Evidence of meeting #69 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was iran.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Ahmed Shaheed  United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, United Nations
Maziar Bahari  Journalist and Filmmaker, As an Individual

2 p.m.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, United Nations

Dr. Ahmed Shaheed

I want to make two comments on that.

One, there is something called the spiral model in the literature on human rights promotion. There are countries that want to take care of their reputation. Iran does care for its reputation. They engage in a limited fashion hoping to tactically remove the pressure, but in the end, they get caught up in deeper affairs at home. For this, what must be done is to identify aspects in which Iran could, in their perspective, safely pursue engagement and embed a structure that can lead to longer term change. In that way, pursuing this would be important as long as there's an effort made to pursue them. I think more can be done in the UN context to operationalize those recommendations and pursue them going forward.

The resolution that Canada proposed in the UN General Assembly remains the highest bar for Iran to achieve and the loudest message that Iran gets on what it ought to be doing. Therefore, it has a very valuable purpose in helping everybody, Iranis, and whether to go....

Again, unlike other countries, as we mentioned here, like North Korea and so on and forth, Iran cares more about its reputation than North Korea does, so it does engage in Geneva and in New York. It tries to elect members from Iran into various bodies in the UN. Sometimes they do get elected, and sometimes they don't. This discourse in the General Assembly, to highlight their reputation, does give them an incentive to make some changes.

The follow-through needs to be more consistent and more penetrative in order to pursue those to a more effective conclusion.

2 p.m.

NDP

Romeo Saganash NDP Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC

I'm a true believer in the principles and purposes of the United Nations. I think no country should ever shy away from reminding other member states that we are bound by the UN charter. I think that is something that needs to be said over and over again to other member states. I think Canada should never shy away from doing that. Do you agree?

2 p.m.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, United Nations

Dr. Ahmed Shaheed

Absolutely, I think it falls upon all members of the United Nations to ensure that all members actually advance the common goals, set the common standard of 70 years ago now when the UN charter was set up. I certainly agree with you, sir.

2:05 p.m.

NDP

Romeo Saganash NDP Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

2:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Scott Reid

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, we are indeed out of time.

First of all, I appreciate our witnesses, who I think deserve thanks from all of us for their excellent testimony and their ability to focus on the facts and on what's important, and to convey that to us. That's very much appreciated, and thank you to all of you as well.

We are adjourned until next Tuesday.