Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much. We will begin, of course, with the eye-witness accounts of what happened. That is always a traditional method of proving cases in court. We don't leave it only at that. Nuremberg, which prosecuted the Holocaust and war crimes that were committed during the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Might I butt in here, please? I think this comes back—I don't want to look back, but I must—to this: In this day and age, the question now is how we evolve international law to the next level. It has moved so far to where it is. What else can be done? I return to whatever we can

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. The question that was asked is whether we can use civil remedies and I believe we can, so that, at the end of the war, people will have to worry about where the assets are and whether in nations all over the world there will be judgments against their property and ass

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The intent to destroy a group in whole or in part is a critical element of genocide. That's what separates a genocide from murder, which you can commit in peacetime as well as in war. However, to decide to eradicate a racial group, ethnic group, religious group or national group,

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Let me try. Your question is an important one. The trick there is to limit the definition of what we mean by “peace” and take the bearing of that definition from the war of aggression. There is a definition of a war of aggression in international law. You have it in the Rome Sta

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's all right. Thank you very much. That's an important question, but first of all let me say again that it's too much to impose the obligation on a court of law to prevent a genocide. I think I need to make that very clear. In Canada we have had our legal system here for hu

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'll say this quickly while Mr. Stewart thinks about his own answers. That's a starting point. That's something that can happen: Fund the court. Support it beyond the case of Ukraine. Give it that standing support. I will turn to the primary question: How do we even stop this

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Since you didn't get a chance, why don't you take this one first and I'll come in?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  May I come in here?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. The question was if we can draw a parallel between what happened in Rwanda and what's happened in Ukraine. I look at it this way: I don't think we need to draw those parallels with either what happened in Rwanda or what happened in the Second World War, with the Holoc

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If you can go fast, since I did the last one, I'll come back later.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  —you can then use that later on and satisfy the judgment against those whose assets you have seized.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think that the current circumstances provide fertile emotional soil for that to grow. If countries like Canada could take it up as something worth pursuing, I do think that they will have some reception. Of course, I'm not guaranteeing that. You know what happens in these war

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much, honourable member. Right now, there is no recognition of peace as an actionable human right. I speak to people about it and say, how can that be? We have fundamental rights to security, to life. Those are some of the essential ones. With regard to freedom of

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The point is now for us to develop this right to peace, another juncture, and that is something that victims of wars of aggression can use later on in the civil courts of free countries in the world to sue those who launch wars of aggression and their accomplices in those wars. I