SUMMARY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S SUMISSIONS TO THE UN COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Canada underwent its 17th and 18th review of its compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in February 2007. Amnesty International provided written submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) during the review.
In our submissions, Amnesty International outlined a number of concerns about racial discrimination in Canada, and provided corresponding recommendations. The report considered four groups in Canada who experience the effects of discrimination: Aboriginal peoples, refugees, migrant workers, and communities which experience hate crimes.
OUTCOMES OF THE REVIEW
Among its concerns and recommendations in its Concluding Observations, the CERD noted concerns about Canada’s use of security certificates under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to detain indefinitely non-national suspected of terrorism-related offences. The Committee urged Canada to address discrimination against Aboriginal peoples in relation to the inheritance of Indian status under the Indian Act; the effects of resource development activities on Indigenous people’s lands and cultures; high levels of violence, including death, against Aboriginal women and girls; and dramatic inequality in living standards experienced by Aboriginal peoples. The Committee recommended that Canada immediately adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The CERD recommended that Canada ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and ensure that all undocumented migrants and stateless persons have full access to their socioeconomic rights, including social security, health care, and education.
LEGAL RESOURCES
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination
Canada’s 17th and 18th periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/CAN/18, 5 April 2006)
Amnesty International’s submissions to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (February 2007)
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/CAN/CO/18, 25 May 2007)
Canada’s response to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s Concluding Observations (CERD/C/CAN/CO/18/Add.1, 27 October 2007)
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s follow-up letter to Canada’s response (12 March 2010)
