Mr. Chair and honourable members, we thank you very much for the opportunity to present on the situation in Sri Lanka today. World Vision has worked in the country for over thirty years, and our presentation is motivated as well as conditioned by our long-standing presence and our humanitarian and development commitments and operations.
Let me say from the outset that our fundamental concern is for the some 150,000 civilians that remain trapped in the conflict zone. Their plight is sure to worsen as the conflict narrows to a smaller stretch of land and as measures of resistance become more desperate. Our deepest concern is for the affected children. Hundreds have already been killed, and thousands more are cornered and confronted with little possibility of escape.
In January the conflict required us to halt our emergency water and food distributions to the affected region of the Wanni. We are acutely aware of the lives that are threatened, of the human dignity that is being undermined, and of the rampant spread of hunger and disease.
In the face of this situation, we recognize calls by the Canadian government for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow populations safe passage out of harm's way. World Vision has joined a statement with the United Nations and other aid agencies calling for efforts to allow for safe passage, and for restraint and respect of international humanitarian law by all parties. We continue to call upon the Canadian government to use all channels--both bilateral and multilateral--to ensure the protection of civilians, and to make special provisions for the protection and care of children.
We also recognize that Canada has been working to address the lack of practical and innovative ways to protect civilians in armed conflict. We are encouraged by recent advances in the international normative framework of protection. This includes the recent broadening of the UN Security Council's aide-mémoire on the protection of civilians to better address the needs of children and women caught up in conflict. Nevertheless, this conflict brings into sharp focus the urgent need for more progress in this area.
As Canada actively campaigns for a seat on the Security Council, we urge them to take additional measures to help implement the council's expanded aide-mémoire in support of those trapped in the conflict zone, especially amid reports of breaches of the safe zone along the coast and aborted attempts to establish temporary humanitarian corridors.
First, we urge the Canadian government to support worldwide calls for the appointment of a UN special envoy for the crisis and, where necessary, to offer funding for this position. We are aware that other member states have attempted to deploy their own envoys and establish a monitoring presence, but with limited success. We believe that a consolidated international push, led by Canada, for a UN envoy would have the greatest chance of success. The Sri Lankan government has identified the UN as the primary point of contact among international partners for the response. This opens up opportunities for direct advice giving and coordination.
A qualified UN envoy would help provide recommendations and options for the protection of endangered children and communities and could provide high-level support to the Sri Lankan government for the entire response. We urge members of this standing committee to support the calls for a UN special envoy.
Second, we recommend that the government call for and help negotiate the deployment of the UN's protection capacity team, or ProCap, which includes Canadian experts and benefits from Canadian funding. We believe that opportunities to protect always exist along chains of command through judgment calls for restraint and improvisation. This team could support the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations, as well as aid agencies, with international best practices and options for protecting civilians both in the conflict zone and as part of the broader response in support of displaced populations.
Third, World Vision, as a relief, development, and advocacy organization, stands ready to be a collaborator with the government and this standing committee to share our experiences and more closely explore practical means for protection, especially for children. The establishment of an interdepartmental child protection working group across government departments would be an important step. World Vision, as a steering committee member of the international network, of Watchlist on Children in Armed Conflict, and of Peacebuild's children and armed conflict forum, would welcome such a group as a venue to share knowledge and experience during crisis and beyond. We invite Canada to use this crisis for children in Sri Lanka as impetus for the establishment of such a group.
At present World Vision is playing an active role in addressing the immediate needs and well-being of children and communities who are displaced. There are presently over 50,000 internally displaced persons in 16 camps in the Vavuniya area to the north, and thousands more are expected. The situation remains fluid as aid agencies attempt to rapidly assess and address needs. The Sri Lankan government has taken a lead role in establishing and overseeing the camps, as well as in preparing for more to be built.
We are bringing our close relations with communities and our working relationships with the Sri Lankan government to bear on ensuring principled and rapid assistance to IDPs. Those coming into the camps are physically and mentally exhausted, but continue to demonstrate qualities of resilience, fuelled by their hopes of returning home. World Vision plans to fully support IDPs at every turn, including as principal members of UN clusters for food and non-food relief, and child protection. We are particularly pleased to carry out our work with the support of the Canadian government, including through CIDA grants.
In the relief phase, our emergency water distribution has been redirected to the IDP camps where we have access. We are also providing supplemental feedings so that minimum humanitarian sphere standards can be met, and will distribute hygiene and household kits. We are similarly working to provide temporary shelter for those in the camps.
Critically, we are advocating and making plans with partners, including UNICEF, to ensure child-friendly spaces and a full array of vital protection services for traumatized, abused, separated, and unaccompanied children. As World Vision Canada's president, Dave Toycen, said at the start of renewed fighting, “It is heartbreaking to see children caught up at the center of this conflict. They have already suffered so much over the years: through both the tsunami and the armed conflict.”
At the core of our humanitarian relief response is a commitment to help ensure the dignity, rights, and safety of displaced populations and to support them in their desire to return home in the near future. Accordingly, we are preparing for robust return and rehabilitation phases in our response, in support of the relevant ministries for disaster management and resettlement, and through our roles in interagency groups, consortiums, and clusters.
Our response will include start-up projects for livelihoods and economic opportunities; however, we are mindful of the great needs that will be required for recovery and rehabilitation of the affected region. To address these needs, World Vision is planning to develop area and community recovery projects for the next few years that could, over time, be broadened and consolidated into longer-term development programs of a decade or more.
As we engage in planning for recovery and rehabilitation, we cannot overstate the importance of adjusting to new dynamic and complex realities on the ground. That the Sri Lankan government is now in control of more territory than it has been since the early 1980s carries implications, as well as opportunities, that must be properly understood, managed, and supported for peace and peace building. We strongly urge the Canadian government to engage at this critical moment to support the Sri Lankan government in proposing next steps for lasting peace and development.
Canada should support a durable peace process that addresses the root causes of the conflict, that works to empower communities and local governance, and that helps restore basic services and critical infrastructure. We submit that the immediate first step would be for a delegation, made up of parliamentarians from all parties and senior government officials as well as aid agencies and experts, to visit the country, ideally within the next three months. The delegation should take stock of the humanitarian situation and develop recommendations back to the government, including through this committee, on how to target support for peace, recovery, and longer-term development for the affected region.
Canada has had direct relations with the Sri Lankan government and Sri Lanka since at least the 1950s and shares memberships in important institutions like the United Nations and the Commonwealth. Canada also has a legacy of supporting experiments and innovations for peace and good governance in Sri Lanka. We are convinced that this is a moment to offer significant support and to encourage forward thinking. Where Sri Lanka may have moved off Canada's development agenda as a country of concentration, owing to the wind-down of the tsunami response, we submit that current realities merit a review of the situation.
Now is the time to act in the short and longer term for the people of Sri Lanka, and World Vision remains committed to their support, especially for affected children.
Thank you again for this opportunity. I am pleased to take questions.