[R-G] Canada urged to improve human rights record

[Anthony Fenton]

  Canada urged to improve human rights record
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2009/02/03/europe/OUKWD-UK-UN-RIGHTS.php
Reuters
Tuesday, February 3, 2009

By Laura MacInnis

Canada should strengthen its domestic violence laws and stop religious  
discrimination against Muslims, a U.N. body heard on Tuesday.

Germany, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China are among the other  
countries facing a review this month, under a less than year-old  
process that is meant to ensure all U.N. members are held to account  
for their rights records.

In its first examination under the Human Rights Council's Universal  
Periodic Review, Canada was also urged to do more to improve the  
welfare of its aboriginal citizens and to review its policies on  
police use of Taser weapons, following the 2007 death of an unarmed  
Polish man at the Vancouver airport.

The Canadian delegation told the 47-member state forum "no country,  
including Canada, has a perfect human rights record."

"It is important that every country open their human rights records to  
scrutiny, both domestically and internationally," Canada's deputy  
justice minister John Sims told the session in Geneva, where both the  
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Human Rights Council are  
based.

The reviews could help the nearly three-year-old Human Rights Council  
gain credibility as a watchdog for wrongdoings.

Since its launch in 2006, the Council has held special sessions on  
Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's Darfur crisis, and  
Israel.

The Council's predecessor, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, was seen  
to be largely ineffective.

Canada faced questions about its anti-terrorism laws, including a  
controversial "special advocate" measure in which a court-appointed  
lawyer with high security clearance stands in the place of certain  
detainees in their hearings.

Sims said the practice was meant to protect highly sensitive  
information while ensuring detainees get fair treatment.

"This programme special advocates will be challenged and will work its  
way through the Canadian court system. It will, in this way, be tested  
for how well the government has struck this important balance," he said.

On racial and religious profiling, he said that it was not used as it  
was contrary to the law. Canada's "bias-free" recruitment of police  
meant its force included racial or ethnic minorities less likely to  
engage in such practices, he said.

Addressing the concerns raised that it should ratify more human rights  
treaties, Sims said that Canada chose not to join the U.N. Declaration  
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007 because it was  
too vague on some issues.

"We are aware that Canada's position has generated a number of adverse  
reactions. I wish to stress, however, that Canada remains committed to  
fulfilling its human rights commitments to aboriginal peoples in  
Canada," he said.

The U.N. panel also said Canada ought to accede to U.N. treaties on  
enforced disappearances, the rights of migrant workers, and an  
optional protocol to the anti-torture pact.

(Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)