Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 10th, 2015

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

That's fine.

Do you have any suggestions as to the recommendations this committee might add in a statement to the...?

We commented three years ago on the situation. What else can we do to help you? What else can we do to perhaps influence the government in one particular direction?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

Our two recommendations as I mentioned before include taking a lead in the call for an international investigation into human rights violations in Burma, particularly related to the military sector violence, and continuing to provide direct support to the ethnic civil society organizations which have provided services and promoted and protected the rights of their community.

Also, there was the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict that was initiated by the British government. Canada also made commitments to this declaration. This is why it's important that Canada ensure it takes this lead.

Thank you.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Tonight in the House we'll be speaking to rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a report which came out of this committee. I find trouble putting “democratic” with “Congo”, but that's beside the point. The point is, again, and Mr. Sweet alluded to this, it's top of mind to parliamentarians here, the fact that rape is being used in a manner as horrific as it always has been, but it's even more horrific now and it seems to be around much of the world. It's very troubling.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you. Mr. Marston. You're out of time.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

It was actually very well-timed.

I hoped there was going to be a question at the end of that and I thought I'd have trouble fitting that in. Thank you.

Mrs. Grewal, please.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, witnesses, for coming today to address human rights abuses against Burmese women.

It is sad to see the recent events and changes that have occurred in Burma. When we concluded our report in 2013 there was hope for positive democratic change and the improvement of human rights across Burma. Now Burma appears to be regressing and continuing human rights abuses. Recently, the Burmese government has considered legislation that would discriminate against women by restricting interfaith marriages, conversion to another religion, and allowing the government to regulate family planning.

Why does the government want to implement these kinds of changes?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

Actually, regarding the interfaith marriage bill, they say this is to protect the women, but the protection that we want is not this bill. It is not protecting women. It is restricting women's rights and it is not in line with international law. Through this they say that they are going to protect women. We are working very hard for it not to move forward, not to proceed.

Those who are working, especially women's groups, inside Burma, and also from the ethnic areas, are working very hard to stop this process, but we are receiving a lot of threatening messages, especially those who live in Yangon. The women activists receive more than 100 threatening messages a day. They receive phone calls threatening to kill them if they are involved in this interfaith marriage law.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Is there anyone else who would like to comment on this?

[Kevin Malseed, Program Manager, Inter Pares]

I think things like the interfaith marriage law and those other laws are consistent with long-standing government tactics in Burma that involve trying to divide groups and pit them against each other so that they won't oppose the government, and also trying to stir up nationalism.

They've been deliberately stoking anti-Muslim feelings throughout Burma. That has led to a lot of the violence that you've heard about over the last few years. This has been a way of trying to present Muslims as a threat and therefore to swing the population more behind the government and the army, when they weren't behind them before.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Do human rights defenders and women who participate in public and political life inside Burma face a heightened risk of violence? If so, to what extent is that? If at all, do you think that this heightened risk is related to the fact that the person speaking out is a woman?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

Especially for this interfaith marriage law, those who are strongly involved in stopping this are women, the women's organizations, but also other supporters, and yes, the risk is getting high for them and they have to be careful. As I mentioned before, they keep receiving phone calls and threatening messages, which means that it's not safe for those who may be human rights defenders who are based in Yangon.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

The upcoming federal election will be the first since the democratic change occurred in 2011 and 2012. Will these elections foster democratic change, or will they allow for continued human rights abuses? What do you think?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

Regarding these elections, we can say that the military will stay in power unless the constitution changes, because the constitution guarantees to protect the military, and 25% will stay there. Also the winning party will be the military party, so it will remain the same, and human rights violations will continue unless we bring this military under civilian control through constitutional amendments.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, do I have more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

No, you're actually a little bit over.

We go now to Ms. Sgro, please.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

To all of you, I applaud your courage and your commitment, and thank you so much for coming.

I'm very saddened to hear your depositions, though, because I too had thought that Burma had moved on in a more positive way, and we were looking forward to that. It's very sad to hear that it's actually gone not very far on this particular part of it.

Ms. Nhkum, you mentioned in your comments you were hoping that Canada would take a conflict-sensitive approach to our involvement in Burma, including resource development projects. Could you elaborate a bit on that?

[Jessica Nhkum]

Currently any investors in Burma from foreign countries, especially big investors, need to be very careful because these rich natural resources are more in the ethnic area, which is more than half of the country. There are still conflicts happening, and if the investors don't analyze the conflict sensitivity, then it will only cause more conflict in the area, more human rights violations.

For example, in 2011 the army attacked the Kachin area, which started because of a Chinese hydro power company that came and made this investment, and with this company the Burmese government sent a lot of troops to the area, which is where this conflict started, this kind of thing. Of course, where there are Burmese armies, it only means human rights violations increase. That's why.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

That's terrible.

May I ask you, then, a question about some of the Canadian mining companies that are operating there? How can we help you? When you say conflict sensitive, are we to put more restrictions? Are we to put more conditions? If companies are going there to maximize their potential, how do we make sure that you'll get some protection out of this and that there are certain conditions before investments are allowed to go forward? By conditions, I mean protecting its people and protecting its women against things like rape.

[Rebecca Wolsak]

At the moment, as far as I know, there are no large-scale Canadian investment projects. From what we see, the situation is far too high risk, and I think that so far, Canadian businesses understand that and have not been.... There are no Canadian mining projects active at the moment, as far as we know.

To add to that, though, I believe that one of the things Jessica was saying in terms of having a conflict-sensitive approach is that it's really broadly speaking, so it's definitely in terms of trade, but also in terms of development. It's surprisingly easy to actually fuel conflict. For example, if you support the government in bringing a school into an ethnic community and they are teaching a government-controlled curriculum, this can fuel further tensions and will not actually do the good work that you're trying to do.

Almost all of the embassies in Rangoon, as far as I know, have conflict experts on staff. I believe the Canadian embassy does not yet have one, so that might be something that would be of assistance. I'm not sure, though.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

You also mentioned that the funding is expiring and that you recently submitted a proposal for a five-year program to develop a more stable and multicultural Burma. You would be monitoring local strategies to monitor some of the human rights abuses and so on. Could you elaborate a bit more on how you would go about that?

[Rebecca Wolsak]

The work we are hoping to do is to continue to work with ethnic civil society. While there has not been a lot of concrete progress in the last few years and in fact it's backsliding, there is still hope. This time of not a lot of progress but a lot of hope is a really critical time to start looking at concrete plans for visions for a federal country.

For example, in the health care field, we've been working with local health organizations and looking at what kind of national federal health care system they would like to have. We've brought them here to study the Canadian federal health system. They're looking at that vision and how it practically could be implemented in Burma. We would like to continue to support them in trying to concretize that vision.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Ms. Tenner, you asked us to call for an international investigation into the sexual violence in and surrounding the military.

I would hope that we, along with many other countries, would take up that challenge. Have you been working at the international level to try to get that to move forward?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

Yes, when we travelled to the UN, especially the UN General Assembly, on our lobbying trip, we also tried to raise the same things and the same recommendations. Also, when we went to the U.K., at the global summit we also recommended the same thing in calling for an independent investigation.

In Burma, even though human rights violations have been going on, there has not been any investigation. We need to have an independent investigation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

That uses up your time, Ms. Sgro. I actually gave you a little extra.

We now turn to Mr. Lauzon.