Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Our Liberal colleague is proposing this amendment, and we are proposing the same thing with subsection 12(1). Witnesses who have appeared before the committee have stressed the devastating impact of detention. Aside from the refugees, for whom the consequences of adopting this bill will be devastating, we must think very seriously about our responsibilities and our role as parliamentarians.
As part of our study, this committee has heard from some very qualified people who drew our attention to the anticonstitutional nature of a number of provisions of Bill C-31, including provisions relating to mandatory detention, particularly of children. But we are continuing to be deaf to the experts' observations.
I'm wondering what the experts we heard from, the front-line workers who presented studies and the refugees who told their stories are going to think of us, the MPs that we are.
To come back to clause 23 of the bill, which amends the mandatory detention of designated foreign nationals 16 years of age or older, I would like to remind everyone once again that these provisions are anticonstitutional and violate international conventions, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees prohibits the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers, except for security or identification purposes. The Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits the detention of children. The convention states, and I'm clarifying, that a child is a human being below the age of 18 years.
We are asking that the age of the child be harmonized with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, the experts we've heard from reminded us that mandatory detention is prohibited, except for the reasons set out in the IRPA.
Lastly, they stressed to us that the detention of children is also prohibited because it is devastating for them and for society. For children, this detention has devastating effects, both psychologically and mentally, and on their development. The separation of children from their parents, or even just seeing them detained, has an inhuman impact on them.
To conclude, we know what the 1951 Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child say about this. Experts from UNICEF and the other experts have also told us that the detention of asylum seekers is an exceptional measure that can only be considered as a last resort. The detention of children is inhuman and devastating. Canada should not introduce it into the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Having said that, the purpose of the amendment that the NDP is proposing here is, once again, to make Bill C-31 consistent with the Convention on the RIghts of the Child with respect to the age to be considered in deciding whether to release children who may be detained, or shouldn't be detained at all. A person stops being a child upon reaching age 18. That's what the conventions we've signed say.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.