Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 21st, 2022

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Thank you.

I held my tongue when I was listening to the answer on Algeria. I tend to think that it is such a complex case that it does a disservice to this committee if people who don't know the topic talk about it. I would hope that we can speak about Algeria later, at an appropriate time, with witnesses who actually know something about both the consular nature of the case and the extremely difficult situation that is ongoing.

However, I also want to ask Ms. Deif if she can list the number of times that Canada has led the way in the last year, either writing with pen or co-sponsoring resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council. What was our role as a Canadian government with respect to Ethiopia and the Tigray situation? What is our role at the International Criminal Court vis-à-vis Ukraine? What are the many ways in which we have engaged in the Human Rights Council, as well as the UN, on these important issues? If she can provide a list of those, I think that might be helpful for the committee.

I think it's equally important to talk about the difference between shaming and engaging, and about how diplomats take it very seriously when we do public discourse about human rights situations and when we do quiet discourse. One is not zero and the other is not a hundred. They are actually thought about as different important methods of engagement on important human rights issues.

Does Ms. Deif have any comments on that?

[Farida Deif]

Thank you for your question.

I'm not going to go over a list of the actions that the government has taken at the Human Rights Council. There are a number of actions, but it is still a struggle for the government to take on country situations. That is just a fact. There have been a number of country situations, but there are certainly not enough.

Let me just give you an example in case it's helpful.

Taking Egypt as an example, I happen to be a dual national of that country. Even speaking at this committee on the human rights abuses in Egypt actually can put me in jeopardy and can put my family in Egypt in jeopardy, but let me tell you what we tried to do with Global Affairs Canada around Egypt and how difficult it was to convince Global Affairs to sign on to a joint statement, the first one at the Human Rights Council calling out the Sisi government for its repressive human rights practices.

This was done. Canadian officials were part of a diplomatic group that met with Egyptian civil society organizations, and the civil society organizations were then arrested for having a meeting with diplomats, but even though—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Ms. Deif, could I ask you to wrap it up in 10 seconds, please?

[Farida Deif]

Yes.

Let's just say that even in those cases it was a tremendous effort and struggle to encourage Global Affairs. They finally, eventually did join a joint statement at the HRC on Egypt, but it was extremely difficult to get them there, because, especially with allies—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Ms. Deif. I'm afraid we're going have to move to the next member.

We now turn to Mr. Viersen.

You have two minutes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I, too, want to thank the witnesses for being here.

Mr. Diamond, you talked a bit about Canadian citizens, and human rights defenders specifically, who are either in prison or under sanction in other countries. What's the scope of that situation? Are we talking hundreds of people? Are we talking tens of people?

Do you have any specific recommendations for the Canadian government to undertake to help some of them, particularly the folks who are involved in, say, the media/journalism space?

[Yonah Diamond]

That's a good question. I think these cases also deserve a delicate balance, case-specific, between private diplomacy and public shaming or the accountability tools to use. We certainly need to legalize and put into law consular assistance and protection as a requirement, in line with international legal obligations.

I can't speak to the exact numbers, but of course most imprisoned Canadians abroad are actually in the States. In terms of imprisoned rights defenders, I can't speak to the exact number, but it's a growing concern.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Diamond, if you pick a particular case—I think you mentioned Mr. Huseyin—are we looking to try to get them out of the country? Are we looking for us to just speak to the situation? What's one specific thing that Canada can do? Are we trying to get them out of the country, or are we just trying to get them out of jail? What's our goal on that?

[Yonah Diamond]

The ultimate goal should be seeking the release of the prisoner, but it's obviously a long process. The prisoners need to remain a key priority in the foreign minister's mandate and certainly have to remain a priority.

It really depends on each situation and the family members' preferences, but there should be really robust engagement with both civil society or activists close to the case, and also with the family, to ensure their interests and needs are being reinforced and supported on a constant basis. That's what's most important in these cases, and we need more transparency and engagement in that regard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Mr. Viersen.

We now turn to Mr. Trudel.

You have two minutes, sir.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Deif, we're talking about terrible cases right now. Still, could we say that the situation has improved in some countries in recent years with respect to human rights violations and human rights defenders? Are there any examples of that? Is it known what these countries have implemented or what changes have been made to improve the situation?

My question is for Ms. Deif first, but perhaps Mr. Diamond would like to respond as well.

[Farida Deif]

That's a very difficult question. No country comes to mind right now in terms of a real improvement in the human rights situation of that country. I think I'll have to get back to you with information on that and what the factors were that perhaps led to it. You often see elections potentially resulting in new governments that are possibly less repressive, but none come to mind at the moment, I'm afraid.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Diamond, do you have an answer to that question?

[Yonah Diamond]

As the focus is repressive states, considering the downward trends, I too would likewise pass on this.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I don't really have much time left.

Ms. Deif, before the war in Ukraine, respect for human rights was a major issue in Russia.

Do you think that the international community, and Canada in particular, has reacted strongly enough against these blatant abuses? I'm talking about journalists who have been murdered or imprisoned in Russia, among other things.

[Farida Deif]

I think with respect to Russia, even prior to the conflict we did see wide-reaching sanctions that were imposed by the Canadian government on Russian officials who have committed widespread human rights abuses, on officials who are corrupt, and on officials who are linked to Crimea and the conflict. With respect to Russia, I think even prior to this conflict a number of positive actions were taken, with a robust use of the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, the Magnitsky legislation.

So with respect to Russia and with respect to Venezuela, countries with which Canada has very poor relations, you do see there was quite a robust response even prior to the conflict. The challenge we have is to have the government speak out when there are strong bilateral trade, diplomatic and other relationships, and speak out even when there are small steps and deteriorations that might lead to bigger issues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Ms. Deif.

We'll now turn to Ms. McPherson for two minutes, please.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'll be very quick.

Mr. Diamond, you spoke a little bit about how these situations are case-specific. I was happy to meet with Mr. Cotler in December, and we talked about journalists. We talked about the impact of detained journalists. While I recognize the individuality and the case specificity of it, as a parliamentarian, of course, I'm looking for solutions that are bigger and that we can use in terms of legislation and in terms of applying sanctions and whatnot.

I'm wondering if you could give us a sense of the best way for us as parliamentarians, as lawmakers in Canada, to work within our own Parliament and our own government but also with other governments and multilateral groups. What is the best way for us to be protecting journalists right now—writ large, not case-specific?

[Yonah Diamond]

So it would be not just Canadian journalists.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

It would be both Canadian and non-Canadian.

You have two minutes and you have to answer all that, sorry.

[Yonah Diamond]

For Canadians, I do think it's a bit of a different analysis. It needs to be done in concert with other actors involved and the families.

In terms of journalists writ large abroad, Canada has taken a leadership position on this, establishing media freedom panels and conferences, but as you mentioned, we need to implement stronger action on this in terms of standing up for journalists abroad. When they're locked up abroad, it turns out that, in the vast majority of cases, public statements and attention, especially from government officials and the UN, carry more weight and legitimacy. Those are critical for long-term advocacy, because these are often long processes. For journalists around the world, it's a broader problem of the threats against the media, which is why the Oslo committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists this year.

That's what I'll say, briefly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much.

Allow me, on behalf of this committee, to thank both of our witnesses for having provided us with very informative information. We're very grateful and certainly look forward to, I hope, having you appear before us very soon.

We will now suspend for a few minutes for a sound check before we go to the second panel.

Thank you, members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

It gives me great pleasure to now welcome our second set of panellists.

As a reminder for people who are following us virtually, translation is available through the globe icon at the bottom of the screen.

We have two witnesses for this second panel. We are pleased to have Mr. Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, who is the chief of the freedom of expression and safety of journalists division at UNESCO. We also have, from Reporters Without Borders, Mr. Clayton Weimers, deputy director of the Washington D.C. bureau. Thank you for being with us this evening.

We can start off with Mr. de Souza Godoi.

You have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, Chief, Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]

Good evening, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here with you. I thank you and the members of the committee for inviting UNESCO to contribute to this very timely study on the situation of human rights defenders, journalists and media organizations.

I would also like to acknowledge Canada's important role in these global coalitions related to these issues: the Media Freedom Coalition and the Freedom Online Coalition.

I hope I will be as coherent and as comprehensive as possible, considering that it is 37 minutes past midnight for me here in Paris, so I apologize in advance if this is not the case.

As you know, UNESCO is the leading UN specialized agency for promoting freedom of expression, and particularly for coordinating the United Nations plan on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity. I hope I can present to you some global trends in this area, although I won't be able to comment on the specific country situations.

As I said, your study is very timely, for different reasons. We just published a global study, a global report called “World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development”. Unfortunately, we have underlined that, in the last four years, 85% of the global population have witnessed a downsizing in their own press freedom. This has really been exacerbated during the two years of the pandemic, when we found a perfect storm toward reducing freedom of expression and press freedom.

Why are we calling this a perfect storm? It is because different things that, prior to the pandemic, were separate situations—for example, undermining press freedom, regulatory challenges, safety of journalists challenges, media viability challenges, disinformation and misinformation challenges—unfortunately came together to undermine press freedom.

But there are also some windows of opportunity. This year, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the UN plan of action on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity, so it is a huge opportunity for a study like that to contribute on what can be improved in the overall scenario of protecting journalists worldwide.

We are also in the middle of the way towards 2030. As you know, we have a very specific goal under the 2030 agenda, sustainable development goal 16, where there is a special target, target 16.10, in protecting human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists. So this study can also be very helpful in that regard.

I will just give you the key elements of these global studies of UNESCO. I would gladly send these detailed elements to the committee afterwards.

In the last four years, we have monitored 400 killings of journalists, which is, obviously, an absurd number. These killings are connected with another very complex set of statistics, and nine out of 10 of those killings remain with no solution in the judicial system, so the impunity rates are very high in terms of the safety of journalists.

Together with that, we have very specific situations that were also underlined in the previous panel. UNESCO has published a particular issue brief on the safety of foreign correspondents, with very new challenges in these areas aside from the usual challenges around their physical safety. We have published a very long study about the safety of journalists reporting on protests and riots, underlining violations in more than 65 countries.

We have published specific information about reducing press freedom in the context of COVID-19, which I can, if necessary, go into further later on. We have published specific discussions about the digital challenges and digital safety of journalists, particularly of women journalists. We did a global survey with women journalists. Seven out of 10 of the women journalists who responded to the survey reported online attacks against them. We have a specific situation of using courts trying to censor the media. It's called SLAPP, strategic litigation against public participation.

As you can see, there is an overall set of elements that are contributing to undermine press freedom and freedom of expression globally speaking.

I will end with some suggestions in terms of recommendations we are making to our member states, which could be useful for your discussions. The UN plan of action on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity speaks about these three pieces: prevention, protection and prosecution of the crimes. We do think those three elements are particularly relevant to address any issues.

There is now an overall opportunity for Canada to contribute to this discussion: either, as was mentioned before, in the Human Rights Council, through the Universal Periodic Review; or, in New York, through the voluntary national reviews of the 2030 agenda; or, in UNESCO, through the director-general's report on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity; or through the leadership of Canada on the global Media Freedom Coalition, which already contributed, for instance, to the UNESCO global media defence fund. These are always very concrete ways of addressing these issues.

I thank you very much, and obviously I am at your disposal for the questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much, Mr. de Souza Godoi.

Now perhaps we could turn to Mr. Weimers.

You have five minutes for your opening statement.