The Government of Canada must do more to prevent human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating overseas.
In 2019, Canada created the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, but failed to give the ombudsperson the powers needed to conduct effective investigations into human rights abuses involving Canadian companies. Amnesty continues to press the government to give the Ombudsperson the power to compel documents and testimony.
Guest blog by Eric Doherty, member of AI Canada’s Corporate Accountability and Climate Justice specialized team on Energy Transition. To join, please send an email to Elena: edumitru@amnesty.ca and indicate your interest in the Energy Transition team.
Last month the U.S. Department of Transportation put a Texas highway expansion project on hold, because it could violate U.S. human rights law by increasing pollution and displacing people from their homes in lower income Black and Latino neighbourhoods. And, after some intense campaigning by climate justice organizations like the Sunrise Movement, under the Biden administration, U.S. transportation spending is finally being shifted away from highway expansion and toward public transit.
Climate change is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time. Here are four ways you can take action for climate justice this spring:
Learn more and take action in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and two-spirit (LGBTQ2S) rights while practicing social distancing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted LGBTI people. People have been forced into lockdown with homophobic and transphobic family members. Some governments have used the pandemic as an excuse to crackdown on a whole range of human rights, including LGBTI rights. LGBTI human rights defenders are at a heightened risk of persecution. Connecting in person with chosen family, communities of care, and other supports has often been impossible. And now, the pandemic is forcing Pride activities online for the second straight year. The need for virtual communities of care and solidarity, and global activism in support of LGBTI rights has never been greater! Join us during Pride season to take action in support of LGBTI rights!
Perhaps the greatest cross border priority we all face is protecting the environment on which our human rights and shared future depends.
Environment defenders in Latin America risk their very lives to respond to this challenge with hope and enormous courage. Indeed, Latin America is the most dangerous region in the world to defend human rights and the environment.
Most at risk are Indigenous, black and rural campesino defenders, especially when they confront people intent on taking control of their land to exploit its economic potential or the natural resources found there, no matter the cost. Women environment defenders face the added risk of sexual violence against them or their children because their outspoken efforts challenge traditional gender roles as well as economic interests.
Amnesty International Canada is responding to appeals for solidarity from environment defenders in Latin America who know their governments often pay more attention to their international image than the voices of their citizens.
People understand climate change as an environmental issue of course, but tend to forget that it affects our basic human rights too. The rights to life, health, food, water, housing, security and the rights of Indigenous peoples.
While all of us are affected by climate change, disadvantaged communities around the world and right here in Canada - that have done the least to cause climate change - will be hit the hardest. From those who live in coastal communities, to poorer communities who experience toxic and polluted air, and indigenous people who frequently live and depend on fragile ecosystems that are in danger.
Climate change is a crisis. And the Canadian government must act like it is.
The response of the Canadian government so far has been lethargic in commitment and inadequate in response.
Simply put - Canada needs to do more, and do more now!
Amnesty International’s iconic candle-and-barbed-wire logo is recognized around the world. And this year Amnesty and its candle turn 60. Sadly, we can’t gather to mark the occasion, except online. So that’s where this special 60th anniversary art exhibition will be located.
We invite all artists to submit a high resolution photo of an original artwork or photo that in some way presents or represents a candle that we can bring together with 59 others in an online exhibition we’re calling 60 Candles for 60 Years.
Artwork may include but is not limited to any media on any surface, sculpture using any material, prints of any type, photography, metal, glass, digital imaging, mixed media, and created at any time. There is no entry fee. We ask that artists respect any local laws or by-laws in the creation of their artwork and ensure their safety and well-being and those of others is respected.
These are the words that Jani Silva, a courageous woman environment defender in the Amazon region of Colombia, shared at Amnesty Canada’s Sparking Connections online conference in November (watch a video of what Jani said at the conference on our YouTube channel here). Not long after we talked with her, Jani had to flee her home and go into hiding because of dangerous new threats that put her life in danger and reduced state protection.
During December’s Write for Rights campaign, more than 9,000 Amnesty Canada supporters raised their voices to demand strengthened, not reduced, protection for Jani and other threatened defenders of her organization, ADISPA.
Since the widely disputed presidential election in August 2020, the Belarusian regime has engaged in a brutal crackdown on all forms of dissent, real or imaginary.
Police have used rubber bullets, stun grenades, chemical irritants, water cannons and other less lethal weapons against peaceful protesters, resulting in at least four deaths and countless serious injuries. More than 30,000 demonstrators have been detained and scores of have been subjected to torture and other ill treatment. At least one person is known to have died in detention. Many journalists and human rights defenders involved on documenting police crackdowns in Belarus have been imprisoned. Opposition leaders have either fled the country or been detained.
You don’t have to be out in the streets protesting to be at risk. Passers-by, flower sellers and even people wearing red or white clothes -- the colours of the flag of Belarus first adopted in 1918 during a brief period of independence -- eating red and white candy or even hanging the red and white Japanese or Canadian flag in their apartments have also been targeted.
Gladys Tolley, the mother of Bridget Tolley from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec, was struck and killed by a police officer’s vehicle on October 5, 2001. Ever since, Bridget has been advocating for police to be held accountable for her death. She runs Families of Sisters in Spirit, a volunteer-run, grassroots initiative supporting the loved ones of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people across Canada. Since 2006, Bridget has been instrumental in organizing a vigil every October 4 on Parliament Hill, bringing together loved ones to honour their stolen mothers, aunties, sisters, and daughters.
Bridget is one of the grassroots Indigenous advocates at the heart of the movement to end violence against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, and two-spirit people in Canada. On February 18, 2021, Amnesty International spoke with Bridget about her many years of art, activism, and her guidance for Amnesty International’s supporters.
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