This is a massive topic and the presentation touched on some key issues. The pandemic represents a challenging time but there is the need to put human rights at the heart of Canada’s response to the pandemic – COVID-19 is indeed a human rights issue.
The State of Human Rights in the World
Alex Neve spoke to the club from Ottawa. He is a Senior Fellow and professor of law at University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University and is also a lecturer at Osgoode Hall, an Officer of the Order of Canada and Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada / English Branch for the period 2002-2020. As part of his work he carried out many research missions throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia, and in Canada’s indigenous communities.
This is a massive topic and the presentation touched on some key issues. The pandemic represents a challenging time but there is the need to put human rights at the heart of Canada’s response to the pandemic – COVID-19 is indeed a human rights issue.
The pandemic is a challenge to “human rights” – the right to life, to health, to safety for essential workers, to livelihood & social security, to housing & food, to equality and non-discrimination. Intersecting with these issues is the necessity of international cooperation because of the global impact of the pandemic and the global challenge to control it. The pandemic has had impacts that disadvantage the rights of many – racism, domestic violence, the acceptance of refugees, conditions in prisons & detention centres, and exacerbating poverty & homelessness. And the public-health restrictions represent limitations on the normal exercise of rights that all of the population typically enjoys (like travel and freedom of assembly and how we carry on economic activity).
Importantly, as we move through the recovery process we cannot leave any affected population behind – indigenous populations, racialized populations, the elderly, women, those with disabilities, migrant workers & refugees, and prisoners. As COVID-19 has developed around the world these minority populations have been disproportionately impacted both directly and indirectly.
The global picture shows that many jurisdictions have used the opportunity presented by COVID-19 to push back human rights – the issue of vaccine (access) equality, power grabs and COVID-enabled coups, censorship and decreased media freedom, imprisoning prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders, increasing strains on health care systems, and worsening conditions in immigration and refugee centres.
All this leads to a positive theme – Connection, Community & Solidarity.
There are several issues that highlight the development of human rights in Canada. The Inquiry into Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls produced a large body of recommendations, but the challenge will be how and when changes are implemented. The recent discussions of UNDRIP (the UN Declaration on the Rights if Indigenous Peoples) and its adoption by the BC Government prompts the parallel question of how it will be incorporated into law and practice. Around the world various rights abuses are being challenged by people power and demonstrations – in Hong Kong (erosion of democratic principles), Chile (economic inequity), Belarus (election irregularities) Russia (suppression of political opponents), Haiti (corruption) and Myanmar (military coup).
Questions
On the Uyghur situation in China, Alex was asked what would be the best avenue to influence Chinese policy. Alex noted that the Uyghur conflict goes back decades, but history shows that no good comes from ignoring or soft-pedalling human rights violations.
On the impacts from the pandemic, there is a sense that populations have less trust in their leaders and there is a general erosion in trust-based systems. We recognise that the pandemic has occasioned limits on some rights (notably freedom of movement, assembly). But to maintain trust the limits should be as limited as possible and as targeted as possible, and the leadership needs to back up its orders with clear and fulsome reasons and transparency.