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NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ADDRESS COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
01 May 2006
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1 May 2006
Speakers Raise Shortcomings in Countries whose Reports
Will Be Considered by the Committee during this Session
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon heard statements from representatives of non-governmental organizations with respect to the reports of Canada, Mexico and Morocco, which it will examine during the current session.
Speakers underscored the failure of the States parties to carry out their obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and outlined the challenges ahead. The Committee will also consider reports from Liechtenstein and Monaco during the next three weeks but no non-governmental organizations spoke on the situation in these countries.
With regards to the situation in Canada, the issue of poverty, in particular among women, Aboriginals, and African-Canadians, was highlighted. Concerning Mexico, access to water, the poverty and exclusion suffered by indigenous communities, and particular situations in which economic, social and cultural rights had been violated were stressed. And with regards to Morocco, the effect of trade-related intellectual property rules on access to medicines and the enjoyment of the right to health was raised.
The representatives of the following non-governmental organizations took the floor: NGO Coalition, Canadian Council for Refugees; Justice for Girls; Feminist Organization for Women’s Advancement; Sixth Nations Confederacy; National Working Group on Women and Housing; Organic Agriculture Protection Fund; Income Security Working Group and Hamilton’s Community Legal Clinics; First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada; African Canadian Legal Clinic; National Anti-Poverty Organization; Lubicon Lake Indian Nation; Poverty and Human Rights Center; Low Income Families Together; Social Watch Mexico; FIAN International; Enlace Comunicacion y Capitacion/Grupo Pro DESCA en Chiapas; CECOP; and 3-D Three.
After the NGOs made their presentations, Committee Experts asked a number of questions which were answered by the NGO representatives.
When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 May, it will begin its consideration of the initial report of Monaco (E/1990/5/Add.64).
Statements with Respect to Canada
CHANTAL TIE TEN QUEE, NGO Coalition, said on behalf of all the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) present in Geneva, there was serious concern about the NGO community in Canada concerning that country’s lack of upholding of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was demonstrated by the large number of NGOs present. There were also general concerns by all the NGOs about the Canadian Government’s follow-up, which had been virtually nil in the past, and the lack of implementation of the domestic accountability measures.
JOANNA CZAPSKA, Justice for Girls, said from the outset that there was no reason why a State as wealthy as Canada should have girl homelessness. Homelessness, and particularly that of girls, was of concern in Canada. She could not overstate the seriousness of sexual abuse in the home in Canada, which was a direct source of homelessness of girls in the country. Criminals were very rarely charged and it was the girls who were pulled out of their homes rather than the criminals. If they went to the Children's Ministry of Health, they were told to go home.
ANGELA STERRITT, Justice for Girls, said that it was difficult to address Canada's breaches of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights when the repeated assaults upon the dignity, culture and lives of indigenous girls were overwhelmingly carried out and supported by the Canadian Government. Indigenous girls lives remained under protected and over-policed, not only because of Canada's failure to promote the rights of indigenous girls, but because of the Canadian Government's continued programme of assault against those girls in the form of systemic racism, cultural genocide, and institutional violence.
DOREEN SILVERSMITH, Feminist Organization for Women’s Advancement, Rights & Dignity, said the Government of Canada had turned its back on women. The Committee should vigorously scold the Canadian Government on its invidious, scurrilous legislated human rights violations, and strongly urge it to implement the Committee’s recommendations. The Government should recognise, respect, protect and fulfil rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, acknowledging the connections between violence against women, social and economic exclusion, and Government policies contributing to degradation, ensure that every person had access to a home that was adequate, affordable, safe, secure and dignified, and provide autonomous, dignified housing and support for independence.
DOREEN SILVERSMITH, Sixth Nations Confederacy, said the Committee should remind the Government of Canada of its obligations under the right to self-determination, and take note of the Committee’s concluding observations of 1998, in which it stated that Aboriginal poverty was directly connected to dispossession of their lands. The Committee should recommend that Canada refrain from its current practice of allowing private companies to exploit First Nations lands over which title was in dispute.
EMILY PARADIS, National Working Group on Women and Housing, said the real housing conditions experienced by many low-income women across Canada should be exposed, as Canada failed to meet the requirements of adequacy as articulated in General Comment No.4. This had been underscored by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing who had recently expressed grave concern on this matter. Housing for low-income women in Canada was unaffordable, unstable, difficult to access, and, at times, life-threatening. The Government of Canada should adopt a national housing strategy.
PERCY SCHMEISER, Organic Agriculture Protection Fund, said that the Fund was a Canadian organization struggling against genetically modified organisms that were destroying the base of life, the existence of most of the Canadian farmers, and the health of their consumers. Canada was the world's fourth-largest producer of genetically modified agricultural products. In Canada no additional safety tests were prescribed for the licensing of genetically modified food, and labelling did not exist either. Farmers as well as beekeepers and consumers had lost their option to choose, their right to health, and their right to unhindered access to food without unhealthy substances.
CRAIG FOYE, McQuesten Legal & Community Services & the Hamilton Income Security Working Group, said many of the issues identified by the Committee in 1998 remained critical, and these included restrictions in employment insurance benefits, continued increases in food bank usage, inadequacy of the minimum wage, and the continued erosion of benefits, crisis levels of homelessness among youth and young families, as well as cuts in services for person with disabilities and other areas. The right to an adequate standard of living was not being acknowledged or protected by either the Provincial or Federal Governments. Not many in Canada talked about poverty as a human rights issue, although Canada had fully ratified this clearly guaranteed right to an adequate standard of living.
CINDY BLACKSTOCK, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, said that culture was being able to define who you were and being able to grow up in the company of your group. Canada was the home to one of the few race-based legislations in the world, the Indian Act. Only children who could provide a specific blood quantum could be acknowledged as registered Indians. While the Federal Government did not fund support services to keep children in their homes, there were unlimited resources to remove them. Canada was raising a group of children that were growing up not within their status group, but in foster care.
ROYTAND MORIAH, African Canadian Legal Clinic, said there were particular areas of concern for the violation of the rights of African-Canadians under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in particular with the right to an adequate standard of living, extreme levels of poverty, and incidents of racism. In Canada, there was a virtual racialisation of poverty, and African-Canadians were among the most represented in this plight. African-Canadian women suffered multiple and intersecting forms of disadvantage, and were even more likely to suffer extreme poverty. This had dire consequences on African-Canadian children, 45 per cent of whom lived in poverty, and were suspended and expelled from school in high numbers. Even where African-Canadians had the same levels of education, they still suffered low employment, and these issues were clearly related to racist attitudes.
PAULETTE HALUPA, National Anti-Poverty Organization of Canada, said the Committee should ask the Canadian Government what was done about the concluding observations from the review of the third periodic report, and it should recommend that more effective follow-up mechanisms be implemented this time. The Committee should recommend that minimum wages be raised to a level where an individual working full time could escape poverty. Changes should be made to eligibility requirements for welfare to ensure that all those who required social assistance were able to get the help they needed. Canada should develop a poverty reduction strategy to reduce child and family poverty with a range of policies, targets and timelines and measures to evaluate progress.
CHANTAL TIE TEN QUEE, Canadian Council for Refugees, said that, eight years ago, the Council had appeared before this Committee to raise the issue of the denial of family reunification for refugee families without identity documents. They wanted to thank the Committee for the concern it had expressed to Canada, which had played a role in the settlement of the case. Unfortunately, the Canadian Government was far from consistent in paying due attention to the observations of United Nations human rights committees. There were currently four provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that were blatantly discriminatory on the grounds of social status in that they prevented family reunification for people who were poor.
ALPHONSE OMINAYAK, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation, said Canada lacked effort and concern to honestly resolve land claim issues. It was the heart of the reason for the existence of the United Nations which the Canadian Government was ignoring in its actions.
FRED LENNARSON, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation said the Nation had never surrendered its land rights, and in the past 25 years its territories had been invaded by natural resource companies, which had devastated the ecology of the area, and forced many of the inhabitants onto welfare in order to survive, with other negative effects on health due to pollution. Canadian officials had even tried to deny the existence of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation. The United Nations Human Rights Committee had heard the plight of the Nation in 1987, and instructed Canada to take measures to protect the members of the Nation. The Committee should censor Canada for ignoring its concluding observations and recommendations.
MARGOT YOUNG, Poverty and Human Rights Center, said that she wanted to stress the critical role that provincial governments played in the implementation of Canada's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The province of British Colombia was affluent and prosperous, yet there had been a concerted undermining of women's economic status in the province. So significant and regressive were those actions that the Center had asked for attention to be focused on those measures four years ago. The issues she wanted to highlight included the growing poverty rate within the province, particularly for women; the government's attack on collective bargaining and trade union rights; and the powerful and purposeful dismantling of economic entitlements in the province.
JOSEPHINE GREY, Low Income Families Together, said the Committee members should understand how violations of economic, social and cultural rights were experienced in an urban environment in a wealthy country. Immigrants and new Canadians were isolated and were left with no information as to their rights, and could not exercise their skills and knowledge. Systemic racism in the workforce tended to keep people of colour, immigrants and aboriginals out of employment, with increased negative effects including suicide, drug use and depression. The current Government had utterly failed to repair any of the issues causing the problems in the first place and follow up the recommendations of the Committee.
Statements with Regard to Mexico
ARELI SANDOVAL, Social Watch Mexico, introducing the joint non-governmental organization (NGO) report which was in front of the Committee involving about 105 civil society organizations, said the Government report recognised that there were very different results in the country, and many of these did not represent the true situation. An important step towards democracy took place with the change of Government in 2000, but there had been very little or no progress in economic, social and cultural rights in the country. The economic and social situation in general in Mexico was negative with regards to the living level and level of well-being of the people of Mexico. The situation in Mexico was one of double standards, with liberalisation on one hand, and on the other, limitations of the rights of workers. There had been a growth of poverty in urban areas.
SANDRA RATJEAN, FIAN International, in a second introduction to the NGO report, said in spite of the wide recognition of the right to food in several international instruments, the right to food was not explicitly consecrated in the Mexican Constitution. This had contributed to the lack of a legal framework for the public policies on this issue, which would provide legal certainty to the population of that country. The people or groups whose human right to food were affected in Mexico could not obtain justice so that the damages were adequately repaired, and indemnification, compensation or the guarantee of non-repetition was granted. Malnutrition continued to be an important public health problem in Mexico, and child malnutrition massively affected rural and indigenous areas. In various regions of the country, both rural and urban, there were serious problems with the availability, accessibility, and quality of water. The right to food should be recognised in the Constitution, and it was essential to guarantee food security and sovereignty
MIGUEL ANGEL PAZ, Enlace Comunicación y Capitación, Grupo PRO- DESCA en Chiapas, coalition of civil organizations for democracy in Mexico which works closely with organizations in the Chiappas region, said that he wanted to note the positive impact that the recommendations adopted by the Committee in 1999 had had, when the members had requested that the armed forces no longer be involved in social programmes in the state of Chiappas. Today the army was not involved in social programmes in the state. Another concern had been the extreme poverty and exclusion faced by indigenous communities in that area of Mexico. That situation had worsened. The Government's social programmes had received a prize from the World Bank, but the poverty indicators it used excluded a number of families who were not able to benefit from it, and that led to a rise in social tensions in Chiappas.
SANDRA RATJEAN, FIAN International, said that she would take the floor for the second time today to draw the attention of the Committee to the case of the Euzkadi case in Mexico, which involved the German tyre company Continental and demonstrated the transnationalization of human rights with multiple actors and stakeholders. The German tyre producer had had a conflict between the management and the local labour union. In 2001 Continental illegally closed the Euzkadi plant and stopped paying wages to workers violating the workers’ right to food. FIAN asked the Mexican Government to submit Continental’s decision to a legal examination. Finally, with the personnel intervention of the President of Mexico and non-governmental organizations, the plant was reopened in 2005.
RODOLFO CHAVEZ GALINDO, CECOP, said the Mexican Government had committed violations at the national level, including in a project to displace 25,000 farmers due to the construction of a dam. In July 2003, the resistance of these farmers was criminalized, arrest warrants were put out on the basis of false accusations, and even killings had taken place. These acts were reported and a strong movement arose to ensure that the Government did not build the dam. All legal recourse was used, but the Government was still insisting on the project. The farmers would continue to resist the violations of their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as others. The Committee should ask the Government to cancel the project and all those which did not have the agreement of the population and led to violations of economic, social and cultural rights.
Statement with Regard to Morocco
DAVINIA OVETT, 3-D Three, said human rights mechanisms such as the Committee could help attain a fairer economic system by reminding States that compliance with international trade rules could not justify non-compliance with human rights obligations. There were concerns regarding the impact of trade rules on access to life-saving medicines and the enjoyment of the right to health in Morocco, as these were being undermined by strict intellectual property rules in trade agreements. There was concern that the Government was implementing a trade agreement that was negotiated in secret and signed without any public consultation with Moroccan civil society groups. The Committee should recommend to the Government that it undertake an independent impact assessment of the effect of trade-related intellectual property rules on access to medicines and the enjoyment of the right to health.
Questions and Comments by Committee Members
Waleed M. Sadi asked whether the human rights issues related to girls in Canada were simply confined to poverty and sexual abuse. He asked whether the age of consent was not part of the problem, and wondered why nobody had raised it. Could the rights of indigenous girls be separated from the rights of girls as a whole, he said, noting that very harsh statements had been made. African-Canadian racism appeared to be a serious problem, but was it not part of the general problem of racism as a whole. He would raise this issue in the future. He also asked why nobody had bothered to raise the issue of the collapsing state of medical care and education.
Rocio Barahona Riera said a speaker had referred to an increase in social expenditure in Mexico, and that the Government’s figures concealed inequalities in the health care sector and that of education, and asked for more data on this topic, as there appeared to be a contradiction herein.
Azzouz Kerdoun said with regard to Morocco, he noted that the non-governmental organization (NGO) which spoke was based in Geneva, and had addressed intellectual property. There were other very important issues to address in the country, including poverty. He was surprised that Moroccan NGOs which had come from the country had not taken the floor, considering that there were many in that country, and many other problems, and asked to be enlightened as to the reason for this.
Maria Virginia Bras Gomes said with regard to Canada, which was a rich country with an ongoing surplus, did the changes to social security benefit criteria reflect a global situation? If a country had an ongoing surplus, what could be the reason for across the board tightening of eligibility criteria, thus pushing people below the poverty line? Was this a global phenomenon, or was it just taking place with regards to social security.
Ariranga Govindasamy Pillai said it was depressing to hear of the regress in economic, social and cultural rights in Canada, and asked whether this was the case across the board. He asked whether it was true that most of the Committee’s recommendations and those of the Human Rights Committee had not been implemented, and whether the NGOs had any suggestions in these circumstances.
PHILIPPE TEXIER asked whether it was true that in some provinces the minimum wage ensured a level of existence that was below the poverty threshold. Were their variations in this salary between provinces, and what was the nature of this minimum wage, he asked.
Response by NGOs
Responding, JOANNA CZAPSKA, Justice for Girls, said the issues of poverty, violence and homelessness among girls had been chosen, but they were not the only issues affecting girls’ lives in Canada, just the only ones chosen. Sexual abuse was a law and order issue, but housing for girls was an equality issue under article 3, and this was explained in the report. The very low age of consent was also a serious problem.
ANGELA STERRITT, Justice for Girls, said with regards to self-determination, aboriginal rights were not extinguished at the time of colonisation. It was more difficult for indigenous girls to access their rights, as their voices were further marginalized in any process in Canada, and they were not heard as much as any other group. Indigenous girls and women were even attacked more. It was indeed a crime to be an indigenous girl in Canada, as there had been many cases where girls were criminalized for bringing cases forward. In many cases, hate crimes against indigenous girls were not considered.
ROYTAND MORIAH, African Canadian Legal Clinic, said racism was a problem in general in Canadian society, but to group African-Canadians in that category would hide that they had a particular problematic history with regards to racism, and that even within the general category of racialised groups, African-Canadians were still at the bottom of the socio-economic range in Canada, with particular characteristics attributed to them, including low intelligence, which had an effect on how they were treated in Canadian society.
PAULETTE HALUPA, National Anti-Poverty Organization, said that the minimum wage needed to be raised in many regions in order for the recipients to reach the poverty level.
CRAIG FOYE, Income Security Working Group and Hamilton’s Community Legal Clinics, said an analysis of social assistance benefits was in the report, and it showed the shortfalls with regards to certain areas of social assistance, in particular with regards to the Committee’s previous recommendations.
EMILY PARADIS, National Working Group on Women and Housing, said statistics showed that across Canada assistance benefits fell well below the poverty line. Other social security benefits had also been tightened and excluded increasing numbers of workers. The reasons for this were both structural and ideological, as poverty was being concentrated in devalued groups in Canadian society, including women, aboriginals, racialised groups and those with disabilities. Regimes of social assistance had explicitly punitive legislation which appeared to be designed to humiliate those in need.
JOSEPHINE GREY, Low Income Families Working Together, said the report made some references to the education system. The last report issued by the Committee had a strong effect on galvanising civil society, and had strengthened the latter, with a positive effect on the struggle that was being waged. The North American Free Trade Agreement made it very difficult for countries to make any progress in the field of economic, social and cultural rights, and until this was overcome, even the Committee’s effect would be limited.
ARELI SANDOVAL, NGO Coalition, said the idea was that the social budget had been growing over the past years because there were hidden chapters, and there was actually a reduction in expenditures, with the health budget being broken down. The situation with education was also disguised, as there were serious reductions in many cases, despite the Government declaring that education was a priority. The Government had set an objective to have 8 per cent of the GDP to be allocated to education, and said this had been reached, but the ex-Special Rapporteur on the right to education had noted that these figures did not really reflect the situation. The figures on the fight against poverty were also unclear, as the budget was one thing but actual expenditure was something else. Allocated resources were not really distributed for reasons the Government did not explain.
DAVINIA OVETT, 3-D Three, said she completely agreed that there should have been groups from Morocco present. Trade agreements in Morocco were extremely complicated, and the access to medicines was just one clear issue where they had impacted human rights, although there were many others.
* *** *
For use of the information media; not an official record
Speakers Raise Shortcomings in Countries whose Reports
Will Be Considered by the Committee during this Session
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon heard statements from representatives of non-governmental organizations with respect to the reports of Canada, Mexico and Morocco, which it will examine during the current session.
Speakers underscored the failure of the States parties to carry out their obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and outlined the challenges ahead. The Committee will also consider reports from Liechtenstein and Monaco during the next three weeks but no non-governmental organizations spoke on the situation in these countries.
With regards to the situation in Canada, the issue of poverty, in particular among women, Aboriginals, and African-Canadians, was highlighted. Concerning Mexico, access to water, the poverty and exclusion suffered by indigenous communities, and particular situations in which economic, social and cultural rights had been violated were stressed. And with regards to Morocco, the effect of trade-related intellectual property rules on access to medicines and the enjoyment of the right to health was raised.
The representatives of the following non-governmental organizations took the floor: NGO Coalition, Canadian Council for Refugees; Justice for Girls; Feminist Organization for Women’s Advancement; Sixth Nations Confederacy; National Working Group on Women and Housing; Organic Agriculture Protection Fund; Income Security Working Group and Hamilton’s Community Legal Clinics; First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada; African Canadian Legal Clinic; National Anti-Poverty Organization; Lubicon Lake Indian Nation; Poverty and Human Rights Center; Low Income Families Together; Social Watch Mexico; FIAN International; Enlace Comunicacion y Capitacion/Grupo Pro DESCA en Chiapas; CECOP; and 3-D Three.
After the NGOs made their presentations, Committee Experts asked a number of questions which were answered by the NGO representatives.
When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 2 May, it will begin its consideration of the initial report of Monaco (E/1990/5/Add.64).
Statements with Respect to Canada
CHANTAL TIE TEN QUEE, NGO Coalition, said on behalf of all the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) present in Geneva, there was serious concern about the NGO community in Canada concerning that country’s lack of upholding of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was demonstrated by the large number of NGOs present. There were also general concerns by all the NGOs about the Canadian Government’s follow-up, which had been virtually nil in the past, and the lack of implementation of the domestic accountability measures.
JOANNA CZAPSKA, Justice for Girls, said from the outset that there was no reason why a State as wealthy as Canada should have girl homelessness. Homelessness, and particularly that of girls, was of concern in Canada. She could not overstate the seriousness of sexual abuse in the home in Canada, which was a direct source of homelessness of girls in the country. Criminals were very rarely charged and it was the girls who were pulled out of their homes rather than the criminals. If they went to the Children's Ministry of Health, they were told to go home.
ANGELA STERRITT, Justice for Girls, said that it was difficult to address Canada's breaches of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights when the repeated assaults upon the dignity, culture and lives of indigenous girls were overwhelmingly carried out and supported by the Canadian Government. Indigenous girls lives remained under protected and over-policed, not only because of Canada's failure to promote the rights of indigenous girls, but because of the Canadian Government's continued programme of assault against those girls in the form of systemic racism, cultural genocide, and institutional violence.
DOREEN SILVERSMITH, Feminist Organization for Women’s Advancement, Rights & Dignity, said the Government of Canada had turned its back on women. The Committee should vigorously scold the Canadian Government on its invidious, scurrilous legislated human rights violations, and strongly urge it to implement the Committee’s recommendations. The Government should recognise, respect, protect and fulfil rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, acknowledging the connections between violence against women, social and economic exclusion, and Government policies contributing to degradation, ensure that every person had access to a home that was adequate, affordable, safe, secure and dignified, and provide autonomous, dignified housing and support for independence.
DOREEN SILVERSMITH, Sixth Nations Confederacy, said the Committee should remind the Government of Canada of its obligations under the right to self-determination, and take note of the Committee’s concluding observations of 1998, in which it stated that Aboriginal poverty was directly connected to dispossession of their lands. The Committee should recommend that Canada refrain from its current practice of allowing private companies to exploit First Nations lands over which title was in dispute.
EMILY PARADIS, National Working Group on Women and Housing, said the real housing conditions experienced by many low-income women across Canada should be exposed, as Canada failed to meet the requirements of adequacy as articulated in General Comment No.4. This had been underscored by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing who had recently expressed grave concern on this matter. Housing for low-income women in Canada was unaffordable, unstable, difficult to access, and, at times, life-threatening. The Government of Canada should adopt a national housing strategy.
PERCY SCHMEISER, Organic Agriculture Protection Fund, said that the Fund was a Canadian organization struggling against genetically modified organisms that were destroying the base of life, the existence of most of the Canadian farmers, and the health of their consumers. Canada was the world's fourth-largest producer of genetically modified agricultural products. In Canada no additional safety tests were prescribed for the licensing of genetically modified food, and labelling did not exist either. Farmers as well as beekeepers and consumers had lost their option to choose, their right to health, and their right to unhindered access to food without unhealthy substances.
CRAIG FOYE, McQuesten Legal & Community Services & the Hamilton Income Security Working Group, said many of the issues identified by the Committee in 1998 remained critical, and these included restrictions in employment insurance benefits, continued increases in food bank usage, inadequacy of the minimum wage, and the continued erosion of benefits, crisis levels of homelessness among youth and young families, as well as cuts in services for person with disabilities and other areas. The right to an adequate standard of living was not being acknowledged or protected by either the Provincial or Federal Governments. Not many in Canada talked about poverty as a human rights issue, although Canada had fully ratified this clearly guaranteed right to an adequate standard of living.
CINDY BLACKSTOCK, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, said that culture was being able to define who you were and being able to grow up in the company of your group. Canada was the home to one of the few race-based legislations in the world, the Indian Act. Only children who could provide a specific blood quantum could be acknowledged as registered Indians. While the Federal Government did not fund support services to keep children in their homes, there were unlimited resources to remove them. Canada was raising a group of children that were growing up not within their status group, but in foster care.
ROYTAND MORIAH, African Canadian Legal Clinic, said there were particular areas of concern for the violation of the rights of African-Canadians under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in particular with the right to an adequate standard of living, extreme levels of poverty, and incidents of racism. In Canada, there was a virtual racialisation of poverty, and African-Canadians were among the most represented in this plight. African-Canadian women suffered multiple and intersecting forms of disadvantage, and were even more likely to suffer extreme poverty. This had dire consequences on African-Canadian children, 45 per cent of whom lived in poverty, and were suspended and expelled from school in high numbers. Even where African-Canadians had the same levels of education, they still suffered low employment, and these issues were clearly related to racist attitudes.
PAULETTE HALUPA, National Anti-Poverty Organization of Canada, said the Committee should ask the Canadian Government what was done about the concluding observations from the review of the third periodic report, and it should recommend that more effective follow-up mechanisms be implemented this time. The Committee should recommend that minimum wages be raised to a level where an individual working full time could escape poverty. Changes should be made to eligibility requirements for welfare to ensure that all those who required social assistance were able to get the help they needed. Canada should develop a poverty reduction strategy to reduce child and family poverty with a range of policies, targets and timelines and measures to evaluate progress.
CHANTAL TIE TEN QUEE, Canadian Council for Refugees, said that, eight years ago, the Council had appeared before this Committee to raise the issue of the denial of family reunification for refugee families without identity documents. They wanted to thank the Committee for the concern it had expressed to Canada, which had played a role in the settlement of the case. Unfortunately, the Canadian Government was far from consistent in paying due attention to the observations of United Nations human rights committees. There were currently four provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that were blatantly discriminatory on the grounds of social status in that they prevented family reunification for people who were poor.
ALPHONSE OMINAYAK, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation, said Canada lacked effort and concern to honestly resolve land claim issues. It was the heart of the reason for the existence of the United Nations which the Canadian Government was ignoring in its actions.
FRED LENNARSON, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation said the Nation had never surrendered its land rights, and in the past 25 years its territories had been invaded by natural resource companies, which had devastated the ecology of the area, and forced many of the inhabitants onto welfare in order to survive, with other negative effects on health due to pollution. Canadian officials had even tried to deny the existence of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation. The United Nations Human Rights Committee had heard the plight of the Nation in 1987, and instructed Canada to take measures to protect the members of the Nation. The Committee should censor Canada for ignoring its concluding observations and recommendations.
MARGOT YOUNG, Poverty and Human Rights Center, said that she wanted to stress the critical role that provincial governments played in the implementation of Canada's obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The province of British Colombia was affluent and prosperous, yet there had been a concerted undermining of women's economic status in the province. So significant and regressive were those actions that the Center had asked for attention to be focused on those measures four years ago. The issues she wanted to highlight included the growing poverty rate within the province, particularly for women; the government's attack on collective bargaining and trade union rights; and the powerful and purposeful dismantling of economic entitlements in the province.
JOSEPHINE GREY, Low Income Families Together, said the Committee members should understand how violations of economic, social and cultural rights were experienced in an urban environment in a wealthy country. Immigrants and new Canadians were isolated and were left with no information as to their rights, and could not exercise their skills and knowledge. Systemic racism in the workforce tended to keep people of colour, immigrants and aboriginals out of employment, with increased negative effects including suicide, drug use and depression. The current Government had utterly failed to repair any of the issues causing the problems in the first place and follow up the recommendations of the Committee.
Statements with Regard to Mexico
ARELI SANDOVAL, Social Watch Mexico, introducing the joint non-governmental organization (NGO) report which was in front of the Committee involving about 105 civil society organizations, said the Government report recognised that there were very different results in the country, and many of these did not represent the true situation. An important step towards democracy took place with the change of Government in 2000, but there had been very little or no progress in economic, social and cultural rights in the country. The economic and social situation in general in Mexico was negative with regards to the living level and level of well-being of the people of Mexico. The situation in Mexico was one of double standards, with liberalisation on one hand, and on the other, limitations of the rights of workers. There had been a growth of poverty in urban areas.
SANDRA RATJEAN, FIAN International, in a second introduction to the NGO report, said in spite of the wide recognition of the right to food in several international instruments, the right to food was not explicitly consecrated in the Mexican Constitution. This had contributed to the lack of a legal framework for the public policies on this issue, which would provide legal certainty to the population of that country. The people or groups whose human right to food were affected in Mexico could not obtain justice so that the damages were adequately repaired, and indemnification, compensation or the guarantee of non-repetition was granted. Malnutrition continued to be an important public health problem in Mexico, and child malnutrition massively affected rural and indigenous areas. In various regions of the country, both rural and urban, there were serious problems with the availability, accessibility, and quality of water. The right to food should be recognised in the Constitution, and it was essential to guarantee food security and sovereignty
MIGUEL ANGEL PAZ, Enlace Comunicación y Capitación, Grupo PRO- DESCA en Chiapas, coalition of civil organizations for democracy in Mexico which works closely with organizations in the Chiappas region, said that he wanted to note the positive impact that the recommendations adopted by the Committee in 1999 had had, when the members had requested that the armed forces no longer be involved in social programmes in the state of Chiappas. Today the army was not involved in social programmes in the state. Another concern had been the extreme poverty and exclusion faced by indigenous communities in that area of Mexico. That situation had worsened. The Government's social programmes had received a prize from the World Bank, but the poverty indicators it used excluded a number of families who were not able to benefit from it, and that led to a rise in social tensions in Chiappas.
SANDRA RATJEAN, FIAN International, said that she would take the floor for the second time today to draw the attention of the Committee to the case of the Euzkadi case in Mexico, which involved the German tyre company Continental and demonstrated the transnationalization of human rights with multiple actors and stakeholders. The German tyre producer had had a conflict between the management and the local labour union. In 2001 Continental illegally closed the Euzkadi plant and stopped paying wages to workers violating the workers’ right to food. FIAN asked the Mexican Government to submit Continental’s decision to a legal examination. Finally, with the personnel intervention of the President of Mexico and non-governmental organizations, the plant was reopened in 2005.
RODOLFO CHAVEZ GALINDO, CECOP, said the Mexican Government had committed violations at the national level, including in a project to displace 25,000 farmers due to the construction of a dam. In July 2003, the resistance of these farmers was criminalized, arrest warrants were put out on the basis of false accusations, and even killings had taken place. These acts were reported and a strong movement arose to ensure that the Government did not build the dam. All legal recourse was used, but the Government was still insisting on the project. The farmers would continue to resist the violations of their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as others. The Committee should ask the Government to cancel the project and all those which did not have the agreement of the population and led to violations of economic, social and cultural rights.
Statement with Regard to Morocco
DAVINIA OVETT, 3-D Three, said human rights mechanisms such as the Committee could help attain a fairer economic system by reminding States that compliance with international trade rules could not justify non-compliance with human rights obligations. There were concerns regarding the impact of trade rules on access to life-saving medicines and the enjoyment of the right to health in Morocco, as these were being undermined by strict intellectual property rules in trade agreements. There was concern that the Government was implementing a trade agreement that was negotiated in secret and signed without any public consultation with Moroccan civil society groups. The Committee should recommend to the Government that it undertake an independent impact assessment of the effect of trade-related intellectual property rules on access to medicines and the enjoyment of the right to health.
Questions and Comments by Committee Members
Waleed M. Sadi asked whether the human rights issues related to girls in Canada were simply confined to poverty and sexual abuse. He asked whether the age of consent was not part of the problem, and wondered why nobody had raised it. Could the rights of indigenous girls be separated from the rights of girls as a whole, he said, noting that very harsh statements had been made. African-Canadian racism appeared to be a serious problem, but was it not part of the general problem of racism as a whole. He would raise this issue in the future. He also asked why nobody had bothered to raise the issue of the collapsing state of medical care and education.
Rocio Barahona Riera said a speaker had referred to an increase in social expenditure in Mexico, and that the Government’s figures concealed inequalities in the health care sector and that of education, and asked for more data on this topic, as there appeared to be a contradiction herein.
Azzouz Kerdoun said with regard to Morocco, he noted that the non-governmental organization (NGO) which spoke was based in Geneva, and had addressed intellectual property. There were other very important issues to address in the country, including poverty. He was surprised that Moroccan NGOs which had come from the country had not taken the floor, considering that there were many in that country, and many other problems, and asked to be enlightened as to the reason for this.
Maria Virginia Bras Gomes said with regard to Canada, which was a rich country with an ongoing surplus, did the changes to social security benefit criteria reflect a global situation? If a country had an ongoing surplus, what could be the reason for across the board tightening of eligibility criteria, thus pushing people below the poverty line? Was this a global phenomenon, or was it just taking place with regards to social security.
Ariranga Govindasamy Pillai said it was depressing to hear of the regress in economic, social and cultural rights in Canada, and asked whether this was the case across the board. He asked whether it was true that most of the Committee’s recommendations and those of the Human Rights Committee had not been implemented, and whether the NGOs had any suggestions in these circumstances.
PHILIPPE TEXIER asked whether it was true that in some provinces the minimum wage ensured a level of existence that was below the poverty threshold. Were their variations in this salary between provinces, and what was the nature of this minimum wage, he asked.
Response by NGOs
Responding, JOANNA CZAPSKA, Justice for Girls, said the issues of poverty, violence and homelessness among girls had been chosen, but they were not the only issues affecting girls’ lives in Canada, just the only ones chosen. Sexual abuse was a law and order issue, but housing for girls was an equality issue under article 3, and this was explained in the report. The very low age of consent was also a serious problem.
ANGELA STERRITT, Justice for Girls, said with regards to self-determination, aboriginal rights were not extinguished at the time of colonisation. It was more difficult for indigenous girls to access their rights, as their voices were further marginalized in any process in Canada, and they were not heard as much as any other group. Indigenous girls and women were even attacked more. It was indeed a crime to be an indigenous girl in Canada, as there had been many cases where girls were criminalized for bringing cases forward. In many cases, hate crimes against indigenous girls were not considered.
ROYTAND MORIAH, African Canadian Legal Clinic, said racism was a problem in general in Canadian society, but to group African-Canadians in that category would hide that they had a particular problematic history with regards to racism, and that even within the general category of racialised groups, African-Canadians were still at the bottom of the socio-economic range in Canada, with particular characteristics attributed to them, including low intelligence, which had an effect on how they were treated in Canadian society.
PAULETTE HALUPA, National Anti-Poverty Organization, said that the minimum wage needed to be raised in many regions in order for the recipients to reach the poverty level.
CRAIG FOYE, Income Security Working Group and Hamilton’s Community Legal Clinics, said an analysis of social assistance benefits was in the report, and it showed the shortfalls with regards to certain areas of social assistance, in particular with regards to the Committee’s previous recommendations.
EMILY PARADIS, National Working Group on Women and Housing, said statistics showed that across Canada assistance benefits fell well below the poverty line. Other social security benefits had also been tightened and excluded increasing numbers of workers. The reasons for this were both structural and ideological, as poverty was being concentrated in devalued groups in Canadian society, including women, aboriginals, racialised groups and those with disabilities. Regimes of social assistance had explicitly punitive legislation which appeared to be designed to humiliate those in need.
JOSEPHINE GREY, Low Income Families Working Together, said the report made some references to the education system. The last report issued by the Committee had a strong effect on galvanising civil society, and had strengthened the latter, with a positive effect on the struggle that was being waged. The North American Free Trade Agreement made it very difficult for countries to make any progress in the field of economic, social and cultural rights, and until this was overcome, even the Committee’s effect would be limited.
ARELI SANDOVAL, NGO Coalition, said the idea was that the social budget had been growing over the past years because there were hidden chapters, and there was actually a reduction in expenditures, with the health budget being broken down. The situation with education was also disguised, as there were serious reductions in many cases, despite the Government declaring that education was a priority. The Government had set an objective to have 8 per cent of the GDP to be allocated to education, and said this had been reached, but the ex-Special Rapporteur on the right to education had noted that these figures did not really reflect the situation. The figures on the fight against poverty were also unclear, as the budget was one thing but actual expenditure was something else. Allocated resources were not really distributed for reasons the Government did not explain.
DAVINIA OVETT, 3-D Three, said she completely agreed that there should have been groups from Morocco present. Trade agreements in Morocco were extremely complicated, and the access to medicines was just one clear issue where they had impacted human rights, although there were many others.
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