Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As my colleague mentioned, we have a very modest development assistance relationship with Burundi. However, our assistance is helping women and girls in the country. We're currently supporting several regional development initiatives that specifically target women and girls, that

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In the case of Burundi in particular, this is not something that we have imposed on Burundi from the outside. It was something that the 19 parties to the Arusha process came together and agreed upon. It was after over 18 months or so of discussions and negotiations.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I should reiterate that the limit of two terms is because the people of these countries have asked for that limit. In the particular case of Burundi, it was to ensure there was appropriate power sharing among the parties in power. If the people of the particular country decide th

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Perhaps, if I may, as mentioned earlier, Canada has been very active on the diplomatic front. The minister has been very active in discussions with neighbouring countries to try to increase and ensure continued momentum and pressure on the Burundian government. As also mentioned

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not aware at this time, but I will find out for you.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  What we would be asking the president and his government to do is to respect the Arusha accord of 2000. As mentioned, it does read like a constitution and it does set out very strongly the system of quotas and power-sharing guarantee across all of the democratic institutions in t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I have the details here in front of me of the announcement made by Minister Dion at the UN General Assembly yesterday. He announced a “package of up to $25 million of support over three years to enhance UN capacity in the area of conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding”.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Since this is a political crisis, we need a political solution and are in favour of an inter-Burundi dialogue. In his statements, the minister emphasized and supported the idea of those dialogues. For the moment, the diplomatic route is the one which presents itself and the one w

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I simply wanted to add that the funding of the HCHR office in Burundi, which totals $640,000, is also a way for Canada to demonstrate its efforts on this front in a concrete manner.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It is being done from here, from Nairobi and Kigali.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  A question like that requires that we make hypotheses, and it is difficult to do that. When we read the reports, the people who describe the situation indicate that it is political and not ethnic. I know that Burundi and Rwanda have quite similar ethnic compositions and that thei

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I believe they equated it, as I said earlier, to an invasion of the country.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's correct. The update is that 33 AU human rights observers and 14 AU military experts have arrived in the country and are on the ground.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It was $8 million.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The $95,000 that I quoted was from our Canada fund for local initiatives, which was funding going toward local partners such as helping with Radio Publique Africaine, as I've mentioned, but more globally in 2014-15 our funding totalled $11 million, and a chunk of that—we're count