Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 18th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Welcome to meeting number 18 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on October 22, 2020, the committee resumes its study of the vulnerabilities created and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the pandemic's impact on children in conflict, crisis or displacement.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would, as always, encourage participants to please mute their microphones when not speaking and address all comments through the chair.

When you have 30 seconds remaining in your questioning or speaking time, I will signal you with this yellow piece of paper.

Interpretation services are available through the globe icon at the bottom of your screens.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses for the first panel.

We have with us from the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, Jaya Murthy, who is the global chief of internal communication; and Pernille Ironside, deputy director, division of data, analytics, planning and monitoring. We also have David Matas, member of the board of directors, Beyond Borders ECPAT Canada; and Shelly Whitman, executive director, Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security.

Ms. Ironside, I understand you will deliver the opening remarks for UNICEF. I will give you the floor for five minutes, please.

[Pernille Ironside, Deputy Director, Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for the committee's invitation for my colleague, Jaya Murthy, and me to contribute to this critical and timely study, and for its focus on children in crisis and conflict.

We are proud Canadians and we've each spent the majority of the past 20 years as international civil servants of the United Nations Children's Fund, serving in conflict-affected countries, including Iraq, Gaza, Yemen, Nigeria, Uganda, Somalia and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where we've had the privilege of being part of efforts to support and protect children and their families.

We've seen first-hand how the violent and protracted nature of today's armed conflict has torn families apart, the brutality inflicted on young minds and bodies, and their extreme vulnerability.

One never forgets holding a trembling six-year-old girl so brutally raped that she is rendered incontinent, or the frail body of a severely malnourished infant barely clinging to life, and the anguish of a child whose family was killed for their eyes. One also never forgets the rays of hope on their faces and the profound resilience when provided with access to services and the reassurance that they are being cared for.

War shatters lives, it shatters countries' health and education systems, it damages or destroys vital infrastructure like water and sanitation, and it spurs the flight of essential workers such as doctors.

COVID-19 has exacerbated this plight, triggering an unprecedented global health, humanitarian, socio-economic and human rights crisis with significant interruption in basic services, including essential nutrition services, vaccine-preventable disease campaigns and schooling for learners.

With over 100 million COVID-19 cases and 2.1 million deaths in virtually every country and territory, this pandemic is the biggest challenge of our time, and has had a unique disequalizing effect—more than any other crisis—on nations, states, communities, households and individuals.

It's clear that COVID-19 and all its harmful consequences has made this a global child rights crisis.

For UNICEF, the pandemic has fundamentally altered our responses, adding a new layer of complexity in some of the most difficult and dangerous operating environments. We now need to reach the same populations that are routinely missed with basic services in a context of restricted movement and lockdowns. We are redoubling our efforts with our multitude of partners, local and national authorities, humanitarian and development organizations, civil society, the private sector, local respondents and thousands of community volunteers to support country readiness for COVID-19 vaccines, including strategies to reach all people, especially those in hard-to-reach locations.

It also is for us to enable schools to reopen safely, particularly in poor areas, and reimagine education systems with remote learning that will include children who previously did not have access to a TV, let alone the Internet; to address the growing mental health challenges and risks of violence, exploitation and abuse [Technical difficulty—Editor]; and to reduce discrimination and inequality that are particularly acute for girls and women, as well as people with disabilities.

This is a crisis where we need the international community to come together, from local to global, to support an inclusive response through recovery that prioritizes investments in the world's children. Without increased investments and collaboration, recovery from the impact of this pandemic will be that much harder and slower.

Esteemed committee members, 75 years ago UNICEF was born out of the ashes of World War II, and once again the world is engulfed in crisis, the consequences of which threaten to undermine every measure of progress set out in the global sustainable development goals. This anniversary year, UNICEF is again being called upon to help the world's children, their families and the systems upon which they rely to emerge from crisis.

With crisis comes opportunity—the unique opportunity for Canadian leadership. As proud Canadians who have dedicated our lives to serving vulnerable conflict-affected children and their families around the world, there is nothing we would like to see more and nothing that would make us more proud than if the young rape survivor I held in eastern DRC and countless others whose lots in life have become that much harder due to COVID-19 could benefit from the integrated support they so need and deserve to transform their outcomes in life.

Thank you for this opportunity to address you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you so much for your opening remarks, Ms. Ironside.

We will now turn to Mr. Matas.

The floor is yours for five minutes, please.

[David Matas, Member of the Board of Directors, Beyond Borders ECPAT Canada]

Thank you for inviting me and for inviting us to participate in this study.

Beyond Borders ECPAT Canada is the Canadian affiliate of ECPAT, headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. ECPAT is the worldwide network of organizations working to end the sexual exploitation of children. ECPAT is an acronym for the phrase “end child prostitution, pornography and trafficking”.

Within the general topic of the study, we wish to address the vulnerabilities of children to sexual exploitation created and exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. In general, the vulnerabilities of children to sexual exploitation have been both created and exacerbated by the pandemic.

Protective parents have died from COVID, rendering children vulnerable. Funds directed to protecting vulnerable children from sexual exploitation have been diverted to combatting COVID. Programs combatting child sexual exploitation have been impacted by the overall shutdown in reaction to COVID. School closures to protect against COVID have meant that child sexual abuse at home is not reported at schools. Children in sexually abusive home situations have, because of the COVID-related shutdowns, been trapped in these situations.

For those with access to the Internet, the increased time children spend on the Internet stuck at home because of COVID increases their vulnerability to sexual grooming and cyber-bullying by child predators. Children in detention suffer from decreased monitoring by the International Committee for the Red Cross, decreased as a COVID-prevention measure, leaving them open to increased abuse, including sexual abuse, from detention staff.

COVID prevention measures have impacted adversely on the delivery of humanitarian aid generally, including aid for the protection of children from sexual abuse. The shutdown of economies to protect against COVID has led to increased poverty, prompting some parents to sell their children into underage marriages or the sex trade.

ECPAT in April 2020 posted a publication titled “Why children are at risk of sexual exploitation during COVID-19” and wrote:

When entertainment venues that traffickers frequently use to seek customers and exploit child victims are shut down, there is a likelihood that child trafficking patterns will adapt... Child marriages are...likely to increase as teenagers from rural areas are highly affected by the worsening economic situation, being forced to migrate to urban areas and to live on the streets.

The variety of problems that COVID presents that create and exacerbate the vulnerability of children to sexual abuse require a variety of solutions. Because of limited time, I only want to address one component, the increase in child marriages.

Global Affairs already had a strong policy updated on its website on August 20, 2020 against child, early and forced marriages.

The trouble with that policy is that, in a Canadian context, it rings hollow in light of the widespread availability and practice of child marriages in Canada itself. The Constitution of Canada gives Parliament exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the legal capacity to enter into marriage. The provinces have exclusive competence over the formalities of marriage.

Parliament, in the exercise of its powers over the legal capacity to enter into marriage, allows for child marriages. The federal Civil Marriage Act allows for marriages of children aged 16 and 17, and the power has been widely used.

A study of child marriages in Canada published in January this year concluded:

Demographic patterns of child marriage in Canada are similar to those observed in many low- and middle-income countries. Girls were far more likely to be married as children than boys and typically wed much older spouses.

The study pointed to a discrepancy between Canada's domestic law and its foreign policy. The global COVID-related problems relating to child sexual abuse would be difficult for Canada to resolve on our own. Changing Canadian law to prevent child marriages is something entirely within the power of the Parliament of Canada. We should be doing this to prevent the sexual exploitation of children at home. By doing so, we would make our efforts to prevent the sexual exploitation of children through child marriage abroad more credible.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Matas, thank you very much for your opening comments.

Our final round of opening remarks we'll go to Ms. Whitman.

Please, the floor is yours, for five minutes.

[Dr. Shelly Whitman, Executive Director, Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security]

Thank you very much to the committee for this opportunity to speak with all of you today.

My name is Dr. Shelly Whitman. I am the executive director of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security. I also wish to bring you greetings from our founder, Lieutenant-General (Retired) Roméo Dallaire.

It's a great opportunity for me to be here and it's lovely to see some of my former friends and colleagues like Pernille Ironside. The last time we met was in Nigeria.

I wish to begin by stating that the world needs to focus on building a global peace and security agenda that prioritizes the protection of children. Our collective failure to see the world through the eyes of children prevents us from effective and innovative approaches to address some of the world's most pressing issues of our time and will be felt for generations that have yet to come.

At the Dallaire Institute, we have been conducting work in places such as Juba, South Sudan; Kigali, Rwanda; DRC; Somalia; into Sierra Leone; Nigeria; and hopefully soon into other places such as Cameroon.

Today we are here to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children who are exposed to armed conflict.

Despite calls by the UN Secretary-General, armed conflict has not stopped during the pandemic. Health care systems and educational services already under immense strain by conflict have been placed under even more stress due to COVID-19. Yet, worryingly, the world's attention has been diverted from many of the conflicts that have continued or emerged. As a result, we are also not bearing close witness to the results on the concerns of children.

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict has also expressed deep concern on the heightened risk of grave violations against children due to COVID-19. The UN special representative summarized the annual report to the Human Rights Council and stated that, “the response to the outbreak often had an unintended adverse impact on children's fulfilment of their rights to education and health, as well as their access to justice, social services, and humanitarian aid.” The report indicates that the pandemic has exacerbated children's vulnerability to grave violations in situations of armed conflict. “School closures made children even more vulnerable to other grave violations, in particular recruitment and use, and children in camps for internally displaced people and those deprived of their liberty have been particularly exposed to further protection risks.”

It is estimated that 99% of children globally reside in one of the 186 countries that have enacted some level of restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. And for children living in conflict and fragile environments, the pressures of COVID-19 are even more complex.

I would like to remind this committee that UN Security Council Resolution 1612 highlights six grave violations against children in armed conflict. Those are the killing and maiming of children, the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, sexual violence against children, attacks against schools or hospitals, abduction of children and the denial of humanitarian access for children. These six grave violations have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, an example that I would like to highlight for you is that when it comes to measures to combat COVID-19 many children have been confined to dangerous home settings, increasing their risk of exposure to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, including sexual and gender-based violence, while limiting their access to protection services and social networks.

UNICEF estimates that 1.8 billion children live in 104 countries where violence prevention and response services have been disrupted due to COVID-19. And the UN Population Fund estimates that the pandemic will result in an additional 13 million child marriages between 2020 and 2030.

In addition, when it comes to the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, we know that we have seen instances in places such as Colombia where the armed groups are exploiting the global pandemic to recruit children into their ranks. Almost as many children are estimated to have joined armed groups in Colombia in the first half of 2020 as in the whole of 2019.

In addition, we have also seen increased insecurity because of the present pandemic, which has created conditions that have led to an increase in child trafficking in places such as Mali, and the cases of child recruitment have doubled there over the previous year.

School closures and disruptions have also created immense impact on the 1.6 billion students in 190 countries, and the risk of military occupation of closed schools remains a real concern. Prior to the pandemic, education around the world was already in crisis. It is estimated that over 10 million children will not return to school after the pandemic, as families continue to be impacted by growing poverty and unemployment rates. Schools continue to be attacked in places such as Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria and Yemen. As recently as this week, we have seen horrific attacks on more schools in northeast Nigeria.

The denial of humanitarian access for children in active conflict zones and pre-existing challenges with nutrition have been exacerbated during the pandemic. Border closures in response to the pandemic have also adversely impacted the delivery of humanitarian aid to populations in need of additional support. For those living in IDP camps, access to sanitation is also further limited, and this is happening in a context of record child displacement occurring in 2019.

There is also increasing concern for children who are being detained due to suspicions of their involvement in terrorism or security offences, and the deplorable conditions that many of those children continue to be held in.

When we look at this issue, it is important for this committee and the Government of Canada to recognize that child protection is already a gravely underfunded field, constituting just 0.6% of official development aid. It is expected that the pandemic and the response will continue to reduce this funding.

I want to remind those here that in November 2017 the Canadian government, in partnership with the Dallaire Institute, co-created the Vancouver principles on peacekeeping and the prevention of the recruitment and use of child soldiers around the world. Today I would like to reiterate the need for Canada to continue to demonstrate leadership amongst the 100 endorsing nations that have endorsed since 2017, and also amongst the many that have yet to endorse.

It should not—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Ms. Whitman, I'm sorry, but we're running a bit short on time. Could I just ask you to wrap it up in the next 30 seconds or so?

[Dr. Shelly Whitman]

Yes. I'm on my last sentence.

It should not be forgotten, in our global efforts to fight this pandemic, that the achievement of a global children, peace and security agenda should be at the top of our list of priorities within the Government of Canada.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you so much for your opening remarks. We'll get into the details with you in questions.

Colleagues, we will now go into round one. These are six-minute segments.

Mr. Diotte will lead us off.

Go ahead, sir. The floor is yours.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Ms. Whitman, this is really fascinating stuff. It seems like such a terrible problem. I know you probably have more to say about it, so I just want to give you an opportunity to maybe explain this situation. The issue of schools being closed seems to be very multifaceted. Are there two or three enormously big problems that can be attacked so that more children are not being drawn into being child soldiers?

[Dr. Shelly Whitman]

It's a great question. I think that definitely there are a few things we could focus on.

One, of course, is thinking through the detention issue. As I mentioned, I think that is a major issue for us to look at in terms of how countries are handling children who are detained as a result of the suspicion that they are involved in armed violence or in terrorist groups.

Another area that is huge for us to focus on is aspects related to education. Again, I want to also stress that it's not just access to education; it's the quality of education. One concern we have, certainly, is our ability to ensure that children have access to education that focuses on things such as critical thinking and peace education. Thinking through those elements is really important.

There is one last point I would like to raise. I was talking at the end about the Vancouver principles, and it's really important that Canada also step up to ensure that the Vancouver principles are implemented. There is implementation guidance that accompanies the Vancouver principles. While it's noble to have many endorsers, we have to see that nations and their security forces are also better prepared to interact and help prevent the recruitment and use of children around the globe.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Are there any countries, specifically in Africa, in which it is the major problem? You talk about terrorism and so forth. Are there any countries that are having the biggest problems?

[Dr. Shelly Whitman]

I think it's really hard for me to say that this one is the biggest; however, I could certainly point to several countries. I want to be clear that it's not just an African problem. This is a major issue in Latin America, in the Middle East, in Asia. Many of the biggest conflicts you are witnessing right now, whether they be Myanmar, countries in the Middle East that Canada has worked in, countries like Ukraine.... There are many areas where this is a major concern. I could list them off for you but I think it's important for you to recognize that every time we have conflict, this is a major concern for us to look at.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you.

This question is for the two officials from UNICEF. I know that UNICEF has called for developed countries to share vaccines through COVAX. We know that our government has announced that they plan on also using COVAX for Canadian vaccinations after failing to properly get a Canadian supply from other sources. I'm wondering how Canada's use of the COVAX vaccine meshes with the broader goal as stated by UNICEF of saving COVAX for the developing countries.

[Jaya Murthy, Global Chief of Internal Communication, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)]

You're absolutely right. Our main argument right now is advocating for vaccine equity, and to ensure that all countries and all populations, especially vulnerable populations, have access to the vaccine as soon as possible, recognizing that we can't really address the pandemic if we're not taking an equitable approach around the world.

In relation to Canada and COVAX, we're not in a specific position to comment on that, but we would certainly encourage the Government of Canada to adopt an equity-focused strategy when it comes to providing vaccines around the world to families affected by COVID.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thanks for that.

A major focus over the last several years is ensuring that girls have access to education. I've been to Africa and I've seen first-hand the great work Canadian and international organizations are doing to promote educational opportunities for girls. I'm wondering how COVID has affected education specifically for girls. Would anyone like to take a shot at that one?

[Pernille Ironside]

Girls, as you know, are already particularly vulnerable to being excluded from education systems for various reasons, but often driven by poverty, domestic expectations and gender inequalities. Now, with COVID, that is being exacerbated even further, where girls are even more expected to perform domestic duties, caring for younger children—siblings, for example— and having few opportunities to access existing education, and being more vulnerable to both domestic and external exploitation and abuse as well.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

There may be a chance to circle back in the second round. If we're all disciplined we should be able to get at least partway into a second round.

We will now go to Dr. Fry for six minutes, please.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair. I just wanted to welcome David Matas. He and I have crossed paths many times in the past and I have a lot of respect for him. I'm glad to see that he is in fact on ECPAT, because it hasn't been given a lot of priority by a lot of countries.

I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. The first one is, you were talking about the Vancouver principles earlier on. Do you feel that the Vancouver principles are being implemented as they should? If not, what are barriers to implementing them? I'm sure that Professor Laurence said that there were challenges in the implementation of principle 6, because of a lack of data. What are we doing about getting data on children in armed conflicts?

Who will take that?

Then I have two other people I want to direct questions to.

[Dr. Shelly Whitman]

I'll answer on the question on the Vancouver principles, and I'll turn it over to my colleagues from UNICEF, if they'd like to provide answers on data.

In terms of the Vancouver principles, I think that one of the greatest challenges in terms of implementation is that there's been a lot of focus at Global Affairs Canada on endorsing the principles, but there have to be some resources and horsepower put behind implementation. Currently at the Dallaire Institute, we have been working on implementation in the countries in which we have memorandums of understanding to move that forward. That means that just as Canada has put money and effort into the Elsie initiative, so Canada should be doing that for implementation of the Vancouver principles.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you.

I wanted to ask a question quickly—because I don't have a lot of time—of David Matas. It's about ECPAT. In 1997, I went to the first world conference on the sexual exploitation of children and youth, and it was there that ECPAT started to form its legs. ECPAT is an NGO, as most of you know, and it is doing extremely important work on children who are being trafficked.

We talk about conflict areas. We talk about Africa. We talk about South America. We talk about all those places. No one wants to talk about what's going on in Europe. Children are being trafficked there daily by organized crime, and we don't have data on it. We don't know what happens to them. We can't find them. About 13,000 children right now are missing in Europe, and nobody knows where they've disappeared to. There is an informal kind of refugee camp because these people come through Greece; they come through Italy, and then they get blocked at every border, with the exception of Germany and...Europe. Everyone thinks Europe is wondrous because Europe is a rich continent, but it isn't. There is a lot going on with regard to the safety of children in Europe.

I wanted to know how you feel ECPAT could do something about this. Is ECPAT involved in the European theatre? What is ECPAT doing to flag commercial sexual exploitation of children?

[David Matas]

ECPAT is a network of affiliated organizations, and there are country representatives of ECPAT in 102 countries, including the European countries, absolutely. The headquarters have put out a general statement about the problems of COVID and sexual exploitation.

What you're talking about is a continuing problem. It existed pre-COVID, and it continues on with COVID. Of course, what you're dealing with are sexual predators who are targeting children. A lot of the venues where they traditionally have gone to target children, like bars and so on, have been shut down. As a result, they're using new and different ways, and they're adapting to the COVID situation.

Often what we find is that children, because of the increased poverty and the shutdowns that are generated with COVID, become vulnerable in different ways. As a result, the combat against child sexual exploitation in a COVID context has to shift. In reality, there has been a degeneration. Of course, you're absolutely right.

In terms of the European countries, it's not just people, refugees, coming from outside Europe and then being exploited in Europe. It's actual Europeans being exploited within Europe. Hungary has a very big problem, not only in terms of what's happening there but in terms of exporting to the rest of Europe.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Mr. Chair, do I have some time left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

You have about 20 seconds, Dr. Fry.