Evidence of meeting #146 for Subcommittee on International Human Rights in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women's.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
When you say we could help strengthen civil society with respect to monitoring and information reporting, how, specifically, would you envision doing that? Is that through running training courses? Is that for providing core assistance to organizations that are doing that on the ground?
In what ways could we be most effective in trying to help do that?
Deputy, Chamber of Deputies, Bolivia, As an Individual
Fernanda Elena San Martin Carrasco
[Witness spoke in Spanish, interpreted as follows:]
Yes, I think it would take core funding for organizations that work in the field. I think there's also a need for training. In Bolivia, there are great limitations on foundations and NGOs. They can't work appropriately without supervision by the government. There was an act adopted five or six years ago that greatly cut the funding and support that was being given to civil society organizations.
These foundations and NGOs have always been very critical of the government, whichever government it happens to be. I think it's very important to find the proper mechanisms to support the organizations, through funding and training, so that the women and men who defend human rights can in turn be supported.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
If they were accepting funding from an international organization or another government, would that cause problems for them in terms legitimacy?
Deputy, Chamber of Deputies, Bolivia, As an Individual
Fernanda Elena San Martin Carrasco
[Witness spoke in Spanish, interpreted as follows:]
I will speak very clearly. Problems are generated when the funds come from the United States. An ongoing type of rhetoric here focuses on the imperialist force of the United States. It's very different for Canada.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Mr. Cooper, how are women's rights and human rights defenders integrated into the overall work of your organization, or is it a separate stream of work? How do you deal with that when confronting human rights in Saudi Arabia?
Deputy Director, ALQST
ALQST is based in the U.K., but is entirely dependent on networks within Saudi Arabia itself. In the past, it has worked closely alongside several women human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia. More recently, since the crackdown, it's become increasingly difficult to find sources and contacts within Saudi Arabia, but it has a range of male and female activists in the diaspora in Europe and in America. Many prominent Saudi women are in the diaspora, such as Hala Al-Dosari in the United States, and Madawi Al-Rasheed, who obviously are not working with ALQST, but are real sources with inside knowledge of Saudi Arabia.
Obviously, some of the ALQST team must remain anonymous because of fears of reprisals and so forth. We depend on such networks because it's crucial information to get out. ALQST is one of the principal sources of information relating to Saudi Arabia. Through these networks, ALQST is one of the first points of contact for what's going on with the ongoing trial or the torture.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
In your presentation you mentioned some of Canada's positive activities in defence of human rights defenders, and I have to make a footnote here. I have some trouble with that when we continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but that, to me, wipes out some of the other part of the ledger.
Can you talk a little more about...? It seemed that people from Canada, and also from the U.K., were doing prison visits, observations, trials and those kinds of things. Do you find these to be effective ways of letting Saudi Arabia know that the international community is watching?
Deputy Director, ALQST
Yes. I would emphasize the importance of these advocacy steps, such as Canada's last year—although, as I mentioned, Canada was left rather isolated—but now we're seeing more pressure, albeit unfortunately still at the parliamentary level mostly, such as the U.K. parliamentary initiative by members of Parliament. It was not met with support from the government itself with statements and so forth.
There's still a lot of work to be done, but there are encouraging signs, particularly at the UN level. Across countries we've seen wide criticism of the human rights situation and a focus on the women human rights defenders, which, I think, is an issue that resonates quite rightly and is symbolic of the wider crackdown. The international community should rally behind this.
We're pushing for more pressure at the government level. Unfortunately, the U.K. raises these issues behind the scenes, but it doesn't always do so forcefully enough, and like Canada continues to arm Saudi Arabia. Just today in the U.K., we're seeing a court case against the U.K.'s sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Anita Vandenbeld
I want to thank both of our witnesses: Ms. Martin for being available once again, and for both your and Mr. Cooper's very informative testimony today and the important work you're doing.
I will remind committee members that on Thursday we will be in camera because we'll be discussing committee business.
I will also remind you that we originally planned to hold a joint meeting with the foreign affairs committee on May 9 and not hold our meeting. However, because we lost one meeting, we will still be doing the joint meeting at 8:45, but we will also be holding our regularly scheduled meeting at one o'clock on May 9. An updated calendar will be distributed to committee members shortly.
With that, thank you very much, and we'll adjourn our meeting.