Evidence of meeting #83 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was yazidis.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Do you feel there is enough demand to meet that 5,000 request?
Yezidi Human Rights Activist, Yazda
Oh, yes, of course, 100%, and even more.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Through the camps, then, you'll be able to provide us a list—
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Okay.
The UN representative also gave us some pause in suggesting that some of the women and children who have come here already are at risk from within their own community.
Do you get a sense that is an honest risk, or is that not factual? And if so, if we bring over people from the same camps, can we have some assurance that it won't be the people who will put the children we've brought over at further risk? That's one of the risk factors that he mentioned when he was at our meeting on Tuesday. The reason some of these children were allowed to come is because they were at risk in the camp.
Director, Yazidi Association of Manitoba
Can you specify that question, in terms of what has happened in their own community? Can you specify the...?
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Yes, specifically he mentioned that the children of the women who had given birth during their time in captivity with ISIS were at risk. They were highlighted as people to bring to Canada for protection.
Director, Yazidi Association of Manitoba
I think we all know what happened back in 2014, which was recognized by the United Nations as genocide.
Those women and girls, we all know, had been sold, as my colleague recognized, for as little as a pack of cigarettes. I don't think they went on vacation. They have been raped and enslaved for months and months and years now. There are many women and girls who have been pregnant. They have given birth.
But what can we do about that? Forgetting the religious side, as humanity, I think that child, or whoever was born, has nothing to do with what happened. We need to go after the people who did that, first, and that's what we need to do. We need to bring them, to heal them, and to recognize that genocide in order to help more Yazidi people.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I need to end there, and I need to end this panel.
Thank you very much for your contribution to our update. We are attempting to get a little picture in time as to where we're at. This this has been very helpful.
We're going to suspend for a few minutes while we change the panel at the table.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I call us back to order.
At this meeting, we have simultaneous interpretation from English to French, French to English, and English to Arabic, which will be a relay interpretation from French to English to Arabic, as needed. We also have the ability, with a community interpreter, for Kurmanji, so we have all languages covered, if that is needed in our meeting. I want to thank the clerk for organizing that activity.
We have several individuals we are going to hear from in this second part. Basema Ali Jedaan Alo is not able to be with us today because she has a child who is ill, but we have others.
We are going to begin with Professor Payam Akhavan, for seven minutes, and then we'll move from there.
You are joining us from Oxford.
Dr. Payam Akhavan Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual
Yes.
Could you please change my translation to English?
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual
Good morning from Oxford.
I would like to begin by thanking the members of the committee for inviting me. I am honoured to be able to share a few ideas on the Yezidi minority situation.
I really want to thank the committee for still being engaged with this issue. Having worked in the human rights field for quite some years, I realize that when the headlines move on, the victims and survivors are forgotten, but sadly they are....
I'm sorry. I have a problem with the translation.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I think what's happening is that channel 1, which says “English”, is actually coming through in French.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Yes. I noticed that. I suspect it's because we have extra channels going on today.
Channel 2 is for English, and channel 1 is for French.
You don't need to listen to anything right now; you can just talk.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual
I was hearing myself en français when I was speaking to you in English, so it was just a bit distracting. Apologies.
I spent some time, in the summer of 2006, advising the Kurdish regional government on the question of accountability for the ISIS atrocities against the Yazidis. In that capacity, I travelled to Erbil and Dohuk and met a number of the survivors, in particular, in the Kabato camp. I even spoke to some of the ISIS captives in the prison in Dohuk, so I will share with you some thoughts today about that experience to the extent that it may be relevant to the work of the committee.
My first observation is that the conditions in the IDP camps remain quite difficult. Some of the survivors have now been in those camps since 2014. In some instances, they are still using the same tents they used three years ago. There are all sorts of areas where humanitarian relief should be given to those who are still in those camps.
My second observation is that virtually all of the people I spoke with did not want to leave Iraq to become refugees in other countries, but wanted to be able to go back to their towns and villages. Of course, today, ISIS no longer controls Mosul as it did when I was there. It is still a threat in isolated pockets in the more remote regions of Iraq and Syria, but now there's a new problem for the Yazidi, which are the Shia militia. They have occupied some of the areas where ISIS has withdrawn, so there's a continuing security problem that doesn't allow many of the IDPs to go back to their villages. I heard time and again that people wanted to go back to their homes.
My third observation is that the survivors have very pressing psychosocial needs, which I know have been recognized in the work of the committee. That includes the testimony about the pioneering efforts in Germany to bring some of the most severely traumatized women and girls to Germany for the purpose, among others, of receiving some form of therapy. I am certain that the problem also has been considered in relation to members of the Yazidi minority who arrive in Canada as refugees.
However, I would like to focus my comments today on, if you like, another dimension, which is the need for collective therapy and healing among the survivors, which was the area of my own expertise that I was asked to advise the Kurdistan regional government about. In that regard, I would like to turn to the June 15, 2016 report on Yazidi genocide of the UN independent commission of inquiry on Syria, which I know the committee has previously considered. I understand that at the recommendation of the committee, the government adopted some of the recommendations of the commission on the psychosocial needs of Yazidi IDPs and refugees.
I would like to focus today on one of the recommendations of that commission that I was involved in, which I think has still been overlooked. It has far-reaching consequences on the processes of healing and reconciliation in the local communities in Dohuk and that region that has been most directly affected by these atrocities. That recommendation appears as subparagraph 209(b) of the commission's report, in which the commission recommends the following:
to the Government of Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government...(b) Establish a forum, based in the Duhok region, which advances reconciliation between the Yazidi community and Arab and Kurdish Muslims. Such a forum may include the establishment of an internationally-advised Truth Commission which would simultaneously seek to establish a historical record, provide survivors with a catharsis and opportunity for healing by telling their stories, and which would expose and delegitimize ISIS crimes in the region through broadcast and dissemination of the testimony
This recommendation that we made to the UN commission has largely been ignored, although it is a very simple, cost-effective way of providing, if you like, collective psychosocial assistance to the survivors.
We know that the discussions about the prosecution of those crimes before the International Criminal Court have unfortunately gotten nowhere. The Iraqi government has refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the court. There have been some efforts, still largely unsuccessful, at having local trials. But my experience, having worked in several war zones around the world, is that it is extremely important for the survivors. We have here, of course, Nadia Murad, who has spoken about this at great length. It is extremely important for the survivors' healing and for the reclaiming of their own humanity to have some process of accountability. Beyond criminal justice, a truth commission provides a very important platform for survivors to tell their stories, to reckon with their past, and to promote reconciliation, and in that sense, it should be seen as an accountability mechanism that would also have a far-reaching psychosocial impact.
Therefore, my comments to you today aren't really addressed to the refugees who are accepted in Canada, which I think is highly commendable, but more to how we can help the much larger populations that invariably will remain behind in the IDP camps and will still need to deal with this profound trauma.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
We'll go to the other teleconference as well. Nadia Murad Basee Taha is sharing her time with Haider Elias. Perhaps we could begin with Ms. Taha, and then you'll share your time however you decide.
Nadia Murad Basee Taha President, Nadia Murad Initiative, Yazda
[Technical difficulty--Editor]....They took us to one province in Germany, Baden-Wurttemburg, as 1,000 survivors. Now we have a better life. We live safely. We have medical care. There are more than 250 families, and we were expecting and hoping that Canada would bring more Yazidis into Canada.
There are a lot of survivors and families that I communicate with personally. They have had only one or two interviews with Canada and are still waiting to be taken. They have no information about when they will travel to Canada, because it has taken between two and four months for the interviews. They have had all the medical checkups and are waiting to depart. Hundreds of families who have done those interviews and concluded them are still communicating and asking us the same questions: When will be our turn? When are we supposed to come? We're hoping the Government of Canada will not take a longer time to bring those people in.
People are so tired. People are exhausted. In those camps there are thousands of survivors who miss their loved ones and families, and they are waiting for the chance to start a new life.
Sinjar is still suffering. Right now none of those mass graves of Yazidis has been opened or talked about.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I will need to interrupt for one minute.
You have one minute left. If you want to give some time to Mr. Elias, he will have only one minute.