Foreign Affairs Committee on March 12th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) we continue our study on the protection of children and youth in developing countries. We'll get started.

I just want to introduce our guests from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. We have Julie Shouldice, who is the director of education, child protection and gender equality. Welcome. We're glad to have you here today again.

Of course, I think we all know Leslie Norton, who has been here once or twice over the last little while.

[A voice]

She's an honorary member of the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We're going to have a motion on that to see if we can get her in there.

Ms. Norton is the director general of international humanitarian assistance. Welcome, Ms. Norton. We're glad to have you here.

Delivering the remarks today we have Diane Jacovella, who is assistant deputy minister for global issues and development. It's great to have you here.

Last but not least, joining us is Rachael Bedlington, who is director human rights and indigenous affairs policy division.

Joining us via video conference from New York we have our ambassador, Guillermo Rishchynski, who is permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations. Welcome, Ambassador. I don't believe you have an opening statement, but you're certainly here to answer any questions we may have, so we're really glad to have you.

I'm sorry we were delayed by votes, which happen from time to time. I'm going to get started right away.

We'll turn it over to you, Ms. Jacovella, and we'll have your opening statement and then we'll go round the room with questions.

[Diane Jacovella, Assistant Deputy Minister, Global Issues and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will start my presentation in French and then move to English.

Good morning.

Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today about the protection of children in developing countries.

Children are the future and our most precious resource. Yet the statistics on violence against children are alarming. Anywhere between 500 million and 1.5 billion children worldwide endure some form of violence, exploitation or abuse.

You've already heard from many of our partners about the importance of protecting children and youth in developing countries. I am pleased to be here today to provide you with an update on the recent activities of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, or DFATD, in relation to this important issue.

Child protection is one area where Canada's development and foreign policy priorities are mutually reinforcing. I'm speaking today on behalf of the entire department, with support from my colleagues who are here and who can also answer your questions, including our ambassador to the United Nations.

Twenty-five years ago, Canada played an instrumental role in negotiating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Canada has continued to champion children's rights and child protection ever since.

Securing the future of children and youth is one of five thematic priorities of Canada's international assistance. It sets out three paths for engagement that aim to support children from birth till adulthood: maternal, newborn and child health; access to quality education, especially for girls; and safe and secure futures.

Improving maternal, newborn and child health remains Canada's top development priority. Paramount to securing a safe future for children is protecting their health in the first 1,000 days.

In 2010, Canada led the G8 in launching the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, which leveraged $7.3 billion in new funding from the G8.

Last May, Prime Minister Harper brought together eminent global health leaders, including the UN Secretary-General, who were unanimous in their support for accelerating global action on women's and children's health. At the summit, the Prime Minister announced a $3.5-billion commitment to maternal, newborn and child health from 2015-20.

Canada's leadership has delivered unprecedented results through investments in life-saving efforts to improve the health of mothers and children, in collaboration with our partners.

Canadian partners achieving critical results with support from DFATD include the Micronutrient Initiative, Canada's key nutrition partner. The Micronutrient Initiative ensures that an average of more than 300 million people per year are reached with iodized salt. Iodine is a critical micronutrient for optimal brain development.

Protecting children also means protecting them from leading diseases. Canada's investments have leveraged key partnerships such as with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which mobilized $7.5 billion to vaccinate 300 million children and save up to 6 million lives over the next 5 years. It is these kinds of results that are affirming Canada's position as a leader in maternal, newborn and child health.

Canada has aIso partnered with Rotarians, who have given generously to the global effort to eradicate polio through the global polio eradication initiative. This is the single largest, internationally coordinated public health initiative, which has successfully reduced new polio cases by 99%.

As well, UNICEF Canada and the Kiwanis Foundation of Canada will raise funds to be matched by DFATD so that 3.4 million women of reproductive age receive three doses of the tetanus toxoid vaccine to prevent tetanus infection for themselves and their future newborns.

Canada has also extended our commitment to accountability in women's and children's health to global fora. At the invitation of the Secretary-General, Prime Minister Harper has co-led a global initiative to improve accountability for women's and children's health, which has vastly improved the global community's ability to track resources invested and results achieved. Through Canada's leadership and investments in maternal, newborn, and child health, girls and boys are living safer and healthier lives. At the same time, our investments in education and child protection aim to ensure that children not only survive but also thrive.

Education is a key driver for reducing poverty, fostering economic growth, and promoting human development, yet an estimated 57 million girls and boys are not in primary school, about 50% of whom are in conflict-affected and fragile states. Canada has a long-standing commitment to increasing access to quality basic education as the foundation for lifelong learning, employment, and sustainable development.

Getting and keeping girls in school is particularly important. When girls are educated they tend to marry later, have fewer children, provide better health care and nutrition for their families, and earn more income than women with little or no education. Our work in Afghanistan over the past decade has, for example, contributed to the creation of more than 7,200 community-based schools that have provided education to approximately 210,000 students, over 80% of whom are girls.

Canada also works to support safe and secure schools so that every boy and girl can learn and develop without fear of violence, exploitation, or abuse. With Canadian support, Plan International Canada is working in Kenya with the government and directly with children to improve access to safe and high-quality learning environments. We believe that when adults fight, children's education should not suffer. To that end, Canada has announced $58 million for the No Lost Generation initiative through UNICEF and its partners. This effort supports Syrian and Iraqi children with the protective environment and learning opportunities they need.

As part of our child protection programming, DFATD supports countries to develop child protection systems that provide for the safety and security of every girl and boy. For example, Canada is proud to support the Together for Girls initiative, which is dedicated to ending violence against children, with a focus on sexual violence against girls. Canada also recently announced support to the special representative of the UN Secretary-General on violence against children. Her work mobilizes political support to maintain momentum around the violence against children agenda. The need to protect children is increased in fragile and conflict-affected states. ln 2013 Canada provided support to implement the minimum standards for child protection in humanitarian action, which aims to improve the quality, predictability, and accountability of child protection responses in humanitarian situations.

Investments in birth registration also advance child protection. By registering every birth, we can strengthen child protection practices at all levels. When children are registered, it entitles them to services like health and education, and allows them to be traced if they become separated from their families, displaced, or trafficked.

Through our funding investment in the global financing facility, significant additional resources and partnerships will be leveraged to help improve maternal, newborn, and child health, and to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics. This will support countries to have the necessary information to develop strategic and effective policies and programs in child health and to enable children to have a better chance to access their rights and health services.

Canada continues to demonstrate strong leadership in working to end the practice of child, early, and forced marriage, or CEFM. This practice violates girls' human rights, disrupts their education, jeopardizes their health, and makes them more vulnerable to violence. ln the last few years, Canada has spearheaded the creation of the International Day of the Girl Child, which was focused on CEFM in its first year. We also championed the first-ever stand-alone resolutions to eliminate child, early, and forced marriage at the UN General Assembly and in the UN Human Rights Council. Building on this success, in the fall of 2014 Canada and Zambia led the most substantive international resolution to date on child, early, and forced marriage. We are proud that the resolution was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly.

We have also intensified programming towards CEFM. Canada is working with such key partners as UNICEF, Care Canada, Save the Children, Plan, and Girls Not Brides to bolster efforts to prevent CEFM and support girls who have already been married. Canada also plays a leadership role on other foreign policy efforts fundamental to child protection. This includes advancing Security Council resolutions on the protection of children in situations of armed conflict and as chair of the Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict. Canada is working to ensure that the rights of children are central to the sustainable development goals and targets of the new global post-2015 development agenda.

Canada is advocating for child protection to be addressed through the inclusion of measurable goals and targets related to improving maternal, newborn, and child health; eliminating all forms of violence against women and children; empowering women and girls; and eliminating child, early, and forced marriage.

The Government of Canada has also enhanced its capacity to protect Canadian children overseas. This has been done through the creation of a specialized vulnerable children consular unit responsible for cross-border issues that affect Canadian families, such as international parental abduction, forced marriage, and child welfare.

DFATD continues to engage regularly with Canadian civil society and with international organizations, many of which have already appeared before this committee. We are aIso exploring new ways to engage the private sector. For example, in February 2014, Canada welcomed the children's rights and business principles, which provide a tool to guide businesses on actions they can take to respect and support children's rights in the workplace, marketplace, and community.

ln addition, many other federal government departments lead complementary efforts to end violence against children, specifically on issues such as children's rights, human trafficking, child labour, child exploitation, and online sexual abuse, and on women, peace and security.

Making the world safe and secure for girls and boys is something that all countries can achieve together through commitment, compassion, and collaboration. By demonstrating global leadership at home and abroad, Canada is helping to bring about stronger international standards, support, and enforcement that puts children first. Child protection is a fundamental element of achieving global stability, security, and prosperity.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're going to start our first round.

For seven minutes, Mr. Dewar, please.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to our guests and to our ambassador in New York.

I want to start with a question. It's very cogent and reflects the failure of the international community, and this isn't to point any fingers at anyone here. It's just that the international community has failed with regard to Syria, as we just found in the reports coming out. The UNICEF figures that were released today estimate that as many 14 million children are now affected by the Syrian crisis. If we go back to 2012 there were about 500,000 Syrian children who were in need of humanitarian aid. That figure is now 7.6 million. Now 14 million children are affected by this crisis. It's four years today since the crisis started in Syria.

We obviously have been doing things, so I want to acknowledge that, but I'm just underlining that the international community has failed drastically.

I want to focus on Lebanon because we now know that one in four in Lebanon are refugees from the crisis.

I just want a very succinct answer on this. Has the government recently funded any child protection initiatives with regard to children in Lebanon?

I'll ask that of anyone of the panellists here.

[Diane Jacovella]

We agree with you on the importance of addressing children in humanitarian situations because often they are neglected. That's why Canada has been one of the first donors to support the No Lost Generation that is actually trying to protect and educate children because as you mentioned, it has been four years. We cannot have a generation of children that haven't been educated and protected.

I will ask Leslie to specifically answer your question on Lebanon.

[Leslie Norton, Director General, International Humanitarian Assistance, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Recently, in 2015, I think you know that Minister Paradis announced $50 million in additional assistance in response to the Syrian crisis. Of that, $25 million was for inside Syria and $25 million was for the neighbouring countries. Within that funding there were allocations for key partners like UNHCR and the World Food Programme.

While these might not be perceived as being specific to children, it is really important to note that partners like UNHCR and the World Food Programme have as part of their mandates the protection and assistance of children, and it's also important to note that over 50% of the refugee population is children, ergo, the assistance that Canada has provided to UNHCR, the World Food Programme, and UNICEF benefits and meets the needs directly of children.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I just want to underscore the importance of focusing on Lebanon. We have done work with Jordan, and that's good, but I really am imploring that the government turn its attention to what's happening in Lebanon. There are, I believe, requests in to government on what's happening in Lebanon. I can't underscore enough the importance of focusing on Lebanon. It's a very precarious political situation as well as a massive humanitarian disaster.

For our ambassador in New York, I just mentioned the UNICEF numbers. I am concerned about the balance in Canada's aid in terms of how we are distributing aid, as I just mentioned. I wanted to know from you, as the ambassador, being our ear on the ground in New York, what the discussions are. Clearly, it's not just Canada's burden share. This is something we have to share with other member states, responsible member states.

We know there are negotiations ongoing for about a month or so with regard to the sustainable development goals, SDG indicators and looking at the focus of the SDGs. I'm just wondering if you can update us. As part of the negotiations, are you actively focusing on integrating the needs of children from the Canadian point of view in those discussions that have been going on? That's the first question.

Second, what is Canada's interaction with the UNDP with regard to the post-2015 goals?

I have just those two questions. Are you actively engaged on that with regard to advocating for children and youth, and what is our actual interaction on UNDP with regard to post-2015?

Thank you.

[Guillermo Rishchynski, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

I can assure you that in the work that our mission is undertaking, as part of the negotiations of the sustainable development agenda, the goals and the targets were part of the open working group discussions that took place over the course of the last year and a half. Now we're moving toward finalization of the goals, targets, and indicators. Canada has been one of the countries insisting that child protection, and particularly targets around children's needs and issues, needs to be an integral part of this framework going forward. We're hopeful that as this moves forward over the coming months, and ultimately is adopted in September when leaders are here for the general assembly session, that children will be at the centre.

We take the perspective that the future depends on how we protect our children. You noted the issues of Syria, and you know the UNICEF appeal that was launched in January of this year estimates that there are about 62 million kids around the world that are in some sort of humanitarian setting of either conflict or disaster. The appeal is for $3.1 billion. We're very proud that Canada has always been able to step up to the plate to address those issues. As we create a framework to guide development assistance for the next 15 years our view is that we must have specific targets that allow us to monitor and collect data with respect to the impact of policies and needs of children, so that we can then make the decisions and allocations necessary to be able to—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you for the answer. I want to affirm then that you have been engaged with UNDP about post-2015. That's what I've heard you say in the past month.

With respect to the Convention on the Rights of the Child there have been some challenges with respect to its implementation. What is Canada doing at your level to encourage implementation, to make sure that this is a solid framework that we're dealing with when we're talking about child protection? Is that something that you've been advocating for and for its implementation?

[Guillermo Rishchynski]

To the first part of your question I can assure you that with UNDP, UNICEF, and with the other funds and programs, we're there working with them on a daily basis. We sit on the board of UNICEF and have ongoing dialogues with UNDP. We will be on their board next year. Canada is very much at the table from the point of view of policy formulation.

With specific reference to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, if I had to pick two areas where we've focused it's on children and armed conflict. We are supporting the work of the special representative of the secretary general, Madam Leila Zerrougui, and her work specifically around child soldiers. Canada has put forward a number of initiatives to support her work, particularly in countries such as CAR, South Sudan, and DRC where children are at the centre of those conflicts both as refugees and regrettably as child soldiers. The Children, Not Soldiers campaign that Madam Zerrougui has rolled out since last year is the singular effort of the international community to try to attack the issue of demobilizing children; getting them off the front lines as combatants; and ensuring that they have reintegration and reinsertion opportunities, education, literacy, and economic viability. These are areas where we spend an enormous amount of time. Canada chairs the group of friends of the 38 member states on children and armed conflict network, specifically with that objective.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much. That's all the time we have.

Ms. Brown, we'll turn it over to you for seven minutes please.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of our witnesses who are here. It's nice to have Diane and Leslie back particularly since you've been here for our committee meetings on a regular basis. We had a bit of an update of what's going on in Lebanon. I wonder, Ms. Norton, if you could give us a bit of an update on the situation for children in the wider Middle East conflict so that we have a sense of what's happening there and how we're addressing those needs.

[Leslie Norton]

I think we can clearly define the Syria crisis and Iraq crisis both together as protection crises. They're crises that affect women and children, and men and boys. We have many protection challenges and one of them primarily is access to many of the very vulnerable people. What we know now is that in the Syrian population the numbers in need are about 12.2 million. It's huge. We also are very cognizant that there are a large number of refugees in the hosting countries, as you're aware.

The UN has recently launched its humanitarian appeals for 2015. Those appeals are the largest ever for the Syrian context. The needs there are about $7.3 billion to meet humanitarian needs for 2015, and that doesn't include roughly $2.4 billion, $2.4 billion for resilience type programming. It is the largest ever appeal for a response. The needs are great and one of the ongoing concerns is going to be to continue to access the people in northern Syria. The UN has really ramped up its cross-border activities to try to make sure they can access those people who are in the hard-to-reach areas. There's a much greater focus now on protection, particularly with regard to sexual and gender-based violence, but also on meeting the education needs of the children across the region through the No Lost Generation initiative. It's really about trying to get children into safe spaces where they can actually feel like children again. It's trying to identify and ensure that unaccompanied minors in fact are accompanied by parents, or family, or adults. It's trying to ensure that there's family reunification for those children. It's also trying to ensure psychosocial support for children who are traumatized.

I always find it very sad when our partners start to look at the generation of activities such as psychosocial support because then you know that you are in a context where it's a protracted crisis. It's not just looking at the primary needs of food, and water, and shelter. It means that you are settling into a longer crisis and the needs evolve. It's currently a very challenging context for humanitarian workers, and especially for the folks who are conflict-affected.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Can you give us any sense of the number of children who are in school? I'm sure it must be exceedingly difficult to find these safe places that you talk about in order to have the opportunity for education to be presented. Can you give us any numbers?

[Leslie Norton]

I can't give you those numbers right now. What I will come back to this committee with is the number of children who are in both informal and formal school settings. In this context the majority of children will be in the informal type settings of schooling because the schools have in many contexts been either destroyed or have suffered some sort of damage. Our partners have really tried to take innovative approaches to offering education settings and opportunities not in the formalized school settings.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Ms. Jacovella, I will turn to you if I may for a moment. You spoke a little bit in your remarks about early and forced marriage. You and I were in Senegal together and we saw that photograph display in the museum about these girls, some of them as young as eight years old. It's interesting we're having this discussion today because Tuesday in the House of Commons we had a debate on sexual violence in the DRC. Today we are addressing a piece of legislation in Canada obviously for barbaric practices and making some changes to criminal court, but we know that early and forced marriage is one of the issues that young girls face globally. Would you like to just comment further for the committee on the initiatives that Canada has taken, and on how can we help?

[Diane Jacovella]

It is really appalling when we look at the statistics. We know that, globally, there are about 700 million women alive today who were married as children. According to the UNICEF report, “The State of the World’s Children”, there are 50 million girls who are married each year, and one in three girls is married before the age of 18.

I think, what we found really compelling is the link between child, early, and forced marriage, and maternal, newborn, and child health. When we look at the complications that occur during pregnancy, we find that the complications for pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for girls in the developing world, and many of them are married young. Stillbirths and newborn deaths are also much more prevalent among young girls.

We know that if we keep girls in school, we will delay marriage, delay the first pregnancy, and also delay death during childbirth. These are significant things that can be done.

In terms of programming, Canada has worked a lot over the past couple of years to attract attention to this issue, both through the multilateral system and through UN resolutions. Recently, in the fall of 2014, the first substantive resolution was adopted by the UN General Assembly, and as I mentioned, it was unanimous. This is something that Canada co-led with Zambia, and we're really proud of that collaboration with Zambia.

What we have found is that, in addition to the multilateral advances to bring attention to the issue, we also need to have targeted programming, so we have started having targeted programming over the last couple of years. What we try to do is prevent the practice of child, early, and forced marriage, but we also help girls who are already married, and make sure to provide them with the support they need.

We work with countries to develop the legislation that is needed. But we know that you can have legislation in place and the practice will still continue, so we also work with communities by empowering them to make the change. It's a complex issue. It's one that involves both our human rights and development approaches, but it is one that is definitely worth continuing to work on.

If any of you have had the privilege of hearing one of those young girls talk about this, it's heartbreaking. In terms of Canadian values, we feel we really need to continue our efforts and redouble what we're doing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We will move along to Mr. Garneau, for seven minutes.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for your testimony today on a very important subject, the protection of children and youth in developing countries.

My first question is for Ms. Jacovella. You mentioned the government's maternal, newborn, and child health program, which I applaud. It is a considerable undertaking on the part of Canada. What I would like to know specifically, because I'm not 100% clear on it, is whether there any funds provided by Canada for what could be described as family planning, and the provision of safe abortions. Is that something that Canada provides?

My auxiliary question is, do any of the other partners that are also engaged in this activity provide this service?

[Diane Jacovella]

Yes, Canada has been a leader in maternal, newborn, and child health. In our approach, we have decided to focus on areas that are evidence-based and have the greatest impact. Our work is focused mostly on strengthening the health system and making sure that we have enough health facilities, community health workers, and the systems in place to address the needs of women and children with regard to leading diseases. A lot of our work has been focused on issues such as immunization. We also have a strong focus on nutrition, because 45% of the deaths of children are attributed to nutrition.

Family planning—

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Oh, I'm sorry. You were getting to that.

[Diane Jacovella]

I just wanted to give you the context for how we've made our decision—

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

I'm familiar with the context. It was a specific question.