Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, you're absolutely right about the inequity. Oxfam will be releasing an update this week on the issue of deaths, which are much higher in low‑ and middle‑income countries than in countries such as Canada. We hear that some countries are less affected, but that some middle‑income countries, such as Brazil, India and South Africa, have been hit very hard.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Canada is one of the main partners in Haiti in terms of humanitarian and development assistance. It's a key player and it has a voice with the Haitian government. The current situation of the Haitian government is certainly complicated. However, Canada is a key player when it comes to development assistance funding.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I support what my colleague, Mr. Turkel, has said. We are seeing a lot of forced labour of children in artisanal mining in West and Central Africa, and it's going up. There are many places. If I take Burkina Faso, Canada has the highest number of active mining companies in Burkina Faso, so we do have a role we can play.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  These are like open pit mines, going for gold. It's not industrial mining. Artisanal is not industrial, so people are in open pits and they don't have any protection. It's a very challenging context and human rights abuses are really quite high.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Both. The state is quite aware of it, but there are also foreign players involved in artisanal mining.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's a challenging question. I believe there are two. One was mentioned by Jeremy England, namely the whole question of the role Canada plays in pushing peace processes. That's really important, because if we can stop these conflicts, we're going to stop a lot of the abuse. The second one is to have some really robust laws here in Canada on what we do in the world, on what our companies are doing and what our organizations are doing in the world, making sure that we're not contributing to these human rights violations but instead serving as an example.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'll say two things. First, despite everything, people are still working to develop their communities. We're working on major projects with women in the coffee industry to develop climate‑resilient agriculture. People still want to develop their communities and they're working hard to do so.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think there are a couple of things. The first one is to ask questions of the government about where our arms, or parts for arms, are being sent to Saudi Arabia, how that's impacting the conflict and whether we are inadvertently a party to the conflict through that. I think that's really important.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The situation in India is of great concern. There's quite a lot of anti-Muslim rhetoric from the government. It has incited a lot of communal violence against Muslims in their own communities. We're also seeing from the Indian government actions to limit the actions of civil society organizations that are denouncing these things.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Gender‑based violence is rampant. There's an increase [Technical difficulty—Editor], as we've seen recently in Honduras. Even the emergency contraceptive pill—commonly known as the “morning after pill”—is banned and criminalized there. In Colombia, abortion was decriminalized. However, the next day, the president said that this was absurd and that the constitutional court's decision should be overturned.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting us today. I am here to testify on behalf of Oxfam. Oxfam is an organization that works on the ground to provide a humanitarian response during emergencies and to support long-term community development. Our testimony is based on our direct, in-person knowledge of those impacted by human rights violations.