UN rights panel call for review of violence on aboriginal women rejected by Ottawa
Cuba, Iran, Belarus and Russia used a United Nations body Thursday to criticize Canada’s human-rights record, as the Canadian envoy rejected calls to develop a comprehensive national review to end violence against aboriginal women.
Canada was responding Thursday to the UN Human Rights Council, which is conducting its Universal Period Review of Canada’s rights record, on a wide range of issues from poverty, immigration, prostitution and the criminal justice system.
Countries have their rights records reviewed every four years by the Geneva-based UN forum, but the Harper government has been skeptical in part because it allows countries with dubious rights records to criticize Canada.
Canada’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Elissa Golberg, offered a brief rebuttal to Belarus, but did not engage directly with the other countries that criticized Canada.
“Canada is proud of its humanrights record, and our peaceful and diverse society,” Golberg told the onehour session.
While no society is entirely free of discrimination, she noted, Canada has “a strong legal and policy framework for the promotion and protection of human rights, and an independent court system.”
Recommendations from those countries were among the 40 of 162 that Canada chose to reject.
That also included a rejection of a series of resolutions calling on Canada to undertake sweeping national reviews of violence against aboriginal women.
Golberg said Canada takes the issue seriously and provincial and local governments are better suited to getting results on those issues.
Shawn Atleo, national chief of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations, said there is deep concern among aboriginals over the government’s refusal to conduct a national review of the problem.
“There is strong support for this action domestically among provincial and territorial leaders and the Canadian public and strong international support, not to mention a multitude of reports and investigations that urge Canada to act,”Atleo said in a statement. He said talk is not enough. “It is especially clear that words need to be supported by actions, that commitments and declarations need to be accompanied by concrete and concerted efforts in collaboration with First Nations to ensure all of our citizens, including women and girls, are safe.”
The countries that called for a national review included Switzerland, Norway, Slovenia, Slovakia and New Zealand.
Other countries with poor rights records, including Iran, Cuba and Belarus, also supported the call for an investigation into the disappearances, murder and sexual abuse of aboriginal women in Canada.
In a response to be formally tabled in Geneva, Canada says it is “strongly committed to taking action with aboriginal and non-aboriginal groups to prevent and stop violence against aboriginal women” through a series of federal and provincial initiatives.
“There have been a number of inquiries and resulting proposals for improvements over the years,” says the reply.
“In addition, race-based statistics are not recorded in a systematic manner across Canada’s criminal justice system due to operational, methodological, legal and privacy concerns.”