House of Commons Hansard #183 of the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was families.

Topics

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:40 p.m.

Newmarket—Aurora Ontario

Conservative

Lois Brown ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington.

On July 16, 2014, the government tabled “Government Response to the Fourth Report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, 'A Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo — Canada’s Role in Taking Action and Ending Impunity'”.

This report contained 12 recommendations that notably called on the Government of Canada to continue championing the role of women in international peace and security and working toward greater respect for the human rights of women in countries of concern, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government response to the standing committee's report welcomed the committee's findings, agreed with most of its recommendations, and addressed all of them comprehensively.

Promoting the role of women in international peace and security and enhancing respect for women's rights and their well-being are key priorities of the Government of Canada. That is why Canada not only champions the end of sexual violence against women and girls but also demonstrates leadership in international efforts to promote the role of women in bringing about peace, rebuilding societies after conflicts, improving maternal, child, and newborn health, and eliminating child, early, and forced marriage.

Allow me to speak of our multi-pronged approach in these areas. The government is continuing to advocate for the empowerment of women in decision-making processes, including in peace processes. We have and will continue to encourage the full and equal participation of women in international peace and security and to encourage new governments in fragile states and in countries in transition to democracy to increase the number of women in key leadership and decision-making positions.

We have taken a leadership role in international efforts to foster the effective implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on women, peace, and security, including by continuing our leadership advocacy and coordination role as chair of the group Friends of Women, Peace and Security at the UN in New York.

Canada is deeply concerned about the plight of sexual violence survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in the context of conflict in the east. Canada has regular exchanges with the government of the DRC on a range of human rights issues, including sexual and gender-based violence. Canada also makes its positions and concerns known to the DRC through multilateral fora.

Canada is encouraging the government of the DRC to review its national legislation in order to eliminate discrimination against women and to foster greater respect for women's human rights. As part of the UN universal periodic review of the DRC in 2009, Canada recommended that the government of the DRC arrest and bring to justice those who perpetrate sexual violence.

In 2014, Canada also recommended expediting the reform of the judiciary and the security system to improve access to justice and the protection of the population as part of a national strategy to fight violence against women and girls. Canada collaborates and engages with the UN, donors, and other members of the international community to support projects and initiatives that benefit the DRC and involve its government, notably through field presence in the country and the Great Lakes region.

In the past eight years, Canada's Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force, also known as START, has contributed more than $19 million for projects specifically related to sexual and gender-based violence in the DRC and other countries, including Colombia, Afghanistan, and South Sudan. In 2013, the former minister of foreign affairs announced a further $5 million for projects to prevent sexual violence in conflict by supporting, for example, the documentation and prosecution of sexual violence crimes. Furthermore, in October 2014, the former minister of foreign affairs pledged a $10-million contribution to address sexual and gender-based violence in ISIL-affected areas.

Canada's efforts to fight sexual violence have been producing results in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2006. Over 60,000 survivors have accessed health and psychological support and care. Over 15,000 survivors have acquired new skills and can sustain income-generating activities. Over 800 perpetrators have been convicted.

Canada's contributions strengthen coordination and partnerships among all stakeholders involved in preventing and fighting sexual violence, notably provincial authorities, local administrations, the judicial system, police forces, civil society organizations and communities. By building capacity and a responsibility for fighting sexual violence locally, Canada is helping to ensure that the Congolese authorities and Congolese society in general have the means to sustain the above mentioned gains made.

In 2014, Canada also provided $24.7 million to respond to humanitarian needs in the DRC. This includes assistance for projects with humanitarian partners whose activities include support to the survivors of sexual violence. These partners include Doctors Without Borders, which provides health care for conflict-affected populations, including survivors of sexual violence; and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which works to address the health and psychological needs of sexually and gender-based violence survivors. This assistance to the DRC is complemented by funding to improve the humanitarian systems' overall response to sexual and gender-based violence.

Canada has provided $1 million in support to the International Organization for Migration to strengthen protection in refugee camps, especially as it concerns the prevention of gender-based violence. The $3 million in support provided to the United Nations population fund is also building the capacity of the humanitarian system to prevent sexual and gender-based violence, and to improve the quality and accessibility of gender-based violence-related services during humanitarian crises.

In 2013, the Government of Canada contributed $4.5 million to six Canadian organizations working with local partners in DRC, including on issues related to victims of sexual violence in those areas affected by conflict.

Canada takes a regional approach in the Great Lakes Region by working with 11 African women's organizations in Burundi, Rwanda and Congo to address women's rights and promote peace. An additional $5 million has been provided to the ICRC in 2014, especially to improve its capacity to prevent and reduce sexual violence in five countries, including the DRC.

Canada recognizes that the resource rich developing countries must harness their resources to achieve economic growth and poverty reduction. However, extractive operations often take place in complex operating environments, including in countries with weak governance capacity and where corruption and conflict are prevalent. This is why the government has worked with the private sector and civil society organizations to enhance responsible resource development and transparent governance in the extractive sector globally.

Canada strongly supports international efforts to sever the link between natural resources and conflict and to advance initiatives that help extractive sector companies respect human rights.

As a founding member of the Kimberley Process, Canada remains fully supportive of its objectives to increase accountability, transparency and effective governance of the trade in rough diamonds. Given the relevance of our diamond sector as well as the sustainability of the industry as a whole to reputational risks, Canada is a strong advocate for improved collaboration on enforcement of the certification scheme among member countries, including the DRC, as well as the broader reform efforts to ensure the continued relevance and credibility of the Kimberley Process as a whole.

Promoting the role of women in international peace and security, enhancing respect for women's rights and providing protection against sexual violence are key priorities for our government. We have and we will continue to address them vigorously and comprehensively.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:50 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I want to touch on a subject that we have debated before in the House. It relates to rape as a weapon of war in the DRC. It was not that long ago that I had a bill in front of Parliament on conflict minerals and how to stop the trade of those minerals. As members probably know, the BlackBerrys they are looking at have conflict minerals in them. We were trying to end that.

One of the propositions to government was to ensure we did what we could, like the Kimberley Process, to stop revenues going to these militias. Sadly, my PMB did not go forward. That is not news. It lost by 16 votes. However, during the debate, I listened carefully to the government's point of view on the bill as it related to this and to the Kimberley Process. It said that it would take on the issue of conflict minerals and deal with the sources of revenues that the militias used.

Could the member update the House as to what steps the government is taking vis-à-vis the revenues that the militias are using from conflict minerals? These militias are using rape as a weapon of war to clear people off and intimidate, and are continuing to use this as sources of revenue. Could she update us on the progress with respect to conflict minerals?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:50 p.m.

Conservative

Lois Brown Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON

Mr. Speaker, we recognize that many of these countries, particularly in Africa, are blessed with an enormous amount of natural resources they need to get to market. Finding those countries' comparative advantage and helping them get that to market will be so important to the health of the overall economy of each country and to seeing that economy grow and be sustainable.

When I was in Mozambique just 15 months ago, Canada made a contribution of $15 million to the African Minerals Development Centre. The event in Mozambique was attended by every minister of mines from all 54 countries in Africa. They are all intent on seeing legislation go through in their individual countries.

At the same time we made the contribution, we were working together with our partners in the U.K. and in Australia. They were the second largest donors to that project after Canada. We have set up an institute in Canada at École Polytechnique and at Simon Fraser University in B.C. That institute is there to assist and advise countries like the DRC on getting its minerals successfully out of the ground, getting them to market and getting that money into their economies as real revenue and real jobs for the people in those countries.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:55 p.m.

NDP

Sadia Groguhé NDP Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.

The member spoke about the importance of preventing sexual violence, and this is clearly an extremely important step in eliminating rape and rape used as a weapon of war. She also mentioned psychological support for women who are raped. However, we know how important it is and how important it would be for these women to get support and to have access to all the programs that exist in our country with respect to terminating pregnancies. Unwanted pregnancies, especially those resulting from a rape, are tragic. They have a lifelong effect on these women, and we all know the negative repercussions for the children.

Could my colleague tell us what the government plans to do with respect to support, and specifically the termination of pregnancies?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:55 p.m.

Conservative

Lois Brown Conservative Newmarket—Aurora, ON

Mr. Speaker, in 2010, our Prime Minister took on the initiative of maternal, newborn and child health as the flagship development project for Canada. Millennium development goals 4 and 5 related to maternal, newborn and child health. In 2010, when no one else was addressing the issues, we took a bold initiative and committed $2.85 billion to that to ensure the number of women who were dying in pregnancy or childbirth would be reduced, and that the number of children who were not making it to their fifth birthday would receive assistance to survive and thrive.

I am thrilled to tell the House that we have saved the lives of millions of moms and babies in countries where they never would have survived. I have visited many of these countries and I have seen the results of the success of our program.

Knowing that these things had not been done fully and that the issue was still in front of us, we held a conference in Toronto last year where the Prime Minister committed another $3.5 billion for the 2015 to 2020 timetable. We hope to see that complemented with money from our donor partners, from the private sector, from—

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Acting Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

6:55 p.m.

Conservative

Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON

Mr. Speaker, first, it is an honour to address the House on this subject today. I am here because I was the chair of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights, a subcommittee of the foreign affairs committee. Our group studied this issue and produced the report that was subsequently endorsed by the foreign affairs committee and has now made its way to the House for us to consider its acceptance in this concurrence debate.

In my remarks I will deal with three themes. The first of these is a bit of background on the nature of the hearings. The second is a discussion of the importance of the issue and its implications. The third is to discuss the title of the report, which we called “A Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Canada's Role in Taking Action and Ending Impunity”. Members will see why that is important as I get to it.

Let us start with a bit of the background.

The Subcommittee on International Human Rights operates by consensus. We are the only subcommittee on Parliament Hill that does so on a consistent basis. We have been doing so since I became the chair of the committee, back in 2007, and, indeed, before that, the practice had already been established. This has been enormously important for the success of the subcommittee. We are been able to pick our topics. Unfortunately, we can do this because there is a vast and endless smorgasbord of human rights abuses in this world. We pick topics where we are fundamentally in agreement, where the issues do not represent proxies for some sort of other issue, whether members are for or against some foreign policy initiative. We try to find issues that can be dealt with in a timely fashion, allowing us to return to the House so members can act in a manner that will potentially achieve some benefit.

The subcommittee held 13 hearings and listened to 32 witnesses between November, 2010 and June, 2013. Anybody who knows their electoral history will realize that there was an intervening election. As a result, the subcommittee did not succeed in wrapping up its hearings within a single Parliament. In part, that occurred because of a non-confidence vote in the government. It also occurred because of the extent of the problem.

We started out with a motion from one member. I honestly cannot remember which member it was, but it does not matter, because all members of all committees agreed to the motion. We agreed to looked at rape as a weapon of war. “Control” might be a better way of putting it, but we said “of war” at the time. It looked at three areas, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan. We brought in witnesses to talk about all of these countries. However, it soon became apparent that the Democratic Republic of the Congo stood out among all of these countries for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons were the geographical extent, the number of victims and the very long period in which the problem had been occurring and continually recurring, which now goes back more than a generation by the most modest estimate.

The report produced 12 recommendations. All were agreed upon by all members of all parties. It was then taken by myself, as the subcommittee chair, to the foreign affairs committee, which approved all 12 recommendations, again with all-party support, and it has come here in that form.

I am mentioning this and stressing it at great length to make the point that everybody on all sides of the House is genuinely concerned with this issue. I have no doubt that my colleagues on the other side are deeply committed to the subject, including those who participated in the hearings and those who did not.

The 12 recommendations asked for a government response, and the government has provided a response to these recommendations, which is available to all members. This is one of only several studies in which we have engaged and have looked at the use of rape as a weapon.

I was talking earlier about three themes, one of them would be discussing the importance of the implications of this issue. I do not think the general public is aware of just how widespread a problem this is, how widespread in the world the use of rape and sexual violence is as a weapon of war and a means of social control.

Certainly when the issue first arose and I heard about it as an inexperienced chair of the subcommittee, my initial response was to ask why one would use rape as a weapon. Surely if the goal is to intimidate and control others, just having a gun accomplishes that goal, so why does one need more than this in order to oppress a population? If individuals dig through the public records, they will find where I said this. I have since learned that there are a number of different ways in which rape, sexual violence, and the threat of sexual violence are very powerful weapons of control.

Let me give some examples and go through a little geographical tour of the planet as I do this. Historically we are all familiar with the famous story from the Second World War of Korean women forced into sexual slavery, so-called comfort women, who were systematically sexually exploited, raped, and generally abused by their Japanese captors. They were one of many populations abused by not merely the Japanese, although the Japanese certainly were terrible abusers in this regard, but by other military forces in that conflict. That was not a unique conflict in this regard.

In our subcommittee we heard testimony about sexual abuse in Sri Lanka used as a mechanism of extortion by the occupying military in Tamil areas of the north of the country, and this is happening contemporaneously right now. This is not an official government-sanctioned activity, but it is an activity the government tolerates in which members of the military will capture the wives and daughters of prominent and relatively prosperous Tamils and effectively threaten that they will be sexually abused if a ransom is not paid. Of course, it is one thing to hold someone as a hostage, but it is that much more effective to threaten abuse if the goal is to force someone to pay a ransom, as well as to have a credible record of having followed through on threats. This is a form of sexual terrorism.

Now I am starting on the third theme I mentioned I would be dealing with, which is the different kinds of sexual abuse and why we chose to refer to this as a report on rape and sexual violence as opposed to our initial title, which was simply rape.

That is Sri Lanka. Just today in the subcommittee before question period we heard witnesses from Burma who reported on sexual violence. It is hard to get exact numbers, but there appears to be a rising number of incidences of rape being used by members of the military with impunity in the outlying ethnic regions of that country.

In Rwanda we have dealt with the issue of sexual violence 20 years after the fact of that massive genocide, which was characterized not only by many murders but by literally thousands of rapes and huge numbers of pregnancies, huge numbers of HIV infections, which resulted in full-blown AIDS. Almost all the women who were raped at that time who developed HIV and AIDS have now passed away. There is a whole generation, and we have had a number of hearings of young people, now 20 years old, who are the children of rape, and the social ostracism they can face makes them essentially an entire lost generation.

To come back to the DRC, I would make this observation. There have been different kinds of sexual abuse, sexual violence, sexual terrorism. More than one kind has occurred in the Congo. There has been rape for intimidation. There has been rape where the military, the terrorizing forces, or the militias would force people to engage in sexual activities that break social prohibitions, force them to have sex with members of their own family. They do not kill either of them, but they are essentially social outcasts, and social disintegration results. The spread of disease is an issue. The forcing of women into sexual services against their will is also an issue. Unfortunately, almost all of the different forms of sexual abuse that have occurred elsewhere are encapsulated in this particular area, and this indicates why this is so important.

This is the prototype, the paradigm of this kind of abuse worldwide, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the epicentre. It is the area where we most need to correct this problem.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

NDP

Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC

Mr. Speaker, one of the issues often raised by non-governmental organizations on the ground is the legal impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of these crimes. Often, the senior officials and the commanders responsible are basically untouchable. Most of the cases brought to court are never tried. These crimes actually remain unpunished.

Where does my hon. colleague see Canada in terms of our contribution to reforming the justice system and putting an end to this impunity?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

Conservative

Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON

Mr. Speaker, I am just looking to see where we dealt with this in the recommendations.

Recommendation number 5 was:

That the Government of Canada continue to express its expectation to the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that the latter take concrete action to halt the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Then a series of recommendations were made from that. One of these was, “strengthening the justice system to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account and to remove barriers to access to justice”.

I will be honest. That was a very vague suggestion, and part of the reason is that it is actually difficult to design a practical and thorough method to place into a location that is essentially as lawless, fluid, and shifting as the eastern DRC. Engaging in any kind of forensic activity is very difficult.

I take the member's point that we should look at those who are more highly placed when dealing with this, but we should be aware of the fact that sometimes in a place like the DRC there may have been some kind centralized coordination. There certainly was an element of that in Rwanda in the rapes that took place there back in 1994.

Often these militias are essentially without a true centre, and there is a lot of vigilantism, so trying to find a way of designing one system that would resolve this would be very difficult. I do note, however, that in its response to the recommendations, the government did deal with what it has done.

I will just take a moment to find this. Perhaps I could sit down, find the answer, and in responding to the next question, I will have found my answer to this one as well in terms of what the government said it was doing.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

NDP

Sadia Groguhé NDP Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

He mentioned the recommendations in response to my colleague’s previous question. In that context, I wonder if he has given any thought at all to a timeline for the implementation of those recommendations. If so, could he share that timeline with us? The situation has basically been going on for nearly 20 years and it is urgent that we be able to act.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

Conservative

Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON

Mr. Speaker, I found this on page 7 of the government's response to the recommendations of the subcommittee. This is, of course, past tense. I was asked a question about future tense, but let me answer what the government has done.

In addition, Canada also funded other projects with sexual and gender-based violence as a cross cutting theme. Through the Cellules d'appui à la poursuite judiciaire et militaire project, nearly $3M over two years was provided for the creation of support cells for judicial and military prosecutions....

That is not the only example, but it is the one I could find on short notice. That is certainly one thing.

With regard to the second question that was asked, what really has to happen in the DRC is the production of some form of lasting peace. In the absence of a lasting peace, the underlying problems will continue to recur, unfortunately, and we can simply try to remediate, but we will not be able to resolve these problems.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:10 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the member for La Pointe-de-l'Île.

I rise today to speak to one of the most important issues to be focused on in the House. For me, and for many members, as we have heard, that is the horrific use of rape as a weapon of war. I can say this personally, having been to the DRC a couple of years ago and having talked to people on the ground there as well as to people here who are involved internationally on the issue.

We have had forums here. A couple of years ago we had a very important forum with the All-Party Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, of which I am now the chair. We organized an event a couple of years back with Eve Ensler, the famous playwright, that included testimony from victims who suffered from rape as a weapon of war.

I do not want to sensationalize, but I do want to lend some stories to the debate and some facts about what has been going on.

It has been noted many times in the debate around rape as a weapon of war that the epicentre is Congo. Congo is the rape capital of the world. That is what it was called for many years. It remains a problem. Since 1998, over 5.4 million people have been killed in this ongoing conflict in which rape is used as a weapon of war.

People have used the term “femicide”, because in this war it is not soldiers who are on the front line. One former colonel in command of a UN peacekeeping mission in Congo said that in this conflict, it is women who are on the front lines. It is not soldiers. What he was referring to is the horrific use of rape as a weapon of war.

In the past, yes, rape was evident in conflict. Sadly, rape has been a by-product of war in the past. However, what we are seeing in the case of the Congo and in an increasing number of conflicts is its use as an actual strategy of war. Soldiers and rebel groups use rape to mark territory and to intimidate people.

There are people who are dealing with this on the ground, but it is really hard to conceptualize that 5.4 million people have died in a war that seems to pass us by. How does that happen? How is it that women who are on the front lines are repeatedly gang-raped by soldiers and militias and no one seemingly does anything?

There are people on the front lines, and I will talk about them in a minute. We had a UN peacekeeping mission as well, but most people either had no idea of this conflict in the DRC or chose not to look. Perhaps it was too disturbing. My theory is that most people just did not know.

I mentioned that the financing for these conflicts and these militias is coming directly from the supply chain that puts minerals into our technologies. Coltan is used in our BlackBerrys, our iPads, and our computers. It is actually a good thing to have in technology. It allows our devices to work by making sure they do not get too hot. It is really important. However, 80% of that mineral comes from the region. Most of it has been controlled and is still controlled by the militias that are using rape as a weapon of war.

It is frustrating, because when we come to understand the connection between supply chain mineral revenues and the conflict, we begin to think we should be doing something about that.

I know that the Dodd Frank initiative was brought forward in the United States, so the U.S. actually has a law now that forces companies to say where their supply chain is coming from. I want to give credit to some of those who have taken this on. We have seen good outcomes under this law in the United States. The supply chain for Intel, the company that makes the little chip, is now 100% conflict-free. The U.S. is doing what we did with blood diamonds.

We have to break the chain of revenue that goes to these militias, because that is what they are after. They are using child soldiers and they are using rape as a weapon of war. It is something that we have to stop, and we know how to stop it because we did it with blood diamonds back in the 1990s.

Who are the people on the front lines who are taking this on? I want to cite someone who has been extraordinary in taking on and dealing with the victims, and that is Dr. Mukwege who works in the Congo. His Panzi Hospital, which has been noted around the world, is in Bukavu, in the eastern part of the Congo.

As a gynecologist, he set up a clinic to help women. He was there to help women and women's health. What he ended up having to do, though, is deal with the outcomes of rape as a weapon of war. This is very disturbing. Instead of just doing basic health care for women and children, he ended up having to do surgery on women, rebuilding women's bodies because they had been so deformed from rape. Fistula, a medical term, occurs when a woman's body has been so abused that her body comes apart. It ruptures. That is what he was dealing with, not doing women's health. It is horrific.

Over the years, he has operated on over 50,000 women and girls due to rape, in just his clinic. These are girls, kids, and women who are older. This is what we are talking about.

When we debate this in the House, I think it is important to understand that this has been going on for a while. It continues to go on. Dr. Mukwege has said:

This will be the destruction of the Congolese people. If you destroy enough wombs, there will be no children. Then you come right in and take the minerals.

He is saying that because this is exactly what has happened. It is intimidation. It is a way, as we heard from one of my colleagues, to shame people, to take away their dignity. After this violence has occurred, they are left without support, sadly. It disrupts the whole society. That is what this is intended to do.

It is also heinous on the other side of the equation. This is socialized; these soldiers are socialized to do this. They start them off very young, as boys, to initiate them with rape. There is the whole social circle here. These young boys become soldiers. They are initiated in rape and then go in and continue the cycle. There are women who are raped multiple times, whose whole bodies become deformed and broken. It takes a very hard hit on a whole society. We have to consider that when we look at how we should respond.

This report is good. It is important. I challenge the government to implement it. I challenge the government to go back to the 1325 action plan on women, peace and security. However, I want us all to remember that there are things we can do as citizens. We should ask all of our providers and the people we buy technologies from what they are doing to make sure that all of our products are conflict free, so that we end the incentives for this horrific crime against humanity that has led to femicide in places like the DRC, and that we support the victims and those who, like the good doctor, are doing work on the ground.

Then we could say that when we found out there was a war against women going on, we did not just sit by, we acted and we acted with our values, obviously, as the cornerstone of our democracy, and that we actually reached out to those who did not have a voice and whose voices were too often extinguished.

This report is important because it gives us a chance to talk about an issue that is not talked about enough. It is something we should talk about more and, more importantly, something we should act on.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:20 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on this very important debate today. The subject matter is of course appalling and emotionally draining. It focuses on the use of rape as a weapon of war.

I want to thank my colleague from Ottawa Centre and ask him a specific question about what more Canada could have done. I am deeply troubled by the fact that the United Nations has two, perhaps three, times asked Canada if we were willing to send peacekeepers to assist in that area.

They were specific. They did not ask for hundreds of men or even dozens of our armed forces members, male or female. They asked for two or three people, particularly at the general level, who could help with the pan-African force that is part of the UN peacekeeping mission.

We declined. We did not send anyone to assist in the effort in the Congo even though millions of people have died there.

Does my friend have any comments on that?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, there was a very important period in our Parliament just at the time we were looking at extending our mission in Afghanistan. I do not know this, and history eventually will disclose this, but there was a period of a couple of weeks when our government was seized with what the next steps would be after Afghanistan. It was at the time we were being asked by the UN to supply officers for a UN peacekeeping mission. They were pleading. When I was in the Congo, they were asking me this personally. They wanted our professionalism, because obviously our history as peacekeepers is well known, to help with the peacekeeping mission in the Congo, the largest peacekeeping mission we had at the time, and which continues. They asked us more than three times over a couple of years. It was right around the time we were looking at whether to extend our mission in Afghanistan. It was at a time when we could have deployed some of our professional men and women, but not thousands.

I wish we had. It would have been helpful because of the professionalism we carry. We speak the language, French. We also have the authority, the history, and the integrity in peacekeeping. That is what was lacking and still is lacking. We could have done that. We could have implemented some of the ideas I had on conflict minerals. We still can do that. We still need to invigorate our action plan on peace and security. These are all things that can and should be done.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

NDP

Sadia Groguhé NDP Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

He readily brought up the matter of blood diamonds. I specifically recall that, with blood diamonds, the responsibility of the mining companies came up with respect to extracting the stones and perpetuating conflicts.

My colleague has taken the lead in moving his motion. Could he tell us what he thinks is the degree of responsibility of the mining companies and how, in the future, he would prevent these blood diamonds from continuing to cause and perpetuate these conflicts?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:25 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, it is the Kimberley process that was referenced. It is to make sure that it is still functioning to follow the supply chain. There are some issues there. However, the member brings up a very important point.

I was just at an event a week ago on the issue of certifying and following the supply chain for gold as well as for conflict minerals. There is a role for Canadian mining companies. It has happened in the past that mining companies hire security firms to essentially keep people off the land and sometimes to push people off the land. Some very unsavoury methods have been used to do that, not directly by the mining companies but by subcontractors.

What Canada needs to do, following the transparency initiatives we have seen at the G8 and G7 and the OECD, is ensure that all companies understand that they have a role to play in compliance and in ensuring, from taking minerals or gold out of the ground all the way through to production, that if any human rights abuses happen in connection to that, they have to bear the responsibility. There has been some good work done on this. Obviously government has to play a role, and I think we need to strengthen oversight. We have had debates in this House on how we can do that.

When we talk about big mining sites, there are cases when subcontracting has happened and human rights abuses have happened. It is not typical and is certainly not in conflict minerals, which is all about illegal mining. However, we need to understand that the responsibility lies with those companies to ensure that nothing like that happens. That is something we can do a bit more of.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:30 p.m.

NDP

Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to rise in this House to talk about a subject as important as the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The victims of armed conflict these days are civilians, much more often than soldiers. Unfortunately, they are mainly women and children. Atrocities of this kind are committed for a number of reasons, such as to terrorize a population, break up families and destroy communities. It is extremely difficult for me to talk about this subject, because nothing can justify the actions being committed at this time in many countries and many conflict zones, but more particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rape can be used as a weapon of war to transmit HIV to women in a community. These direct attacks on the fundamental rights of women are being used systematically for military or political purposes.

I would like to quote a few figures taken from a United Nations report on the prevention of genocide. In Rwanda in 1994, for example, from 100,000 to 250,000 women were raped during the three months of the genocide. Moreover, United Nations agencies estimate that over 60,000 women were raped during the civil war in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002; over 40,000 in Liberia from 1989 to 2003; up to 60,000 in the former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1995; and at least 200,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1998. That shows us the scale and extent of the problem since 1990.

Rape is now recognized as a crime against humanity under international law. In 1992, because of the numerous rapes of women in the former Yugoslavia, the matter came to the attention of the United Nations Security Council. On December 18, 1992, the council declared that the organized and systematic mass detention and rape of women, particularly Muslim women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, constituted an international crime that could not be ignored.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia subsequently included rape among crimes against humanity, on the same basis as other crimes such as torture and extermination. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda also declared that rape constituted a war crime and a crime against humanity. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in force since July 2002, includes rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity among crimes against humanity, when committed in a broad or systematic way.

The United Nations Security Council has addressed the question of sexual violence a number of times, specifically in ten or so of its resolutions. For example, Resolution 1325 of 2000 calls upon all parties to armed conflict to fully respect international law applicable to the rights and protection of women and girls, as civilians, and to incorporate in their legislation policies and procedures to protect women from gender-based crimes, such as rape and sexual assault. Other resolutions include Resolution 1820, adopted in 2008; resolutions 1888 and 1889 of 2009; Resolution 1960 of 2010; and resolutions 2106 and 2122 of 2013. The Security Council has ruled on the use of rape as a weapon of war on many occasions, and prohibits this kind of crime.

More recently, for example, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network provided a horrifying picture of the situation in Syria and the use of rape as a weapon of war in its report entitled “Violence against Women, Bleeding Wound in the Syrian Conflict”:

In 2013, the SNHR estimates that the number of rapes of women approximately reaches 6000...

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, over 200,000 women and children have been raped since 1998. The actual number is probably much higher because many of these women do not return to their communities for fear of being marginalized or excluded.

Many of these rapes and crimes against women and children are never reported because the victims are socially excluded.

In November and December of 2012, during their occupation of Goma, M23 fighters raped at least 36 women and children. All of these numbers represent only the cases that were reported to the authorities.

For example, during the most recent attack on the village of Karete on the night of July 2 to 3, 2013, fighters raped at least 25 women. The attacks continue, and the number of women who have been raped grows every time.

The DRC is still plagued by grievous problems, such as impunity. I asked my colleagues a number of questions about this. In a June 2014 report, Human Rights Watch said that despite the number of arrests and trials, the vast majority of the people who commit these crimes are never punished. Impunity is rampant. It is a systematic problem in the justice system because the fact is that senior officers are untouchable in military tribunals, where most of these cases are tried.

The same report states:

Widespread sexual violence in eastern Congo will not end until the perpetrators, including leaders bearing command responsibility, are brought to justice.

It goes on to say:

The justice system in Congo is beset by corruption, limited capacity, and political interference. Magistrates often lack proper training and basic equipment to conduct thorough investigations.

Human Rights Watch says that the Democratic Republic of Congo needs a new justice system to put an end to impunity.

I would like to emphasize recommendation 5 in the report, which deals with the importance of this aspect. It says that Canada must play a strong role in the reform of the justice system that is needed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and that training should be an integral part of the help provided by Canada.

The consequences of rape and sexual violence against women are another problem. The consequences are countless because each victim reacts differently. These women are in need of not only drugs, but also psychological, medical and legal help.

These four aspects have to be the main pillars of the help that Canada provides to women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government keeps refusing to fund initiatives to help women make a reproductive choice. I do not believe that the government has ever indicated that it would go back on this position when it comes to medical and psychological services.

The Conservatives voted against the bill introduced by my colleague, the international development critic, which sought to help developing countries access drugs as quickly as possible to treat HIV, another problem I raised at the beginning of my speech.

Unfortunately, they also voted against the bill on conflict minerals introduced by my colleague from Ottawa Centre. He explained the situation quite well: those who commit these systematic rapes are funded directly by natural resource development.

A number of major, glaring problems remain, and they should be the focus of Canada's measures, if Canada truly wants to put an end to sexual violence against women not only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also in all conflict zones.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Sadia Groguhé NDP Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.

She spoke about crimes against humanity, which is what this is. She also talked about the need for justice for these women and the need for appropriate assistance for survivors.

These women obviously need to heal physically and psychologically, but we also need to really focus on the link between healing and justice.

How does my colleague suggest we help ensure that the perpetrators are prosecuted?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I know she cares a great deal about this serious problem.

I talked about that briefly in my speech. Unfortunately, I had only 10 minutes to talk about a very serious global problem. I would therefore simply like to say that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the courts do not have the resources they need, and those involved in the justice system do not have proper training. Furthermore, people from civil society and soldiers are judged by military tribunals. Thus, there is a serious problem with impunity.

We are talking about financial resources, but also about training and action in terms of general reform. In fact, at this time, senior officers cannot be brought to justice by a lower ranking officer, for example. Thus, there are a lot of problems with the justice system.

This is very important, not only to put an end to the violence, but also to allow women and communities that have been broken by this sexual violence to begin to find closure and heal from these atrocities. Giving these individuals access to justice and doing them justice is a very important form of support to help them heal.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague has been on the foreign affairs committee and on the human rights committee, and one of the things we have to try to figure out when we hear testimony on troubling issues like this is where to put our resources. I would like to hear her advice in terms of providing direct help to women in the DRC.

We know that we need to help the victims. We know they need justice. Impunity is a huge issue, and I know the member has some interest in law, so I would be interested to hear some of the things we can do to help the victims seek justice and to help them become whole again, if possible.

As was stated before, this is a rampant issue, and we have to find ways to confront it. The trials in Bosnia were a great example, but how do we help women directly and invest to help them directly? What can we do as a country to help with that?

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:40 p.m.

NDP

Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for that very pertinent question.

I mentioned four very important factors for victims of rape. There is more than just medical assistance. My colleague from Ottawa Centre spoke about Dr. Mukwege, who is doing excellent work on the ground. In fact, these women are often victims of atrocities that I cannot even repeat in the House because they are so horrible. There are also drugs. I often speak about the diseases that are transmitted, such as HIV. It is very important that these women, these victims of rape, have access to drugs.

Legal aid is also quite important because these women are often left to fend for themselves in a justice system that is very repressive and refuses outright to listen to them. Legal aid is thus very important.

However, the most important thing we can provide these women is psychological support so they can heal and become members of their community once again.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:45 p.m.

Etobicoke—Lakeshore Ontario

Conservative

Bernard Trottier ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and for La Francophonie

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to the recommendations of the report on Canada's role in taking action to end sexual violence and impunity, which go beyond the specific context of the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The first four recommendations in the committee's report, as well as recommendation 12, urged the government to take concerted action to strengthen the participation of women and girls, promote respect for their human rights, and prevent all forms of sexual violence against them, including through the implementation of Canada's national action plan for women, peace and security. The government really concurs with these recommendations. Equality between women and men, the empowerment of women and girls, the respect for and promotion of their dignity and human rights, and the prevention and response to sexual violence against them are fundamental Canadian values.

What is self-evident to Canadians is not so clear within other societies, where human rights may not be respected. Countries that are in conflict, such as the DRC, Central African Republic, Syria and Iraq, or those in post-conflict recovery and transition to democracy, such as Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, have many challenges and need to do more to empower women and protect them from sexual violence.

In too many countries, legal, economic, cultural and social frameworks and practices impede the freedom, human rights and dignity of women and girls. They create barriers to women's participation in their communities and countries, and impede the search for sustainable peace, prosperity and development. That is why the government is so committed to the promotion of maternal, newborn and child health; the ending of child, early and forced marriage; and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including their trafficking.

It is my honour to describe some of the government's actions and policies aimed at promoting the empowerment, human rights, and well-being of women and girls in countries of concern.

First is maternal, newborn and child health. All mothers, newborns and children should be healthy and safe. That is why maternal, newborn and child health is Canada's top international development priority. At the 2010 G8 summit, Canada drew the world's attention to the issue by championing the Muskoka initiative for maternal, newborn and child health, MNCH. Thanks to the Muskoka initiative and the UN Secretary-General's “every woman, every child”, EWEC, initiative, maternal mortality rates are declining, and millions more children are celebrating their fifth birthday.

However, more needs to be done. That is why, in May 2014, Canada once again championed MNCH by hosting the “saving every woman, every child” summit in Toronto. At that event, the Prime Minister of Canada announced a recommitment to improving the health of mothers and children for the years 2015 to 2020.

The second topic is child, early and forced marriage. As members know, child, early and forced marriage is a widespread, harmful practice that threatens the lives and futures of girls and young women around the world. The statistics are staggering. Approximately 15 million girls are married every year. Over 700 million women alive today were married as children.

This is a violation of human rights. It denies girls their childhood. It disrupts or ends their education, jeopardizes their health, makes them more vulnerable to violence, including sexual violence, and limits their participation in economic and social spheres. When girls are not able to reach their full potential, everyone suffers, including girls, their families, communities and countries.

Canada has been instrumental in bringing the world's attention and action to this issue. For example, in 2011, Canada led the initiative to establish the annual international day of the girl child, which focused on child, early and forced marriage in its first year. In 2013, Canada played a leadership role in the development of the first resolutions focused on child, early and forced marriage at the United Nations Human Rights Council and General Assembly, putting this issue firmly on the international agenda for the first time.

Building on the success of these resolutions, in the fall of 2014, Canada and Zambia co-led the most substantive international resolution to date on child, early and forced marriage. The resolution showed the detrimental impact of child, early and forced marriage on international development goals, including on six of the eight millennium development goals, building consensus to meaningfully include the issue in the post-2015 development agenda. We are proud that this resolution was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly, with the overwhelming support of 116 co-sponsors from all regions of the world.

Canada has also committed to intensifying our programming efforts to end child, early, and forced marriage globally. Since 2013, Canada has contributed over $36 million to targeted programs aimed at ending child, early, and forced marriage globally. Our partners include UNICEF, Girls Not Brides, and civil society organizations around the world. Our programming focuses on empowering women and girls; preventing child, early, and forced marriage; supporting those who have already been married; engaging stakeholders at all levels; mobilizing communities; and strengthening legal frameworks.

Third is the elimination of violence against women and girls. The unequal treatment of women and girls is one of the main reasons why they are unable to realize their basic human rights and is a contributing factor to violence against women and girls. Canada leads the annual resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council on accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women. The 2014 resolution at the Human Rights Council focused on violence against women as a barrier to women's political and economic empowerment, was co-sponsored by 81 member states from all regions, and passed without a vote. Canada also uses the opportunity afforded by the Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council to voice our concerns and make our recommendations when it comes to preventing violence against women and girls and promoting their human rights.

As well, Canada is a strong supporter of the resolution on the “intensification of efforts to eliminate...violence against women” at the United Nations General Assembly.

Fourth is children and armed conflict. Canada is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its first two optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography. However, more needs to be done. Canada is recognized as a leading advocate for children in situations of armed conflict. We established and chair the Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict, an informal New York-based network of more than 38 member states. Members of the group have formed a united front to press for more robust action by the Security Council, including sanctions to hold perpetrators accountable for committing grave violations and abuses, such as the killing and raping of girls and boys and attacks on schools and hospitals. Canadian development investments in fragile states support child protection mechanisms. Our humanitarian assistance responds to the immediate needs of the most vulnerable, including the needs of children affected by conflict and natural disaster situations.

Fifth is trafficking in women and children. The Government of Canada recognizes the serious nature of human trafficking, which disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable members of societies, predominantly women and children. Human trafficking knows no boundaries and affects all countries, including Canada. Canada supports programs in countries that enhance the capacity to prevent and respond to threats posed by transnational criminal activity.

In June 2012, the Government of Canada announced Canada's national action plan to combat human trafficking, a comprehensive blueprint to guide the government's fight against this serious crime. In addition to taking concrete steps to address this scourge at home, Canada supports programs in countries that enhance the capacity to prevent and respond to threats posed by transnational criminal activity.

Sixth is women in international peace and security. Canada also addresses the rights of women and girls in conflict-affected countries and fragile states, as well as in situations of humanitarian crisis. Conflict and crisis can be both a cause of increased suffering for women and girls and a result of their subjugation within their communities and countries.

The empowerment of women and girls and their freedom from discrimination and violence are prerequisites to sustainable peace, development, and prosperity. This is why the government announced Canada's national action plan on women, peace, and security in 2010 and has tabled in Parliament the first two annual progress reports. The government continues to implement the action plan in close co-operation with Canadian civil society organizations and will be submitting the 2013-14 progress report soon. The government welcomes the report of the committee and agrees with the recommendations for the government to take a broad approach to promoting the empowerment, human rights, and well-being of women and girls.

Canada will continue this important work.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:55 p.m.

NDP

Sadia Groguhé NDP Saint-Lambert, QC

Mr. Speaker, the lack of education and training is definitely a factor that perpetuates the violence. In that regard, we really have to promote access to training and education for these people.

I would like my colleague to talk about that.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:55 p.m.

Conservative

Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON

Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. Education is the basis of an informed society and a society where women and girls have a high quality of life.

However, countries like the DRC and other countries in conflict zones need security. We know that soldiers can completely destroy schools and prevent girls from receiving a basic education. Thus, the prerequisite for any type of education is a country and an environment that are safe, where teachers and students can come together to teach and to learn.

Foreign Affairs and International DevelopmentCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings

7:55 p.m.

NDP

Ève Péclet NDP La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Saint-Lambert for being here because I think she and I are the only ones asking questions. I would therefore like to thank her. I find it unfortunate that the government did not want to rise this evening to speak about an issue that I feel is very important.

With that, the question that I want to ask my colleague is the same one I have asked all of the members. One of the major problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo is safety, of course; however, there is also the problem of impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes.

What role does the member see Canada playing in putting an end to this impunity in the Democratic Republic of Congo and finally bringing justice to rape victims?