SUMMARY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S SUBMISSIONS TO THE UN COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
Canada underwent its sixth review of its compliance to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in February 2016. Amnesty International was one of 34 civil society organizations to provide written submissions to the CESCR, representative of the great level of concern with the state of protection of economic, social and cultural rights in Canada. Amnesty International provided written submissions at two stages of the review process: to assist the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the CESCR to set out the list of issues the CESCR would examine during the review in March 2015, and submissions for the review itself.
Amnesty International’s submissions highlighted concerns about Canada’s inadequate approach to implementing its international human rights obligations, compounded by difficulties created by the division of powers between the federal and provincial/territorial governments, and resistance to providing remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights by Canadian courts. In particular, our submissions drew attention to:
- Canada’s failure to enforce human rights compliance by Canadian mining companies operating abroad;
- The effect of the province of Quebec’s austerity measures of vulnerable groups such as children, persons with disabilities, and persons with low incomes;
- Canada’s failure to respect and uphold Indigenous peoples’ land rights;
- Canada’s underfunding of schools in First Nations reserves compared to provincial funding of schools in predominantly non-Indigenous communities;
- Inadequate human rights protections for migrant domestic workers;
- New federal laws permitting provinces to reduce social assistance to refugee claimants and other people without permanent status in Canada;
- Canada’s inadequate response to epidemic levels of violence, including murder, of Indigenous women and girls;
- Continued high levels of violence against women and girls in Canada, generally, and Canada’s undermining of protections of sexual and reproductive rights in other countries;
- Federal underfunding of child and family services on First Nations reserves and in the Yukon;
- Canada’s failure to respond to high prevalence of food insecurity in Canada;
- Canada’s resistance to adopt a national housing strategy to respond to high levels of homelessness and inadequate housing;
- Lack of legislation to protect the rights of children with disabilities to inclusive education;
- Alarmingly high numbers of indigenous communities living without access to drinking water;
- Canada’s failure to legislate protections for transgendered individuals;
- Sweeping cuts to federal funding for health services for refugee claimants and refugees;
- Canada’s ongoing use of solitary confinement in detention centres; and
- The Canadian government’s failure to acknowledge widespread mercury poisoning of First Nations in north-western Ontario and contamination of their land.
OUTCOMES OF THE REVIEW
In its Concluding Observations, the CESCR welcomed a number of measures the newly elected Canadian government has recently taken to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights in Canada, including restoring access to health care for refugee claimants and refugees, committing to establishing a national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and committing to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the Committee remained concerned that despite these developments, the following issues (among others) remain:
- There remains inadequate access to effective remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights before Canadian courts;
- There is still inadequate protection of the right to free, prior and informed consent of Canada’s indigenous peoples in Canadian law;
- Victims of human rights violations by Canadian mining companies operating abroad continue to lack access to justice;
- Indigenous peoples continue to live in poverty without adequate access to basic rights such as housing, water, food, education, child welfare, and health care;
- Discrimination against women continues to be widespread and there continues to be a high level of violence against women and girls, in particular Indigenous women and girls;
- There remain high levels of homelessness and inadequate housing across Canada; and
- Food insecurity in Canada continues at very high rates.
Amnesty International continues to call on our government to bring ongoing violations of economic, social and cultural rights to an immediate halt, pursue reforms that will better protect human rights in the future, and provide effective remedies for individuals and communities that have experienced and continue to experience violations.
LEGAL RESOURCES:
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
LIST OF ISSUES
Amnesty International’s Submission to the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (February 2015)
List of Issues in relation to the sixth periodic report of Canada adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/CAN/Q/6)
Replies of Canada to the list of issues (E/C.12/CAN/Q/6/Add.1)
REVIEW OF CANADA’S SIXTH PERIODIC REPORT TO THE CESCR
Canada’s sixth periodic report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/CAN/6)
Amnesty International’s Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (February 2016)
Amnesty International, Executive Summary and Recommendations of Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (February 2016)
Amnesty International’s Recommendations to Canada: Briefing
Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the sixth periodic report of Canada (E/C.12/CAN/CO/6)
MEDIA
