Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you also for your report information.
There are some criticisms of the way the structure has been for the UPR. It's good that every country is going to in fact be analyzed, which I think is a very positive step from what it was like before in the commission. However, it is a little bit much to hear countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran being critical of Canada's human rights record. So I take note of that as well and I have some issues about that. However, this is the process.
I guess we will only know at the end of maybe 2011 whether this was really a worthwhile exercise, whether it's worked well. We'll see how those countries go about implementing some of the human rights. Maybe when we're up against other countries, we can sort of be more informed as to whether those countries have in fact also met their obligations.
I realize that some of our challenges have to do with our system of laws in Canada and our federation. This sometimes creates problems with us meeting some of our obligations. That's not an excuse. I personally feel we always have to do everything we can to in fact ratify those protocols and certainly endorse an important declaration, like the ones on the rights of indigenous people, which Canada was really working on for quite a long time.
I realize that some of the intricacies of our laws make it quite difficult. However, we do have a robust system of legal precedents in this country that does in fact address the needs of minorities and a lot of the concerns on human rights. But I am concerned about Canada's human rights records. I'm even more concerned about the appalling records of some of those countries that are criticizing Canada for our human rights records.
I want to know how you are going to prioritize some of these recommendations that were put forward. Is there a list that has been dealt with in the departments to say which things we are going to be able to tackle before the next review? Have there been ongoing discussions with the different ministries throughout Canada as well at the provincial level? What's going to be the prioritization?
The second thing is that one of the things they keep asking for.... I just had different protocols on the convention against torture, but also on the convention on the rights and duties of the Organization of American States, which we have yet to ratify. I'm not sure why we haven't signed on to it. When we joined in 1992 we never really ratified. I keep on asking the minister why we haven't ratified. Even our own minister did not ratify it at that time, the Liberal minister. So I'm asking if there's been any progress at all, now that we also have a minister of state for Latin America. Has there been any push for that?
Those are my two questions. It's a short time, sorry.