Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on April 4th, 2022

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

UN's second sustainable development goal set for 2030 aimed to end world hunger. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, we are not ready to achieve that.

What solutions could be implemented now to try to get close to the 2030 goal?

[David Beasley]

I don't think it's possible to end hunger by 2030 with the conflicts. I do believe, as I said earlier, that if we can end most of these conflicts, I have no doubt we can end world hunger. Consider that 200 years ago, 95% of the people on the planet were in extreme poverty. We've reduced that now to below 10%. The progress that has been made in the last 50 years is just absolutely wonderful, but now for the first time we're going in the wrong direction. As I mentioned at the outset of my talk, chronic hunger for the first time is going up from 650 million to 810 million. Severe food insecurity is going from 80 million to now about 300 million. We're going in the wrong direction, and almost all of that is due to manmade conflict. If we could end that, even with climate change, I believe we would have the ability and the expertise, especially when there's $430 trillion of wealth on the planet, to address hunger. There's no reason why any child on the planet should go to bed hungry today with all of the wealth we have. We need to end these wars so we can have the money and the access we need, and more people are going to have to step up at a time like this. If they don't, as I said earlier, we're going to pay for it a thousand times otherwise.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Ms. McPherson.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you.

Thank you again for the testimony, Mr. Beasley. You know, I was reading through the G7 statement that came out, and it sort of refers to some of the things that I think my colleague Mr. Viersen was asking about. This connection, this commitment by the G7 to step up collective contributions to the World Food Programme, to work with multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to prevent acute food insecurity, and the extraordinary session of the Council of Food and Agricultural Organizations, tools to make sure that prices are kept under control and that there is no sort of hoarding going on—we have these tools. You've also given us many tools we could use. We have commitments by the G7. We know we have to do more advocacy work to bring the gulf states and others on board. How confident are you that this is going to done? We know it's possible. You just said there is no reason why every child in this world shouldn't have enough to eat. How confident are you that this is going to actually happen though?

[David Beasley]

Heather, you know if you had asked me this, probably, three years ago, I would have said I had 0% confidence. The reason I may be a little more confident right now is that in the last five, four or three years, if you turned on the television, it was nothing but Trump, Trump, Trump, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, COVID, COVID, COVID. You couldn't get coverage on any other issue. For the first time, I think we are breaking through in the media about this food crisis.

I am a little hopeful, because I'm seeing world leaders respond now, recognizing that food security is a very serious problem we are facing around the world. It is not like next week you could just say, “I'm short of food. How about producing more?”. You have to plan it. You have to water it. You have to grow it. You have to harvest it. This is not a short-term, one-month thing.

The response that I have been seeing so far has been remarkable, particularly from the G7, as to agricultural production and offsets to the diminishing return we may see inside Ukraine. However, I'm gravely concerned about the amount of money that is going to be necessary to respond in the short term for those who are not getting the food they need. I'm gravely concerned about that, and that's why I've been calling on the world's mega-billionaires to step up at a time like this. They should step up. They made, on average, a $5.2 billion increase per day during COVID. There is no way they can't give us one or two days' worth of their net worth increase. I'm continuing to jump up and down on that.

Governments are tapped out. We have to hope that the agricultural community can respond, with from leadership from the G7 and others, but at the same time, we need to put pressure on the world's richest of the rich to give at a time like this, because the world is truly in crisis.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

You let me know how I can help, Mr. Beasley. I am there.

Thank you so much.

[David Beasley]

Thank you, Heather.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

That concludes our questions.

I speak on behalf of every member of this committee to thank you, Mr. Beasley. We know you have an incredibly busy schedule. Your testimony has been incredibly informative and sobering. Please keep well. We need you to be in robust health, Mr. Beasley. Thank you very much for joining us.

[David Beasley]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

We will suspend for a few minutes to allow the second panel to do its sound tests.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

I call the meeting back to order. Good evening everyone.

Allow me to welcome our three witnesses this evening. We are very grateful that you are joining us. I understand you are joining us from Ukraine and Georgia. We're very pleased to have you.

Allow me first to point out that for translation, you have the globe icon at the bottom of your screens. Please feel free to use that.

This evening, we are very pleased to have three witnesses. From Amnesty International, we have Ms. Oksana Pokalchuk; from the Center for Civil Liberties, Oleksandra Matviichuk; and from the International Partnership for Human Rights, we have Svitlana Valko.

Each of you will have five minutes for your opening remarks. After your opening remarks have concluded, we will open it up to questions from the members.

Ms. Pokalchuk, please proceed. You have five minutes.

[Oksana Pokalchuk, Executive Director, Ukraine, Amnesty International]

Dear Chair, and dear members of the committee, I am humbled to speak before you on behalf of Amnesty International. Thank you for this opportunity.

Our organization has been working tirelessly to document the human rights cost of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. We have conducted both on-the-ground, and open-source research and spoken to dozens of survivors from various parts of Ukraine affected by the armed conflict.

First and foremost, I would like to stress that our organization considers the Russian invasion as an act of aggression violating the UN Charter, which is a crime under international law. It's important for the international community to work out a mechanism to hold accountable those responsible for this crime. We fear that the failure to do so will embolden others to follow Russia's current leadership's malicious example.

Russia's track record in past conflicts was abhorrent and our findings in Ukraine have confirmed our worst fears. From the very first days of invasion, Russian armed forces have been using weapons unsuitable for warfare in densely populated areas, using multiple launch rocket systems, unguided bombs and cluster munitions.

As Russia failed to advance quickly in Kyiv's direction, it engaged in ugly siege tactics, encircling such cities like Mariupol, Chernihiv, Izium and others, using its arsenal of indiscriminate weapons and killing civilians as a result. Several such attacks have been thoroughly verified and documented by Amnesty International and we can confirm that those attacks may amount to war crimes.

We have also been continuously raising concerns about the failures to establish safe humanitarian corridors for civilians. The situation has improved somewhat over time, and some, but not all, civilians have been able to leave besieged cities. I would like to stress that evacuation of, or delivery of humanitarian aid to, older people and people with disabilities remains a major concern. Those groups end up in extremely dangerous conditions and are virtually helpless.

Russian forces have been able to take control of several cities in Ukraine's south. They have been met with brave peaceful resistance from the civilian population. There have been multiple concerning reports of beatings and torture and threats towards peaceful protesters as well as abductions of local officials, journalists and activists. Our researchers are currently verifying those reports and we plan to publish our findings in the nearest future.

As reported by the UN, four million people have fled Ukraine. Even more have been displaced within the country. The international community must help in addressing this unprecedented crisis by sharing the responsibility and helping people fleeing to safety.

The resolution to this armed conflict will not be easy, but now more than ever the international community must stand united in its commitment to protect human rights and condemn the tyranny. Those affected by the armed conflict in Ukraine must receive the necessary protection, and in the long-term perspective everyone responsible for the war crimes and the crime of aggression, of course, must be held accountable.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much, Ms. Pokalchuk.

We now turn to the witness for the Center for Civil Liberties.

Ms. Matviichuk, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Board, Center for Civil Liberties]

My name is Oleksandra Matviichuk. I'm a human rights defender with the Center for Civil Liberties.

We have resumed the work of the Euromaidan SOS and have brought up several hundred volunteers to document war crimes. Together with other human rights organizations, we work in the “tribunal for Putin” coalition.

I'm in Kyiv now, which was being shelled by the Russian military for more than a month. Since the first days of the new wave of Russian aggression against Ukraine, civil society and Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors have continuously reported on various war crimes committed by the Russian forces. Russia has provided deliberate attacks on civilian objects like schools, hospitals, residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure. There has been the use of human shields, perfidy, misuse of the Red Cross emblem, use of Ukrainian uniform and insignia by Russian soldiers, and attacks on specially protected objects like nuclear power plants and dumps.

Lately, it has become painfully clear from even this—it's not all—that Russian soldiers in occupied territories commit despicable atrocities against the civilian population. Rape and other gender-based violence, deliberate killings, torture, ill treatment, enforced disappearances and outrage against personal dignity are not rare and unfortunate, but rather a pattern of behaviour that is being tolerated, encouraged and later covered by the commanders, state media and the political leadership of the aggressor. Such actions are not justified by any military necessity. Russia is simply using war crimes as a method of warfare.

Speaking about prohibited weapons that Russia used during their armed conflict, the center has reported on the use of incendiary weapons. Free-falling bombs, cluster munitions, land mines, booby traps, etc. Russia is not party to several core instruments prohibiting, for instance, the use of anti-personnel mines or cluster munitions. In the densely populated areas, in the cities and near places of concentration of civilians, the use of such weapons is strictly prohibited even for Russia. Despite that, Russia disregards this portion of international humanitarian law as well as many other international laws and customs.

Russia undermines the meaning of life. In cities destroyed and deliberately isolated by Russian troops, like Mariupol, people sit for weeks in bomb shelters without food, water, electricity and medical care. During all this time, Russia has agreed with the international Red Cross on only one single humanitarian corridor in Sumy. Instead, Russia has illegally moved thousands of Ukrainians to its territory. The question now is, how can people without documents cross back across the border?

History is being written before our eyes. We are dying, but we are not giving up. For more than a month, we have been paying an enormous price simply for the right to a democratic choice. In this regard, we need western democracies to take necessary steps to stop Putin and to end this war in Europe. The Geneva Conventions and the entire international rule of law, peace and security are in ruins in places Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities. Massive atrocities against civilians in Bucha and other cities in the Kyiv region clearly demonstrate that Russia is simply killing unarmed civilians.

It will be strange to hear this from me as a human rights lawyer, but I will tell you that Ukraine needs weapons. Ukraine needs long-range air defence systems such as NASAMS to protect our cities. That would help us to close our skies. Russia has fired over 1,300 ballistic and cruise missiles. No country has provided us with this assistance so far.

We also need military jets to be able to control the sky. On the ground, we need heavy weaponry to defend our people, as well as land artillery systems, tanks and armoured vehicles. We need a lot of strike drones, more anti-tank weapons and anti-ship missiles.

We need your support because it's not only about the war between Russia and Ukraine. It's about the civilization of the confrontation between authoritarianism and democracy. Ukraine is at the forefront of this fight. We are ready to defend our people, our freedom and our human dignity. We are ready to defend the values of the free world.

I hope that Canada, and all democratic countries, will know not just ignore this.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much, Ms. Matviichuk.

We now turn to the International Partnership for Human Rights.

Ms. Valko, the floor is yours. You have five minutes.

[Svitlana Valko, Crisis Response Manager, International Partnership for Human Rights]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's an honour to be here.

Last week, we met the Canadian team at the OSCE. I was really impressed by your delegation's level of access to information about the real facts of what is happening in Ukraine. It gives me a lot of hope that our joint efforts could bring those crimes committed in Ukraine to accountability in the future.

I want to start by introducing the International Partnership for Human Rights. We have investigated crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine since 2014, together with the local investigators from the Truth Hounds, an NGO. Our methods are very transparent. We try to verify each fact from at least three sources. We use open sources, satellite maps, testimonies of victims and witnesses and other sources that are available to us.

I want to emphasize that Ukraine and its citizens nowadays have critical thinking, and I want to emphasize that our people in Ukraine have started to treat living near hospitals or schools as being in the most dangerous places in the city. What I first want to draw your attention to is the intentional direct attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, arts, science, charitable purposes and historic monuments and against hospitals and the places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided that they are not a military object.

I have a lot of examples that we've documented of this violation and these crimes, but I want to give you an example of today's attack on the city of Mykolaiv, where those civilian objects have suffered. It includes one city hospital and a regional hospital, a centre for the prevention of diseases, an orphanage, 11 kindergartens, 12 schools, one vocational school and one branch of out-of-school educational institutions. They were all shelled today in one city, Mykolaiv. We have been documenting these kinds of indiscriminate attacks during all of the last months.

We want to confirm that you accept that these are intentionally directed attacks. The Russian Federation has used indiscriminate weapons in populated areas, with unguided or free-fall bombs, cluster munitions and incendiary munitions. I want to also mention that a lot of hospitals and schools were shelled a few times, which definitely shows their intention of shooting at these places directly.

I want to draw your attention also to the fact that most of their state workers and governmental representatives in Russia, including the state so-called journalists, before attacks on such places, very often—not only in Mariupol but also in Sumy and Mykolaiv—try to justify the targets by saying that there are troopers in the maternity hospital in Mariupol or there are some suspicious military vehicles on the territory of the hospital or school, which is never confirmed. We didn't find any testimony on that.

It is obvious that no matter how desperately the Russian side seeks to justify the inhuman attack by its armed forces on the maternity hospitals, schools and other protected objects, two things remain obvious: their manipulation of the facts and their lies about the reasons for the bombings.

Certainly, it is necessary to conduct a more in-depth investigation into all the circumstances of these attacks. However, at this stage there are already more than sufficient grounds to claim that the Russian side has committed a war crime, for which all those involved should be held accountable.

There are a lot of war crimes to be—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Ms. Valko, I'm sorry. You're over your time. Could I ask you to wrap it up in the next 10 to 20 seconds?

[Svitlana Valko]

Yes.

In general, we want to confirm that analyzing the attacks gives us reasonable grounds to believe that the latest attack is part of a strategy aiming to spread terror, break morale and prompt civilians to flee the cities.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much to each of you for your opening remarks.

We will now turn to questions. We have seven minutes for the first round of questions. Just as a reminder, when there are only 30 seconds remaining, I will put up a sign. I would ask that everyone stay within the time limit.

The first round of questions goes to Mr. Oliphant.

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

Thank you.

Thank you to all the witnesses—profoundly, thank you—not only for your testimony tonight but also for your ongoing work to tell this important story to the world and to Canadians tonight.

I also want to take an opportunity to publicly thank Ms. McPherson for her question today in question period. I'm feeling emotional about this, because it was the only question I got asked, and I think this is the biggest crisis facing Canadians, of all the crises we're dealing with in the world right now, including our own home crises.

I have one first thing to say to you: We believe you. Those are three very simple words: We believe you. There has been a change to our language in these last days. We now, as the Government of Canada, are declaring that we believe these to be war crimes and crimes against humanity. We have taken the word “alleged” out of that very intentionally. While we recognize that they will need to be determined by an international court and international bodies independently, at this point the Government of Canada has received enough evidence from you and from others for us to declare that we believe Ukrainians are facing intentional crimes against humanity and intentional war crimes.

You have been heard. I want to very clearly say that to you tonight, hoping that this will encourage you to keep doing it, because we need the evidence that you are gathering. We need the testimony of people who are surviving. We need photographs. We need all the evidence we can get, because we're not there. We are privileged, at peace and rest in Canada, and we depend on you for your work to bring us that story.

We will continue to go to the International Criminal Court. We will stand with other countries to make sure that this testimony is heard there. We are already sending help to the court to make sure they have the tools to do the job. We also very quickly responded to the Government of Ukraine's request to support them at the International Court of Justice. We as a country cannot simply declare these as war crimes or crimes against humanity, but we believe them to be, and we believe that they will be determined to be, so we will be there.

Given that change in our language, this is an opportunity for each of you individually to take any other opportunity to give us any further evidence. You can take specific issues, if you would like. We were obviously moved and horrified by what happened in Bucha, at the maternity hospital in Mariupol, and in other places where civilians have been targeted. I would like to give each of the three of you an opportunity to add any more evidence that you would like us to hear as a committee, to empower us and to emblazon us to work on your behalf in Canada.

Anyone can begin. You're all perfect.

Go ahead, Oleksandra.

[Oleksandra Matviichuk]

How many minutes do I have?

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

You take your time.

[Oleksandra Matviichuk]

I will start with the point that we gathered testimony from people from Bucha, Gostomel, Motyshyn, Makariv, and other cities and settlements in the Kyiv region, even before this area was liberated, because there were some lucky people who escaped from isolated towns. I just want to remind you that the Russians deliberately isolated these villages' support to provide people the possibility to relocate in order to stop local resistance.

We knew about disappearances, of course, about killings, about rapes and sexual violence before, but when I saw this photo and picture, and when our colleagues came to these released towns, frankly speaking, I was in shock. Even me, who has been documenting war crimes for eight years already...I didn't expect such a picture. It had a systematic and large-scale character. This was for sure war crimes, and even, I must admit, crimes against humanity, because all of the settlements were under Russian controls.

I will tell you one story which we documented before the liberation of this town. It is a story of woman whose husband and small son rode by bicycle to the centre of occupied Bucha in order to find humanitarian assistance and medicines. They were stopped by Russian soldiers. They immediately stopped and they raised their hands up. They said that “We are civilians”, and it was very obvious that they were civilians. But Russian soldiers started shooting on them. They killed the father in the eyes of the son, and they severely injured the son. The son luckily survived. We spoke with this woman who lost her husband and likely saved her son.

Even a war has rules and has to be conducted according to international humanitarian law. International humanitarian law obliged this side to provide a clear distinction between military and civilians, but Russia used war crimes as a method of warfare. Russia deliberately targeted civilians. That's why we have enormous losses. That's why me, as a human rights defender, now thinks not only of how to provide proper investigation and collecting all of this evidence for the future justice, because future justice is always postponed in time.... But for me, the main question is, what I can do as a human being in order to stop these war crimes, to prevent new victims of war crimes to emerge. This is a much more challenging task.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Now we will turn to Mr. Viersen.

You have the floor. You have seven minutes.

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

I'll turn the mike over to Ms. Valko, if she wants to answer that same question there around specifics.

I've seen the photos of folks who look like their hands were bound behind their backs, who are dead in the streets, things like that. Are there any other particular cases we should be aware of that will be brought forward to the human rights courts?