together following a traumatic event such as genocide is obviously absolutely critical to the question that's before this committee. I would suggest that the department is probably not prepared for that question today. However, I thi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for this question, which is fundamentally a development question, and a very important one. As we have discussed today, following the genocide the role of the international community was initially very much a reaction to the immediate consequences of the genocide, but

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for the question. I think we saw, with the 20-year anniversary recently, that this incident is still very much on the minds of the world, and that there is a lot of attention still paid to this. There are ongoing efforts, including the efforts I cited earlier in my sta

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, thank you. Absolutely, this is an issue that Canada, along with the international community, is very seized of and has taken a lot of concrete actions as I alluded to in my statement. The Rwandan genocide and the sexual violence that was an integral part of that and followin

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The roots of sexual violence as a tool of war must surely be a very complicated and fraught subject. I'm not prepared to address that question. I would suggest, Mr. Chair, that this is the kind of question I would take note of and go back to my department for the guidance on.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, I would ask that we be able to come back to the committee with details of this. However, I can say that Rwanda had a very active and widespread truth and reconciliation process, which was supported by the international community, and there has certainly been a consider

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would have to come back to you on exactly what the product was. My understanding is that it was more aimed at dealing with divisions at the community level.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Understood.