Thank you.
The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children appreciates the opportunity to speak with you about Canada's implementation of international human rights agreements.
My name is Samira Ahmed, and I am a student board member with the coalition, filling in today for Kathy Vandergrift, our chairperson, who is in Vancouver speaking on the rights of the child. I am a law student at the University of Ottawa in the field of international human rights.
When Canada was appointed to the Human Rights Council it pledged to uphold the highest standard in promotion and protection of human rights. I invite you to look at the recent review of Canada's performance under the universal periodic review process.
Over 50 Canadian NGOs registered concerns with a common theme of failure to meet minimal standards. Other UN members from all parts of the world tabled similar concerns about the very basic implementation of human rights treaties in Canada. Canada received over 88 recommendations for action, including many that address general implementation of all human rights agreements. One would expect that after the government heard of this, they would have felt embarrassed and would have actively engaged in improving the situation. Following the review, only one day of consultations was conducted with Canadian NGOs, but it was not entirely a consultation, because no proposals were put on the table as to how the situation could be improved.
Civil society repeated the same things it said before. Canada needs to put in place an effective, transparent, accountable system for implementing its obligations under international human rights treaties. The experience of children's rights is a good example of the need for improvement. Canada was a leader in the development of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall.
Canada was to present its third report on the implementation of the convention in January 2009. It is late. It has not yet been presented. There have been no consultations with civil society, as required during the convention. Most important, there has no been reporting on the over 45 recommendations that Canada received during the second review in 2003. This is in spite of a three-year study done by the human rights Senate committee and an excellent report titled “The Silenced Citizens”, which called for major improvements in the way Canada implements the rights of children. We hope this committee will recommend specific improvements for implementing all human rights now, and then take a closer look at children's rights as an example in the light of the upcoming 20th anniversary and Canada's third report on implementation.
The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children would like to put forward four proposals for your consideration, the first being structural reform: Reform or replace the continuing committee of officials on human rights at the senior body responsible for implementing, monitoring, and reporting on Canada's human rights obligations. It is obvious from the UPR process that this current structure is not working. The Senate human rights committee came to the same conclusion in 2007 in their report “The Silenced Citizens”. The government's response stated that this committee does not take seriously its responsibility to implement children's rights.
Let me share the coalition's experience with this committee. In 2008 we wrote to them with the simple request to tell us what they had done with the 45 recommendations they had received in 2003. It seemed logical that this would be the starting point to write the third review on the implementation of the convention. What was the answer we got? They would not tell us anything. They would not meet with us. And that was 2008. It is now 2009, the end of May, and we still have not received the third report on the implementation of the convention that was due in January. Not only that, but there has been no consultation with civil society. We still don't know what was done with the recommendations received in 2003, and most of those recommendations were actually repeats of recommendations received in 1995. This does not serve Canada's children well, and it does not serve you well as parliamentarians.
A committee that meets infrequently, in secret, and refuses to tell anyone what it's done or to meet with the people who are affected by the decisions it's talking about flies in the face of what human rights and good government stand for. Ending the secrecy by requiring a regular public reporting will have a transforming effect on the whole system. This should start with public responses to recommendations received from UN treaty bodies within one year of receiving them.
The second recommendation we put forward is to reform the nature and quality of reporting. Implementation reports should be based on outcomes for all people covered in the human rights agreements. Current reports catalogue government programs but tell us very little about the situation of the people they're supposed to help.
Let me give you an example. The one initiative for children cited in Canada's report to the UPR is the national child benefit. This program description sounds great, but in reality, in December, the same month as the report was filed to the UPR, the National Council of Welfare released a detailed report on what people actually receive from government benefit programs, including children, and the conclusion paints a very different picture. Most families on welfare composed of two parents and two children, or one parent and one child, are worse off than they were ten years ago. The report goes on to state that this is a big step backwards in the fight against child poverty.
This is the kind of information you need to know. You need to know the impact the programs and policies have on children. You need to know the truth about the situation of people in Canada. That is what rights-based reporting can give you. Officials continue to tell us that federalism is the challenge. I would suggest that rights-based reporting for outcomes affecting people could be a part of the solution, because it would provide us with useful information on outcomes for intended beneficiaries of government initiatives, or the realities that need to be addressed. It would allow you to assess programs to see if they are benefiting the people they are intended for and make adjustments if needed.
The federal government is responsible for Canada's implementation of human rights agreements. One of the effective tools it could use without violating provincial jurisdiction is regular rights-based reporting on the real situation of people across Canada, in relation to the full range of issues addressed in human rights agreements.
The third recommendation we would like to put forward is to adopt a continuous improvement model for monitoring and implementation of international agreements. A continuous learning and improvement model is preferable to the current approach, which is a defensive report submitted every five years that deals with the same issues every five years. This involves very few consultations with young people or civil society organizations that are working with children. When implementation is something we are dealing with regularly, we share information and strategies for improvement in our discussions. Then there is less need to be worried about accountability.
A continuous improvement model would include early response and more preventative approaches, which are consistent with the promotion of human rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example, explicitly calls for cooperation between government and non-governmental organizations to realize the rights of children. A cooperative, continuous improvement strategy would be more effective and less adversarial than the current approach of debating the same or similar issues before the UN committee every five years.
The last recommendation we'd like to put forward is to use children's rights as a case study. Canada and this committee have an opportunity for improvement with the current report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is also a strategic opportunity, given that the twentieth anniversary of the convention is approaching in the fall.
Canada claims to be the leader in children's rights, but is falling behind in other countries in the implementation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children encourages this committee to take a specific focus on the rights of children following this general study on human rights.
I have with me a summary fact sheet of the 45 recommendations that were received by the Canadian government in 2003. They're broken down into ten key areas that could make a great difference for young people in Canada. If Canada wants to remain an international leader in children's rights, then it needs to examine its own record in the ten areas. A closer look at Canada's third report by this committee could provide a good opportunity to understand the interface between practices within Canada and the international human rights agreements. The coalition welcomes the opportunity to work with you in improving the way Canada implements international human rights obligations for the sake of our children first, and also for the international reputation of our country.
Thank you.