I'm going to be proposing an amendment in clause 2. You will see that in the package as G-1, an amendment to clause 2, and I will read it into the record. I move:
That Bill C-281, in Clause 2, be amended by replacing line 9 on page 1 to line 2 on page 2 with the following:
(4) At least once in every calendar year, the Minister is to publish a report that outlines the measures that the Minister has taken to advance human rights internationally as part of Canada’s foreign policy.
That is the amendment I am proposing. It is listed as G-1, as I said.
In support of that amendment, I want to reiterate that Canada is committed to supporting wholeheartedly the vital and courageous work of human rights defenders. I want to thank our officials who are with us today, who continually advise us on how we can best support those human rights defenders. However—and we heard this in testimony from more than one witness—if the government is required to publicize a list that sets out the names and circumstances of prisoners of conscience or human rights defenders who are detained anywhere in the world or persons detained in contravention to human rights standards, even while we are supporting them very, very strongly, it's not guaranteed that this will actually help them, and in fact we believe it could hinder their future.
A publicized list that sets out the names and circumstances of such prisoners of conscience or human rights defenders detained worldwide or of persons detained in contravention of human rights standards could actually impede our diplomatic actions and could cause them grave harm. Also, Canada's support for these individuals could potentially endanger their safety, and in more serious cases, could actually lead to their deaths. Moreover, the colloquial term “prisoner of conscience” does not have an agreed international or domestic legal definition, so we're concerned about that. It's even in lower case, as though we understand it; I think we have an intuitive sense of it, but this is a piece of legislation, not a report, Mr. Chair, and that's why we are concerned. We recommend that the listing requirement be removed.
We also heard from Alex Neve, formerly of Amnesty International, that it's not only the listing of people that could cause them harm, but that not listing others whom Canada is not necessarily engaged with but other countries may be engaged with could further their harm as well, because a government could then assume that they're not a prisoner of conscience because they're not on Canada's list, so we want to remove the listing requirement.
We recommend that the listing requirement be removed and replaced with generalized information on activities taken in support of human rights defenders in the annual human rights report. I would say too that I think the helpful part of the bill is requiring that report. We recognize it will take a lot of work and it will take effort, but we think that is important. It could include reference to emblematic cases, cases that perhaps have been resolved satisfactorily or cases that have not been resolved satisfactorily, when there is consent from a number of parties, including the individual themself and their family, and also include a contextual understanding of the nature of the incarceration or the detention. We want to do that so that no harm will be caused.
We recognize that there are families that would like the names of prisoners of conscience or human rights defenders to be listed. We recognize that this is something.... They can list them at any time in their own lives on social media or in broader media, but government has a different responsibility, and the government responsibility here is to ensure all of our activities will not cause harm but will actually help the people who we are trying to help.
We continually do these sorts of cases. I've been involved in a number of them myself when members of the opposition or members of our own caucus have come to us to ask for help with a particular case. It could be a Canadian who's detained. It could be a permanent resident of Canada who's detained. It could be a non-citizen who's detained, someone who has no relationship to Canada but is working as a human rights defender, or a journalist who is also a human rights defender, or anyone else.
The government takes that seriously. We work through our missions and through qualified personnel to do that, but we also recognize that megaphone diplomacy in this way is often counterproductive to what we all want to do, which is to protect their lives and also often to further their cause. Even if we disagree with their cause, we may want to always ensure that their lives are protected.
That's why we're moving G-1. It significantly reduces clause 2—I recognize that—but it will require the minister to publish a report that will show what the minister, whoever the minister is at any time, is doing to advance human rights as part of our foreign policy.
Those are my comments on G-1.