UN Women

    It is troubling to see that Saudi Arabia has a seat on this executive board. The customs and traditions of that country infringe on women’s rights daily. It is a country where Nathalie Morin, a Quebecker, is stuck and being held prisoner, along with her children.

THE UN Human Rights Council is the mandated UN body responsible for the promotion and protection of international human rights.

It was intended to improve on its discredited predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission, which former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan critiqued for its "politicised" and "biased" decision-making, but it appears to have inherited and compounded the flaws of its predecessor.

United Nations Human Rights Council

Mr. Speaker, only weeks ago the Goldstone report was released, accusing Israel of “war crimes”. Now the UN Human Rights Council has come out with a contentious resolution endorsing the report. The resolution is entirely one-sided, accusing Israel of all kinds of atrocities. It somehow overlooks eight years of constant Hamas rocket fire and a covenant that openly calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Even Mr. Goldstone is disappointed at the lack of condemnation against Hamas in the debate and in the resolution.

Foreign Affairs

Mr. Speaker, I would remind this House that the so-called fact-finding commission was the creation of one of the United Nations’ most flawed bodies, the Human Rights Council, which includes some of the UN’s least democratic states.

Foreign Affairs

Mr. Speaker, this week the UN Human Rights Council released its latest anti-Israel missive. 

The Goldstone report began with a mandate to condemn the Jewish state in a process that Canada and many other nations would not support. The report accuses Israel of war crimes in the recent Gaza conflict.

Citizenship and Immigration

Mr. Speaker, Canada was the first country in the world to withdraw from the Durban process. We did so last January because of our concerns that it would be a repeat of the fiasco of Durban I.
 
Yesterday’s speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his odious remarks vindicate our decision, which has been followed by a number of other countries. He made those remarks on the eve of Holocaust commemoration day. Bizarrely, a UN spokesman actually said that at least he did not deliver all of his lines about Holocaust denial.

World Conference Againest Racism

Honourable senators, this Monday, Canada’s strong international leadership in boycotting the United Nations’ so-called world conference against racism was validated by the despicable remarks of the conference’s opening speaker, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Prime Minister Harper predicted, the Iranian president disgraced himself and the United Nations with a tirade against Jewish people and the state of Israel.

Citizenship and Immigration

Mr. Speaker, in January 2008, the Minister of Immigration announced that Canada would be the first country in the world to withdraw from the Durban review process. Since then, much of the world has followed Canada’s lead, including Italy, Australia, New Zealand, the Obama administration in the United States and Israel.
 

Pursuing Justice

Probably the first reaction on meeting Prof. Irwin Cotler is the feeling that the Canadian MP is no hard-bitten politician. Educated at McGill University and Yale, much of Cotler’s professional life has been devoted to a three-decade career as a distinguished scholar and McGill professor of human rights and constitutional law.

PM calls UN conference an ‘anti-Western hatefest’; Canada Won’t Go; Durban II likely as bad as Durban I, Harper says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a delegation of B’nai B’rith members yesterday that Canada is refusing to participate in a United Nations conference on racism because Ottawa will not be party to an anti-Semitic "anti-Western hatefest."