Status of Women Committee on May 5th, 2010

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Ms. McDonald, Mr. Fox, both of you made reference to the failure to address maternal and child health as a violation of human rights. How does attention to this issue in regard to child and maternal health reflect the broader issue and concerns about human rights and the imperative to protect those human rights? Have we reached a point in this discussion where we can say we have to look beyond the issues we've clung to because this is a matter of human rights on a grand scale?

[Katherine McDonald]

Absolutely. If I may quickly answer that, I also think linking it to the ODA Accountability Act and our responsibility to deliver aid consistently with international and human rights standards is extremely important. I would like to see this government do an analysis, do the legal research, to determine whether or not we are complying with those standards in the ODA Accountability Act.

[Robert Fox]

Certainly we do see rights as broad and indivisible. Any situation where you're saying we will respect these rights and those rights we won't gets us into very dangerous ground.

[Maureen McTeer]

The last point I was going to make earlier in my remarks and didn't have a chance to because I was waxing eloquent about other things is that I believe this Parliament—not this government, this Parliament—needs to re-commit to a human rights model as part of our agenda for women's health generally and reproductive health in particular. I think that's an essential component of moving forward, that we reassure our international partners that we haven't turned our ship around--our equality ship--our commitment to women's equality and to maternal health and moved it in another direction. Only Parliament can do that in terms of reassuring others.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

We will now go to the second round. The second round is a five-minute round. I'm going to ask everyone to please be succinct. When we have witnesses who have come a long way, I like to give them the opportunity to answer. Perhaps you could try to be more succinct.

We begin with Ms. Simson for the Liberals.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to give my sincere thanks to all witnesses today for opening statements that were not only compelling but powerful.

I did want to address my first question to Ms. Camp. I agree the focus should be on areas of agreement—no question. You went on to mention that if we could make headway in that area, proper family planning would prevent unintended and unwanted pregnancies.

I'm curious. How do we address situations like the Congo, where the media is describing how rape is now considered a weapon of war? How is family planning going to help those young girls? A lot of them are young women, and I would argue there are going to be thousands and thousands of unwanted pregnancies. How do we deal with that?

If there are any of the other witnesses who would like to respond, I'd be interested.

[Dr. Sharon Camp]

Certainly we've got to provide a whole range of services to the women who've been victimized in that way. Access to safe abortion for those who wish to terminate the resulting pregnancies seems to me to be a basic humanitarian response. But these women need more than safe abortion.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

If rape is described as a weapon of war, this isn't the only region that has suffered this. We heard about thousands of rapes during the Sri Lankan conflict. I'm sure there's going to be that kind of result.

How could a country that has a conscience even consider withdrawing something that could be that essential, based on what's happening globally in some of these regions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. McDonald.

[Katherine McDonald]

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights just slapped Nicaragua for not providing abortion services in the case of a rape of a 10-year-old girl by her stepfather. If we replicate that situation in our foreign aid, I would suggest that we should at the very least be cognizant of the fact that we're violating women's human rights.

The human rights norm is not only to do no harm. This actually provides funding that may in fact result in harm. I think it's a very serious issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have two more minutes.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Do any other witnesses care to comment?

[Robert Fox]

We certainly work around the world in conflict situations with literally hundreds of thousands of women who are in those circumstances in Asia, in the Americas, and in Africa most particularly. It is acute, it is criminal, and it requires a systemic response.

A woman dies every eight minutes on this planet from an unsafe abortion. There are many women in situations of conflict who wish they had access to safe services.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

It is a major component.

You made a comment to my colleague across the way in terms of leadership. How effective is leadership when a country like Canada, which has been a leader in the past, is backtracking instead of building on what we signed last year in Italy? How could it possibly be viewed as leadership when we suddenly announce on the cusp of the G-8 that, despite what our Prime Minister said, all options are on the table?

One important component, I would argue, is that it shouldn't be an ideological thing. This is about human rights and health.

What would be your comment on how effective leadership is when something like that transpires?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Given that we only have 30 seconds left, I would like to know who feels they have a very good answer to this. Does anyone want to volunteer?

Ms. McDonald.

[Katherine McDonald]

Canada showed leadership during the Cairo conference. Canada showed leadership at the Beijing conference. Canada showed leadership at every UN meeting attended throughout the nineties and the 2000s.

We now cannot count on Canada to even use the term “gender equality” at UN forums.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

There you go. We have finished the round, Ms. Simson.

We now go to Mr. Calandra for the Conservatives.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Camp, I'll start with you, because you mentioned this earlier. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the Helms amendment from the seventies in the U.S. not absolutely forbid U.S. foreign aid going to abortion programming?

Am I wrong in that the Obama administration rescinded the Mexico City policy to support family planning, which Canada supported?

[Dr. Sharon Camp]

During its first week in office, the Obama administration rescinded the Mexico City policy, which denied U.S. foreign aid to any foreign organization that with its own funds, including funds from its own government, provided any type of abortion counselling or services.

The 1993 Helms amendment, which prohibits the use of U.S. foreign aid dollars for abortion promotion or services, still stands. I would certainly like to see it overturned. I doubt that will happen in the next year or two.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I don't want to cut you off, but I have a lot of questions. But anyway, thanks. So that's still there.

We talked about the Congo. It strikes me that ending the war and then having a democratic government with better health care and trade and better farming and food security would be equally important goals. And if abortion was the only matter that would solve all the world's problems with respect to that, then the recommendations of the MDG Africa Steering Group might be a bit different than they were.

I note that in their report they state...and I'm going to mention some of the things they talked about. They talk about cost-effective strategies and their technologies for the green revolution that can double per hectare yields among smaller farms in a shorter period of time. This is Africa that we're specifically talking about. They also talk about the need to improve crop and livestock husbandry and to adopt sustainable land and water management practices. They talk about a particular challenge, which is the need to reduce donor fragmentation and to channel financing more effectively. They talk about high agricultural commodity prices as being an opportunity for African nations to enter into the field of exporting some of their crops so their economies could grow. They talk about how important it is for developing nations to have trade opportunities and that other nations, particularly in the west, seize those opportunities.

We know that in this Parliament we've been debating the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement that would see us having an ability to trade with a poorer nation and to help some of those poor farmers. That was filibustered by one of the parties here.

They talk about the importance of genetically modified seeds that can resist drought that would help farmers in those areas farm better and have greater yields, which would lead to--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry, I have a point of order from Ms. Neville.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Are we not discussing MDGs 4 and 5, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, the topic for discussion by this committee is very clear, and it pertains to MDG goals 4 and 5, which concern child mortality and maternal health.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Yes. I'm referring to the Africa Steering Group report on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

On MDG 4 and 5 specifically....