moved:
That the House do now adjourn.
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie.
Mr. Speaker, schools should be places where our children can learn, where they can dream big dreams, where girls and boys can discover the world, where imagination and idealism flourish. When those values that we hold and cherish, the idea that children can learn uninterrupted, unmolested, are interfered with, we should be disturbed.
Recently, as members know, and the reason for this emergency debate, the world was shocked when over 300 girls who were simply doing what our kids do every day were kidnapped from that sanctity of idealism, of learning, of a place where we want children to thrive, and they were kidnapped for reasons that have to do with striking terror into communities.
The kidnapping of the 300 girls by Boko Haram militants in northern Nigeria is deeply disturbing. In fact, it is truly horrifying to imagine the terror that these girls have experienced and the awful pain their families are suffering, something that we cannot imagine here in Canada. However, we all agree that we must do everything we possibly can to bring these girls to safety; in fact, to bring back our girls.
When people say that, “our girls”, they say it deliberately, just as I have done. They do it because this is not just about these girls. The kidnapping represents an attack on the institution of education, on the rights of children everywhere. That is why this is an issue for all of us to be seized with. Our response, as Canada and as an international community, should recognize this reality. This is about the future, not just of Nigeria or West Africa, but of our children. We can feel the emotions of the Nigerian parents, just as we feel the emotions of the missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada, because we are all in this together. We should do everything possible to engage our international partners to recover the abducted girls. We should also be doing what we can do to ensure that all girls, indeed, all children, in Nigeria and elsewhere, have access to education they deserve.
The educational crisis in Nigeria has reached devastating levels. According to Amnesty International, more than 50 schools were attacked in the first seven months in 2013, mostly in the northern Borno state where the latest kidnapping occurred. Beyond the immediate casualties, these attacks create a culture of fear. After 50 students were killed in a September 2013 attack, around 1,000 students fled the campus. The Borno state ministry of education estimated that 15,000 children in the state stopped attending classes between February and May 2013, as a result of those attacks.
Nigeria already has 10 million children out of school, which is the highest number in the world. Almost one of three primary age children is out of school and roughly one of four junior secondary age children is out of school. Nearly 60% of the Nigerian children not able to attend school live in the northern part of the country. Six out of 10 Nigerian children not in school are girls. In other words, we have 10 million in Nigeria not attending school and six million of those are girls who are not attending, 60%, in the northern region, where the abductions took place.
Canada can and must help. We have a part to play. We must play our part. We have excellent human and technological capabilities, and it is good that this capacity has been offered to the Nigerian government by our government. Once our countries reach agreement on the details, we should deploy these resources as efficiently as possible in coordination with the Nigerian government and our international partners, but our ability to assist goes beyond mere logistics. It goes beyond these girls. We must make a long-term global commitment to help ensure the rights of children, and especially girls, are respected globally.
Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Canada and Nigeria are both signatories, gives every child the right to an education. We are legally bound to do everything we can to help these girls. Education is not an option for states, it is an obligation for all states that have signed this treaty. The deprivation of this right through violence is not only a tragedy, it is also a violation of a basic and fundamental right that we hold dear.
There are four things to which Canada should commit in addition to its current pledge of logistical support for the recovery of these girls. First, Canada should carefully monitor the use of the equipment that we have pledged and the broader development of a rescue, recovery, or response plan, in other words. We must ensure that the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights, humanitarian law obligations are observed during any recovery operation. This is necessary, not only to protect the girls who have been taken, but to ensure that any such operation does not put other children at risk.
Second, and over the longer term, we should coordinate with regional partners through our co-chairmanship of the Sahel working group in the Global Counterterrorism Forum. This is an important venue for the development of counterterrorism strategy as it relates to the Sahel region, including northern Nigeria.
President Hollande of France has announced that he will be holding an emergency summit on Boko Haram in Paris next weekend. Given Canada's chairmanship of the Sahel working group and our other contributions to the recovery operation, I hope that Canada will be attending this important conference that has been called by President Hollande.
Canada's counterterrorism capacity building program is another institutional venue for working with international partners to share, monitor, and ensure the best practices are followed, including the utmost respect for international law.
Third, Canada should support the Global Partnership for Education by pledging an increased contribution of at least $30 million per year for the next four-year funding period. Education is essential to development. An investment in education pays off. We know that. We can lift more children and more families out of poverty if we make this commitment. We know that there are gaps in the funding for global education. If Canada does its part, it can then further the cause by pushing other governments to do so.
What happened was a tragedy. It was fuelled by those who want to take away the basic rights that our children enjoy here in Canada. Part of that fuel is small arms, and a final proposition to the government is to have our country finally sign the Arms Trade Treaty so no longer may the menace of small arms and terrorism go together, that we take that tool away from the terrorists.
Tonight we will debate and exchange ideas. This House will be unified in our collective role to help the girls who were spirited away from the sanctity of what we all value, that is education for all. Let us tonight talk about what Canada's role can be in a positive way, in the short term, the medium term, and the long term.
I began my speech by talking about the idea of education. Next to giving life, it is the most important thing we can do for our children. Education is not a privilege, it is a right for all, and the girls of northern Nigeria deserve it as much as my two sons.
At this point in the debate, let us reflect on our individual, collective, and global responsibility to bring our girls back.