Madam Speaker, we continue to raise human rights concerns and to urge Chinese leaders to respect internationally agreed upon human rights standards during meetings with Chinese ministers and officials. We will continue to register Canadian concerns about human rights abuses both in general terms and with respect to specific cases where appropriate.
Canada also continues to make reference to China in annual country situation public statements at the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee, the latest occurrence which took place in November 2002, and also at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and equally to support multilateral initiatives which promote our human rights objectives.
We believe that engagement, rather than isolation, will effect a sustained improvement in the human rights situation in China. The Canada-China human rights dialogue is an example of how engagement has allowed Canada access to Chinese agencies whose co-operation is essential if human rights practices are to improve in China. Canada plans to continue to express its concern on a range of issues which include freedom of religion, expression, association, women's rights, children's rights, good governance and minority rights among others.
The major components of Canada's human rights dialogue include the Joint Committee on Human Rights, JCHR, and the Plurilateral Human Rights Symposium co-hosted by Canada, Norway and China.
Last year's JCHR took place in Beijing and Xinjiang, China from November 4 to 8. The topics on the agenda included: recent progress in promotion and protection of human rights in China and Canada; conditions of detention, special concern for female prisoners and detainees; police training and international co-operation in human rights in the multilateral context. A frank and open discussion allowed for the free exchange of ideas and issues of concerns to both countries. In addition both China and Canada expressed belief in the value of the JCHR and its continuation to permit the ongoing exchange of issues and points of view.
Last year's Canada-China-Norway Plurilateral Symposium on Human Rights took place in Jakarta from March 11 to 12. The meeting brought delegations from the three co-sponsoring governments together with delegations from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan and others. The meeting succeeded in achieving its immediate objectives which were a discussion of mutual human rights concerns, an exchange of strategies and policies to address them and confidence building among the participants so as to facilitate possible joint activities.
In so doing, the meeting again proved its value as a non-confrontational venue to discuss sensitive human rights issues in great depth than is possible in larger human rights fora.
Canada also tries to improve the human rights situation in China through CIDA programming. Some of CIDA's projects include training of senior Chinese judges; a women's law program to assist in understanding and exercising legal rights; the development of a national legal aid system; an international human rights implementation project to assist China's efforts in implementing international conventions; a civil society program to strengthen the functioning of autonomous people based voluntary community organizations; co-operation between the Canadian Bar Association and the All China Lawyers Association to promote the rule of law and links between the two legal professions; and a criminal law and criminal justice co-operation program to assist in the development of the rule of law in criminal procedure.
In addition to the points that I have raised on human rights I draw the attention of my colleague and the House to Canada's trade relationship with China.
In a broad sense our continuing goal is to see an evolution toward a more transparent economic and political system in China. To use the oft-quoted phrase, we seek to “engage China”. Canada's policy of engaging China is reflected in the numerous ongoing dialogues between state and non-state actors.
It is important to underline our view that trade and human rights are not mutually exclusive. Our trade interests are not pursued at the expense of voicing our concerns about human rights or vice versa. In fact, regular high level exchanges, including the team Canada missions to China, allow Canada to reinforce our concerns on issues such as human rights.
We also believe that improving our trade ties with other countries in a rules based system can reduce isolationism and open channels that will promote social progress and respect for human rights.