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FAFIA alliance of 40
non-governmental women's groups calls on the Prime Minister
of Canada to respond to UN criticism of Canada
April 30, 2003
The Right Honourable Jean Chretien
Prime Minister
Dear Prime Minister,
We write to you today about the recent review of Canada's
5th report on its compliance with the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
by the United Nations CEDAW Committee.
Our purpose in writing to you is twofold. First, we wish to
begin by expressing our thanks to officials of Status of
Women Canada for the high degree of professionalism that was
shown by them at Canada's 5th review, as well as for the
support for non-governmental participation that Status of
Women Canada officials offered on this occasion.
Secondly, we write to you to ask for your assistance.
Although Canada received praise for some initiatives, in its
Concluding Comments, the CEDAW Committee expressed a high
level of concern about Canada's failures to eliminate
discrimination against women. The Committee made a number of
important recommendations that, we believe, must be
responded to seriously by the Government of Canada.
More specifically and in summary form, the Committee
recommended that Canada: find ways to ensure that there is
compliance with the treaty in all jurisdictions;
re-establish national standards for social programs as a
means of ensuring treaty compliance; make gender-based
impact analysis mandatory; make funds available for
constitutional equality test cases in all jurisdictions;
ensure that sufficient legal aid is available to women for
civil and family law matters; increase efforts to combat
poverty among women; accelerate efforts to eliminate
discrimination against Aboriginal women; eliminate
legislated discrimination against Aboriginal women;
sensitize Aboriginal communities about women's human rights;
ensure that Aboriginal women receive sufficient funding to
participate in governance and legislative processes;
eliminate the provisions in the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act which still discriminate against immigrant
women; reconsider the live-in requirement of the Live-In
Caregiver Program, and ensure that live-in caregivers have
adequate social security protection and quicker access to
permanent residency; assist victims of trafficking through
counseling and reintegration; step up efforts to combat
violence against women and girls and increase funding for
women's crisis centres and shelters; take additional
measures to increase the representation of women in
political and public life; introduce employment-related
measures which will bring more women into standard
employment arrangements with adequate social benefits.;
accelerate efforts to implement equal pay for work of equal
value; expand affordable childcare facilities in all
jurisdictions; reconsider the eligibility rules under the
Employment Insurance Act and consider raising the benefit
levels for parental leave; redesign supports for socially
assisted housing based on a gender-based impact analysis;
disseminate widely the Concluding Comments in order to make
the people of Canada, and particularly government
administrators and politicians, aware of the future steps
required.
Because of the wide range and the importance of these
recommendations, we believe that the Government of Canada
must respond seriously and in a systematic manner.
The Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) is
the non-governmental umbrella group responsible for the
assembly and production of the national NGO report on Canada
submitted to the CEDAW Committee for the purposes of
Canada's 5th review. This report can be found on FAFIA's
website at www.fafia.org. It is through this alliance that
forty Canadian women's organizations have organized in order
to speak to Canada's obligations under CEDAW.
We ask you to ensure that Ministers and officials of the
Government of Canada work with FAFIA to design and implement
a process by which federal government practices and actions
can be reviewed and amended in light of CEDAW obligations,
and the Committee's recommendations.
We also request that you ensure that Ministers and officials
of your government will work with us to design and implement
means of ensuring that "coherent and consistent measures in
line with the Convention" are implemented in all Canadian
jurisdictions. The CEDAW Committee has underlined the
federal government's principal responsibility for
implementing the Convention, and has urged the Government of
Canada to find ways to ensure that treaty rights are
fulfilled by all levels of government. As the CEDAW
Committee notes, there appear to be no mechanisms that women
can rely on to ensure that treaty standards will be met
consistently in all jurisdictions in Canada. This leads to
women in some provinces, notably, at the moment, the
Province of British Columbia, - the sole province singled
out by the CEDAW Committee for critical comment - being
deprived of the enjoyment of their treaty rights, with no
obvious recourse.
The Government of Canada has a key role to play now, both in
meeting its own obligations under the Convention and, as
well, in facilitating, motivating, and monitoring
observation of CEDAW obligations by the other levels of
government in Canada.
Canada's reputation as a leader on women's human rights
issues is at stake here. It was clear at the review in New
York City on January 23, 2003 that the members of the CEDAW
Committee know Canada as a key advocate for women's human
rights in international fora. Canada also receives
international recognition for its aid to developing
countries for training regarding CEDAW obligations. (We note
that the Canadian International Development Agency recently
provided two grants amounting to 21.4 million dollars to
assist developing countries to understand their CEDAW
undertakings).We are proud of Canada's international stance
on women's human rights, and proud that it provides aid that
is specifically earmarked to assist women. However, Canada's
reputation as a leader depends on its actions at home - not
just on its words, and dollars, abroad. The contrast between
Canada's internationally demonstrated concern for CEDAW
principles and its domestic neglect of CEDAW obligations was
a central concern of the CEDAW Committee.
We congratulate you for Canada's recent decision to stand by
the rule of law, and to refuse to endorse a war in Iraq that
contravenes established principles of justice and
international law.
Now, with the CEDAW Concluding Comments, Canada has another
opportunity to demonstrate that it believes in the rule of
law, and in the value of international agreements,
standards, and bodies. By responding in a serious and
organized way to the CEDAW Committee's recommendations,
Canada will show its respect, in the domestic arena, both
for international law and processes, and for women's human
rights.
Canadian women need your government to show leadership in
Canada regarding women's rights to equality. Canadian women
do not enjoy social, political and economic equality with
men. The last decade has been a difficult one for women.
Hard won gains have been lost, and the most disadvantaged
women have been most harmed by cuts to social programs and
benefits. The CEDAW Committee's Comments illustrate these
concerns. Thus, the CEDAW review process can provide an
opportunity for your government to look carefully at its
policies and practices and to respond thoughtfully, and in
good faith, to the concerns expressed by the Committee, and
by Canadian women through their NGO report.
In recognition of the key role of your government, we
therefore make the following requests:
1) Please work with us to put in place a serious,
participatory, and transparent review process to respond to
the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee regarding the
practices and policies of the federal government;
2) Please work with us to put in place a serious review
process that will result in the design and implementation of
a transparent and public process of national oversight to
ensure that women's treaty rights are complied with in all
Canadian jurisdictions;
3) Please ensure that all review processes attend to the
specific and serious concerns of the CEDAW Committee
regarding Aboriginal women;
4) Please encourage the provinces and territories, and the
Province of British Columbia in particular, to comply with
the terms of CEDAW, and to treat the recommendations of the
CEDAW Committee with respect and responsiveness;
5) Please offer training to elected and other officials in
the provinces and territories to ensure that they understand
their CEDAW obligations, as well as make available other
supports which may assist these officials in responding to
the circumstances of women in their own provinces;
6) Please provide financial assistance to the
non-governmental women's groups currently representing women
and girl's human rights and equality concerns to the
provincial, territorial and federal governments. These
groups are working hard to deal with the harms caused by the
impact on women and girls of recent government funding cuts
and programme restructuring. And, in carrying out such
tasks, they are clearly positioned by the terms of CEDAW as
civil society groups the government is obligated to support
and facilitate.
We understand the matters we discuss in this letter to be
urgent ones, and we look forward to your response. Thank you
for your attention to these requests.
Sincerely,
Shelagh Day
for the Steering Committee
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