Foreign Affairs Committee on April 21st, 2016

[The Chair (Hon. Robert Nault (Kenora, Lib.)), Liberal, Bob Nault]

Colleagues, I'd like to bring this meeting to order.

For the record, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are going to continue with our study on women, peace, and security for the first hour, and then we'll have the appearance by the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie. That brings you up to speed.

Before us from Amnesty International Canada is Jacqueline Hansen, and from the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security is Louise Allen.

Welcome to you both.

I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Hansen to start her presentation, and then we'll go to Ms. Allen. Then we'll go to questions.

Jacqueline, the floor is yours.

[Jacqueline Hansen, Major Campaigns and Women’s Rights Campaigner, Amnesty International Canada]

Good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity to address the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development as part of your study on women, peace, and security.

Amnesty International is a global movement of over seven million people in more than 150 countries working together to protect and promote human rights. We do not accept government funding to support our work.

Amnesty has extensively documented the violation of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in conflict, post-conflict, and peacetime environments around the world, and I will focus my remarks on this issue.

Our concern over the scale of these rights violations is so great that three years ago we launched our My Body My Rights campaign calling for an end to the control and criminalization of sexual and reproductive rights by states and non-state actors.

Amnesty is a member of the Women, Peace and Security Network-Canada.

Globally, in times of peace and in times of conflict, women and girls experience gender-based discrimination, violence, and barriers to realizing their sexual and reproductive rights. The gender inequalities at the root of these human rights violations are heightened in conflict situations. The consequence is all too often an increase in sexual and reproductive rights violations.

Amnesty fervently advocates for the protection of civilians in armed conflict situations. These protections must include concrete measures to safeguard the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls as identified by women and girls themselves.

Sexual and reproductive rights are the rights to make decisions about our bodies. They include the right to receive accurate information about sexuality and reproduction; access sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis; choose if, when, and whom to marry; and decide if, when, and how many children to have. They also include the rights to live free from all forms of sexual violence including rape, female genital mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, and forced sterilization.

Laws, policies, and practices violate the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in conflict and non-conflict situations. In addition, particular types of sexual and reproductive rights violations are often experienced by women and girls living in or fleeing from armed conflict situations.

The closure of schools often leads to a lack of access to education about sexuality and reproduction. Service reductions or closures of health clinics and hospitals create barriers to accessing contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections, safe abortion, prenatal and postnatal care, and other services.

When women are on the move fleeing conflict both within and outside their country's borders, they face barriers to accessing everything from menstrual products to contraception to prenatal and postnatal care and birthing facilities.

Women on the move are often in situations where they are at a heightened risk of experiencing sexual violence, and sexual violence, as we know, is all too often used as a weapon of war with devastating consequences for women and girls.

I will give some examples of sexual and reproductive rights violations that Amnesty has documented in relation to the armed conflict in Syria. I have focused my remarks on the Syrian conflict, but in the question period, I will be happy to share examples drawn from our work in other parts of the world.

Access to education and health care, including information and services related to sexuality and reproduction, are limited in Syria. The IS closed health facilities and reportedly barred women medical workers from working in areas it controlled curtailing civilians' access to medical care.

Government forces have repeatedly bombed hospitals and other medical facilities, barred or restricted the inclusion of medical supplies and humanitarian aid deliveries to besieged and hard-to-reach areas, and disrupted or prevented health care provision in these areas by detaining medical workers and volunteers. Almost 700 medical workers were killed in Syria between 2011 and 2015—almost 700.

Even after women and girls have fled Syria, many remain at risk of sexual and reproductive rights violations in refugee camps and communities in neighbouring countries.

International organizations have been reporting for several years on instances of child marriage among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Refugee families struggling to pay for rent and food may see the marriage of a daughter as one way to reduce their financial difficulties. Marriage is also sometimes seen as a means of “protecting” girls from sexual harassment and violence. One Syrian refugee woman told Amnesty, “When we came to Lebanon my children couldn't continue their education.... Since she was a young girl and a stranger, young men would harass her verbally even when she was with me or her uncle. We couldn't protect her from this sort of harassment. She wanted to get a job but my brother refused and he beat her. As a reaction to this beating, when my brother's wife said that she knew of an old man who wanted to get married, my daughter agreed. My daughter was 16 years old when she got married to a man 20 years older than her. Now she suffers a lot of problems because of this.”

Syrian refugee women and girls have spoken with Amnesty about their fear of being attacked and raped while moving around Zaatari camp in Jordan, and in particular, when using unlit communal toilets. As a result, women at the camp were avoiding using the bathroom at night, and doctors confirmed treating urinary tract infections resulting from women restraining themselves from urinating. The cost of health care in Jordan also creates an access barrier for Syrian refugees, including pregnant women and girls.

Refugee women and girls travelling through Europe may not have access to menstrual products or contraception. Pregnant women have described a lack of food and basic health care. Women and girls are reported being sexually harassed in European transit camps. Others have reported being afraid to sleep or go to the bathroom in facilities shared by women and men. Amnesty has called for, at the minimum, the setting up of single sex, well-lit toilet facilities and gender-segregated safe sleeping areas to help protect women and girls from sexual violence. When refugee women and girls are raped, as a mobile population they have very little access to testing for sexually transmitted infections, post-exposure prophylaxis, safe abortion services, and other sexual and reproductive health care services.

Women who stand up for human rights often do so at great risk to themselves and to their families. Next week, the family of Syrian women human rights defender and lawyer Razan Zaitouneh will gather in Ottawa for a vigil to mark another birthday without her. On December 9, 2013, Razan, her husband, and two other colleagues were abducted by armed men during a raid on their offices near Damascus, and they haven't been seen since. Amnesty believes Razan's abduction was a direct result of her peaceful work to defend political prisoners and support civil society groups in Syria. I could give you an endless list of women human rights defenders who have been similarly targeted for their work.

Women and girls experience violations of their sexual and reproductive rights in peacetime, and more so in armed conflict situations. They are best placed to identify concrete solutions to the rights violations impacting them, and must be meaningfully involved in the planning and implementation of projects to prevent sexual and reproductive rights violations and to support survivors. They need an equal voice in peace negotiations to identify the rights violations experienced by women during armed conflict and to help craft solutions that will lead to a lasting peace. The courageous women who stand up to human rights violations must be protected from threats and violence. There can be no impunity for those who perpetrate acts of violence against women human rights defenders.

As the committee moves forward with its study of women, peace, and security, Amnesty would like to encourage Canada, as a country committed to promoting gender equality, and as a country that has provided a home to so many women and girls who have experienced rights violations during armed conflicts, to: become a global leader in promoting the women, peace, and security agenda by committing significant human resources and investments; articulate a clear goal and outline and focus priorities, with measurable targets, in a robust national action plan accompanied by a strong cross-departmental implementation strategy, and led by a senior-level champion; and promote protection of sexual and reproductive rights, and the women, peace, and security agenda more broadly, in all multilateral and bilateral fora, and call on states to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. Amnesty also encourages Canada to: use Canada's new role on the Commission on the Status of Women as an opportunity to advocate for the adoption of special measures to protect women human rights defenders; make sure that women are meaningfully involved in all peace negotiations; continue to prioritize women at risk and girls at risk of human rights violations and LGBTI individuals for resettlement in Canada; fund the work of women human rights defenders and women's organizations; and last, support projects that support a comprehensive tool kit of sexual and reproductive health information and services to women and girls.

What has changed in the last 15 years for women and girls as a result of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security? Not much.

We challenge Canada in the next 15 years to make a measurable difference in the lives of women and girls. We know that there can be no peace until the guns stop, but for women and girls, there can be no true recovery from armed conflict until they have control over making the most basic decisions about their bodies and their lives.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you, Ms. Hansen.

Now we'll go to Ms. Allen.

[Louise Allen, Executive Coordinator, NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security]

Good afternoon.

Thank you very much for the invitation to participate in these hearings, which I've been following with great interest from New York over the last few weeks.

The NGO working group consists of 16 international NGOs, including the Nobel Women's Initiative, the Institute for Inclusive Security, CARE International, Amnesty, and Human Rights Watch, which you have heard from in these last few weeks.

We jointly conduct monitoring, analysis, and advocacy on the full implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda at the UN Security Council in peace operations, at UN leadership levels, and by member states. We also facilitate the civil society statements during women, peace, and security open debates at the Security Council.

I want to echo a lot of the recommendations and analysis that you have already heard and that have been presented by my civil society colleagues, particularly in terms of supporting grassroots women's organizations and women human rights defenders, insuring women's meaningful participation across all peace and political processes and donor conferences, supporting holistic services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, and the need for dedicated funding to go to gender equality and women's empowerment.

Many of my colleagues have outlined for you in detail recommendations on how to improve Canada's national action plan. Without repeating these, I do want to reiterate the importance of national action plans involving ongoing consultative processes with civil society, ensuring that they are cross-government strategies with shared responsibilities across ministries for their implementation, including strong results-based monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and having dedicated budget and receiving high-level support, as Jacqueline has just outlined, as well.

Today I would like to focus my remarks on the role Canada is playing at the UN and in other multilateral settings, and the role we hope it continues to play in advocating for the systematic implementation of women, peace, and security across all peace and security settings.

Our analysis shows that despite the progress being made at the normative level, and the annual women, peace, and security Security Council open debates enjoying record levels of participation with last year's open debate marking the 15th anniversary having the highest number of member states participating in open debate in the Security Council's history, our analysis shows that the implementation by the Security Council UN leadership at headquarters and in the field and by member states does not match the rhetorical support we witness every year in October.

Overall, the implementation of the agenda continues to rely on political support by individual countries, and sometimes even individual diplomats within missions, rather than serving as a systematic lens by which to view peace and security and long-term conflict prevention. This is why we need strong women, peace, and security champions such as Canada at all multilateral processes to play an increasing monitoring and advocacy role relating to the consistent implementation of the women, peace, and security agenda.

I do want to take this opportunity to commend Canada and the Canadian mission in New York for the leadership role it has taken both as the chair of the Group of Friends of 1325 and as the co-chair of the working group on the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, known as “C-34”.

As the chair of the Group of Friends of Women, Peace and Security, the Canadian mission systematically initiates and convenes regular meetings for diplomats and women, peace, and security civil society. It has called on Security Council members and other member states to make strong political and financial statements ahead of last October's high-level review. It also convened a special meeting to specifically discuss sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. These meetings are always very well attended both by diplomats and by civil society and UN staff. We always appreciate the opportunity to brief participants on behalf of civil society.

This year Canada also chaired robust negotiations in the C-34 committee, which resulted in a stronger position being taken on sexual exploitation and abuse by all member states. Negotiating a consensus report is testament to the role Canada can play in multilateral deliberations, especially considering the troubled history the committee has had previously in reaching consensus.

We would like to recommend that Canada increase its women, peace, and security advocacy at the UN across four particular areas: first, increasing women's participation in civil society engagement, both at UN headquarters and across all peace operations and processes; second, advocating for improved and consistent workings of the Security Council to integrate women, peace, and security; third, calling for UN leadership and accountability for women, peace, and security; and fourth, calling for greater transparency in sexual exploitation and abuse reporting by peacekeepers.

Last year, the high-level review on peace operations emphasized the need for better conflict and country analysis to inform peace operations, and for gender analysis to be conducted throughout the mission planning, mandate development, implementation, review, and mission drawdown processes. The peace operations review also called for peace operations to be more people-centered and to increase their community engagement.

Institutionalizing regular community and civil society engagement in New York and across all peace operations will ensure peace and security decisions reflect, and are more responsive to, the needs and experiences of local communities. Canada should join the calls for senior peacekeeping and political mission leadership to be tasked with holding consultations with civil society organizations soon after a mission is deployed, and then establish a regular schedule for consultations that include systematic and specific outreach with women leaders and women civil society organizations representing different ethnic, faith, and minority groups. Such outreach also then needs to be reflected in mission implementation reports and briefings to the Security Council.

In Resolution 2242, which was unanimously adopted in October last year at the Security Council and co-sponsored by 71 member states, including Canada, the Security Council committed to invite civil society representatives, including from women's organizations, to participate in country-specific considerations, that up until now have been closed spaces for civil society. The Security Council has yet to act on this commitment.

We urge Canada to be a strong advocate for women civil society leaders to participate both in Security Council country briefings and in mission community engagements. Support for women civil society representatives during women, peace, and security open debates at the Security Council is not enough, especially as we know that the commitments being made during thematic debates do not then translate into the integration of gender considerations in country-specific decision-making at the Security Council, and by UN leadership.

The Security Council mandates of peacekeeping and political missions, our analysis shows, largely stayed the same last year. To give you a specific figure, only four out of the thirteen peacekeeping missions that had their mandates renewed last year called for the mission to consider gender as a crosscutting issue. Of concern, only 40% of Security Council resolutions and presidential statements responding to a specific crisis had any element on women, peace, and security, or any sort of gender considerations.

We urge Canada to advocate for all Security Council mandates to include gender as a crosscutting issue, as well as specific language relating to women, peace, and security both in terms of assessing their protection needs and for women to participate in all processes. Part of that is also calling for the systematic deployment of senior gender advisers to all peace and political missions. We would be happy to continue to work with the Canadian mission in New York, as well as Parliament, to identify opportunities for increased advocacy toward the Security Council on specific mandates.

We have put a lot of emphasis on the need for improved accountability systems for UN leadership both at headquarters and in missions, and for women, peace, and security promoting women's participation and engaging with women's organizations to be written into the terms of reference for all special representatives to the secretary-general, senior envoys, mediators, and force commanders. Interview processes should also assess a candidate's understanding of what a gender perspective is. The incoming secretary-general must also have demonstrated knowledge and experience in and support for the women, peace, and security agenda.

Both the high-level review on peace operations and the global study on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 called for the appointment of more women to senior mission leadership positions to be prioritized.

A comprehensive strategy involving UN entities and countries which contribute troops and police is needed to address both the pipeline and the structural obstacles preventing women's recruitment and professional advancement. So far, we have seen no movement on this, yet high-level attention is needed. We would welcome Canada taking this up, including the need for the increased accountability of UN leadership and the prioritization of women's leadership positions as part of its overall women, peace, and security advocacy work.

Finally, in terms of sexual exploitation and abuse, Canada is to be commended for the role that it played last year in raising the issue in New York, but we would further encourage Canada to continue shining a light on this issue. As part of this, Canada should call for a robust and mandatory pre-deployment training and vetting of all personnel; for regular field missions to include a conduct and discipline section which captures information on allegations, repatriation, and judicial measures; and to give priority to the security and well-being of survivors in its response to sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, including through promoting best practices such as maintaining confidentiality, minimizing repeated trauma from multiple interviews, and ensuring rapid access to medical and psychosocial care.

The four areas I have highlighted this afternoon are also reflected in Canada's national action plan priorities, and we strongly encourage you to include these areas in your recommendations on Canada's policy on women, peace, and security. We continue to encourage Canada to be the champion that we have seen in New York and in other multilateral processes. We need champions who encourage and push for consistent implementation and who lead by example, not just by giving supportive statements in October, but through action and financial support for the agenda.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much, Ms. Allen.

We very much appreciate both of your opening comments, statements, and recommendations.

We'll now go to questions by members. We'll start with Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for your testimony and for your advice.

In speaking to a point that each of you made that there are huge gaps in the UN system's implementation of UN Security Council resolutions as they pertain to women, peace, and security, and given the graphic testimony in the recent paper of former United Nations assistant secretary-general Anthony Banbury, which tragically listed many of these specific outcomes, it would seem that the United Nations, after almost a hundred years—we're getting into the second half of the United Nations century—needs a massive overhaul. Various witnesses have made suggestions of what needs to be done, including that perhaps it's time for a woman secretary-general.

I don't say that lightly. We know in fact that in this area, very often it is women who make the difference on the ground in pre-conflict, conflict, and post-conflict situations. I wonder if you could briefly give us your thoughts on what needs to be done at the UN.

[Louise Allen]

In terms of what needs to be done at the UN for consistent implementation on women, peace, and security, there needs to be consistent leadership. Too many times it's left up to the individual, and that's from the secretary-general down. It's a question of consistency, political will, and financing. Even the deployment of gender advisers, for instance, is not systematic.

In terms of the secretary-general, as a coalition we're not going as far as to say that it should be a woman. There's a lot of support for the next secretary-general to be a woman, but what we really want to emphasize is that the next secretary-general must prioritize the agenda across all areas of the UN's work, and have demonstrated experience and support for that agenda. With the process that has already started taking place in New York, we're really interested in the opportunity for candidates to interact with member states and civil society. So far, the issue of women, peace, and security is one that's being integrated into question and answer sessions between the candidates and the member states.

[Jacqueline Hansen]

For us, regardless of the gender of the next secretary-general, we want to ensure that whoever that person is, that person be an advocate for the rights of women and girls and an advocate for gender equality. That is what is most important to us.

In terms of gaps within the UN system, rather than focus on that, I think it's important to also look at what particular member states have a responsibility to do. When we're looking, for example, at allegations of misconduct or allegations of abuses committed by peacekeepers, there are national obligations. At Amnesty what we encourage is, if there are any allegations of misconduct, ensuring that they are thoroughly, promptly, and impartially investigated at the national level and making sure that any perpetrators are held to account.

Likewise, we also call on Canada and other countries to call out their partners and engage partners in other countries if that is not happening with other countries. Outside of the United Nations system there are national structures and there are national obligations, and we can also do much in our bilateral relations.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

That would seem to lead to my next question.

We're seeing governments of a number of western democracies, including Canada and the United Kingdom, incapable of speaking the word “genocide” as it applies to the treatment by ISIS of women, girls, and men, religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, because of the dysfunction at the UN in the Security Council where, because of China and Russia vetoes, the Security Council is incapable of directing the International Criminal Court to proceed against ISIS.

This would seem to address or speak to your last suggestion that governments have a moral responsibility to speak above the United Nations.

[Jacqueline Hansen]

I wouldn't say above. I would say that all states have an obligation to protect and respect human rights, and in our globalized world we're not just looking at what happens within our borders; we know that what happens within our borders is related to what happens outside of our borders.

If we are observing human rights violations occurring in other states, then yes, states can call that out. I wouldn't say it's necessarily going above the UN system, but there's nothing preventing us from having bold leadership.

[Louise Allen]

In terms of the treatment, particularly of Yazidi women in northern Iraq, a number of organizations are calling for that to be classified as genocide, the systematic sexual enslavery and the kidnapping of young women and children as well. There is advocacy being made and there's starting to be support at the UN level for the treatment of Yazidi women to be classified as genocide.

When the horrendous human rights violations that we're seeing being undertaken by ISIS eventually appear before some sort of international court, there are a lot of organizations that are documenting the human rights violations that are happening on both sides of the conflict both in Syria and in Iraq.

We work with partners who also provide human rights documentation training on the ground so that, if and when there is ever an international prosecution, there will be the information and the evidence ready to hold the perpetrators to account.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you, Mr. Kent.

We'll go to Mr. Levitt.

[Michael Levitt, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Thank you for being here today.

We've heard now both of your testimonies added to the narrative that's been laid out for this committee over the last four or five sessions, whether it's on women's human rights defenders or sexual violence.

One thing that strikes me most is the catch-22 of the importance of having women's participation in civil society and the difference it can make in establishing peace and establishing good governance. We've seen some of that happening in Rwanda post-conflict, but we also know that the threats, again, of sexual violence and threats to families that these women face in entering into civil society and playing a role, especially as human rights defenders, makes it all the more difficult. I'm wondering if you could give some more general thoughts, not just in terms of the capacity of the UN, but some general thoughts on that.

Then, specifically, where justice systems may not be responsive to violence against women, how do you go about imposing justice on perpetrators of sexual violence, particularly in conflict and during the chaos afterwards?

[Jacqueline Hansen]

Women's participation in many parts of the world is accompanied by threats and violence, and that's just how it is, as you said, but that shouldn't be a barrier. There are women who continue to participate knowing full well what the risks are.

What needs to happen is that we need to be making sure that perpetrators are held accountable for those acts of violence against women human rights defenders. If people know they can get away with violence against women, then they're more likely to commit acts of violence against women, so the signal needs to be sent loudly and clearly at all levels that this is not acceptable.

I will give the example of Berta Cáceres in Honduras, who was murdered not long ago. That's an example in which Canada immediately made a very strong statement about her murder. We need to see more of that sort of relationship so that when acts of violence are committed against women human rights defenders, and those who are in public life speak out, who often may transgress gender norms within a particular society, the international community is watching. That aspect of watching and monitoring and of having the world know what is going on in a particular country is an incredibly powerful tool with which to hold governments accountable. Calling out those acts of violence and engaging partners to look at and explore protection measures that can be put in place, whether those involve having security or accompaniment, is also certainly incredibly important. We need to make sure we're not seeing that as a barrier. Women are going to be participating, often regardless of the threats, so how can we work to deal with the threats and to make sure the perpetrators are held to account?

[Louise Allen]

I want to concur with what Jacqueline said and to build on it. In every single crisis and conflict and post-conflict situation that we are collectively working on, women are already there trying to be local community peace builders, and working with different ethnic and cultural divides. It's not a question of whether women are able to do this work; women are doing this work.

The role of the international community is really to do two things: to provide them with political support and to provide them with financial support. As Jacqueline said, it's calling out the increasing instances of crackdowns and intimidation, and enforced disappearances of women human rights defenders across all settings. It's not just the extremists who pose risks to women human rights defenders.

We've worked with women in Nigeria, in Somalia, in Rwanda, and in Burundi, where the threats and intimidation they face are from local security forces, police, and militia. It's from the government officials and those who are associated with the government that they are most at threat.

The international community really needs to play a vigilant role and also needs to be able to provide them with financial and political support.

In terms of the justice component, I don't want to repeat what Jacqueline said, but this is an example of why it's so important to have gender-sensitive institutions, legislation, and policy, including across the security sector and police and justice systems. If a woman doesn't feel that she is able to report instances of any form of sexual or gender-based violence because doing so is either going to lead to further persecution or put her at risk of honour killing or lead to harassment by the police, then she's not going to report it. Within police forces, military, and other institutions, there needs to be a monitoring role as well as encouragement for gender-based sensitivity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you, Mr. Levitt.

We'll go to Monsieur Aubin.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, I want to thank you for your testimony. It is helpful for us to experience the reality on the ground in this way.

In the few minutes I have, I would like to take advantage of your expertise to explore the matter in more depth.

I have met with a good number of NGO representatives and some of them tell us that, when military and humanitarian operations are conducted jointly, the situation often becomes counterproductive, because it is more difficult to establish a relationship of trust with the local population.

In the situation you are familiar with, do those operations have an effect on the ability of women to be fully included in the reconstruction process?

[Louise Allen]

Thank you for the question.

I will answer it in English, if you don't mind.

Your question points to the importance of community engagement across the peace operation. We've been doing a lot of work with some of our colleagues who have appeared before you already in terms of community-based protection of civilians.

This is an example where women's participation is vital, not only for the trust to be established between a peacekeeping operation and the local community, but also for the peacekeeping operations to be cognizant and then responsive to the particular threats a community is facing.

That builds the confidence for when a mission is changing from the immediate protection of the civilian component of a mandate to when it is looking at more the long-term peace-building component. If there isn't the community trust established at the outset, it's very difficult for them to then establish it down the track. We hear from our partners all the time that sometimes the only engagement they have with the UN mission is with the white UN convoys they see driving down the highway. There's no engagement, or interaction, or an opportunity for the local community members to have any sort of say into how a mission is either being designed or implemented.

I hope that answers your question. I could go into more specifics, but that's the need for a people-centred approach. There aren't any conflicts where it wouldn't be appropriate.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

In your experience, should the government adopt approaches that are appropriate for each of the regions, or can the approaches be more general because the problem is the same everywhere? Take the Middle East, for example, or anywhere else that is presently in difficulty. Should we be targeting our approaches?

[Louise Allen]

There are two parts. We never advocate a cookie-cutter approach to peacekeeping. In fact, we've seen some mandates where the mandate's almost the same across different peacekeeping missions, but they've just changed some of the language. That's not an approach that works. It's not integrating local gender and conflict analysis.

There are a couple of components we think should be systemized, for instance, the deployment of gender advisers, and the deployment of human rights advisers and of women protection advisers. Having their expertise and the regular deployment of their expertise should be standardized across all missions.

What needs to be context specific is how they're responding to the different threats, and sometimes the changing threats, but the deployment of the expertise allows for the mission to be context specific.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

You have talked a lot about the importance of diplomacy. In the very short term, for a country like Canada, should there not also be an internal process that fosters gender equity when diplomats are appointed? On the diplomatic front, would having more female diplomats representing Canada not be a major first step?

[Louise Allen]

If I may answer in English, I think the prioritization of women's recruitment is the responsibility of the UN system and of individual member states as well.

The UN system often says the reason there aren't more women diplomats and women in senior positions is that member states aren't putting them forward to be considered as candidates. From the other perspective, we also hear there are structural problems in terms of the criteria sometimes, and that you need to have demonstrated, say, 10 to 15 years of experience. With some of the women who have gone on maternity leave, it's sometimes difficult to provide that continued level of uninterrupted experience.

That's why we think a multi-cycle strategy is needed, where it's a troop contributing, police contributing, and the UN Secretariat all devising a multi-pronged strategy to ensure women are part of the UN leadership and more reflected in diplomatic missions.

The Security Council recently undertook a Security Council mission to Mali. Samantha Power from the U.S. is currently the only female ambassador on the Security Council. She was not able to make that mission, so it was an all-male delegation that went to Mali.

Following extensive advocacy, a number of women, peace, and security issues we know were raised with the Mali government, and as well with the peacekeeping mission that was there. One of the points the Mali government representative made to the Security Council was that the Security Council was emphasizing the importance of women's participation, but it was an all-male delegation.

That's a very important point. It doesn't detract from the fact the Mali government needs to be responsible for prioritizing women's participation, but that's an example of the point he was trying to make that the participation of women was muted given that it was an all-male delegation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you.

We'll now go to Ms. Dzerowicz.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you for your presentation, and thanks for all the work that you do. It's really heroic. As someone who did a tiny bit of work in this field many, many years ago, I can say that none of the issues are new. I wish they were. It's only exacerbated because we have far more conflict now happening in the world.

In some of the work that I did, I felt we took one step forward and two steps back. I was doing some work with microcredit loans internationally and we were trying to help women get jobs, create a bit of income, and also improve their local education and health care, which was huge in terms of healthy communities and building up civic society. However, we found there was a lot of corruption, so the institutions in many of the places we worked couldn't sustain change and there was no foundation for a healthy civil society.

A country like Canada can step up to the plate and do all the things you've been advocating—supporting grassroots, women, human rights, dedicated funding to gender equality, more transparency, championing strong women—but my question is, is there some parallel work that we also need to do around helping to build some of that foundation in the countries we hope to influence?

[Jacqueline Hansen]

I think one of the biggest things that can be done is to ensure sustained multi-year core funding. One of the things that is such a huge challenge, and it's also the same in Canada, is that women's organizations end up going from project to project to project and no one wants to pay the money to keep the lights on and to sustain it. As a result, you're not able to keep the staff you need in the long term and really have this big vision of where you're going, and then have a number of years to see it through.

Something that would make a significant difference would be to have funding dedicated to this issue and making sure it's focused on the grassroots, and that it is core, that is sustained, that it really is long term enough to support some of the incredible work that's being done. There are a lot of women around the world who are doing an awful lot with very, very little, and it doesn't require too much of an investment to multiply the impacts of that incredible grassroots work they're doing.