SDIR Committee Meeting

The Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development met by videoconference at 1:08 p.m. this day, in Room 253-D, Centre Block, the Chair, Scott Reid, presiding.

David Grossman, by videoconference from Montreal, Quebec, and François J. Larocque made statements and answered questions.

At 1:50 p.m., Mario Silva took the Chair.

On motion of Irwin Cotler, it was agreed, — Whereas, the Subcommittee has heard compelling testimony regarding the deteriorating crisis in human rights in Ahmadinejad’s Iran;

Whereas:

• Iran is engaged in widespread and systematic assaults on the human rights of its own people, including a state-orchestrated wave of arrests, detentions, beatings, torture, disappearances, and executions;

• The rate of executions in Iran has dramatically escalated in 2011;

• We have been witness to the unprecedented spectacle of several hundred Iranian parliamentarians calling publicly for the murder of opposition leaders;

• Iran has arrested and imprisoned more than 1,500 demonstrators in two protests on February 14th and 20th 2011 alone;

• Iran has imprisoned more journalists than any other country in the world;

• Iran has executed more juveniles per capita than any other country in the world;

• Iran has embarked upon the arrests and imprisonment of the lawyers of victims of human rights violations;

Be it resolved that:

• The Subcommittee urges the Government of Canada to endorse and act upon the recommendations as set forth in the report entitled “Ahmadinejad’s Iran: A Threat to Peace, Human Rights and International Law”, unanimously adopted by and tabled in the House of Commons by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on December 17th 2010;

In particular, be it resolved that:

• The Subcommittee condemn the systematic and widespread state-sanctioned assaults on the human rights of the Iranian people constitutive of crimes against humanity;

• The human rights crisis in Iran be a priority for Canadian foreign policy;

• Iran cease and desist from its state-orchestrated policy of wanton executions;

• Iran release its political prisoners, including the seven imprisoned Baha’i and ethnic Kurds and other members of targeted minorities;

• Iran cease and desist from its arrest and imprisonment of lawyers for no other reason than that they have defended victims of human rights violations;

• Iran cease and desist from its persistent and pervasive assaults on the rights of women, including also cruel and inhumane treatment and punishment such as stoning;

• The Government of Canada sanction the major human rights violators responsible for the ordering of, and complicity in, the wanton executions and massive assaults on human rights, and put them on notice that they will be held accountable before the law.

On motion of Wayne Marston, it was agreed, — Whereas, there are currently more than 50 Tibetans from the artistic and cultural communities who are either in prison or who have disappeared;

Be it resolved that the Subcommittee call on the Government of Canada to express its grave concern over recent attacks on freedom of expression in Tibet to the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

At 1:53 p.m., the Subcommittee adjourned to the call of the Chair.