The Senate
Motion to Urge the Government to Invoke the Genocide Convention to Hold Myanmar to its Obligations and to Seek Provisional Measures and Reparations for the Rohingya People--Debate
May 14, 2019
Honourable senators, I rise today to speak in support of Senator McPhedran’s motion calling on the Government of Canada to take further actions to bring to justice the perpetrators of genocide against the Rohingya people.
In 1951, after the horrors of the Second World War, the world came together to call into force the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Its rallying cry was never again — never again — would the world tolerate such oppression, injustice, inhumanity and cruelty. Yet, when we look back over the last 70 years, it appears that the global community has allowed genocide to occur again and again rather than never again. Remember Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur and now Myanmar.
I want to take a minute to remind us about the scale of the disaster in Myanmar. Since August 2017, the number of refugees who have fled to Bangladesh has increased dramatically. More than 1.3 million in Rakhine State have been affected. More than 900,000 have been forced to flee.
The culpability lies with military leaders and the Government of Myanmar, who have acted with impunity. The United Nations has described the military offensive in Rakhine which provoked the exodus as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
This is not the first time I have spoken on this crisis. As you may recall, I introduced a motion in October of last year asking that the Senate revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship of Aung San Suu Kyi. That motion passed unanimously. In doing so, both houses of Parliament recognized that the crimes committed against the Rohingya constituted a genocide. We called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, which I will refer to as ICC.
The ICC has since ruled that it can prosecute Myanmar’s leaders for forcibly deporting the Rohingya to Bangladesh. However, there are concerns that other crimes may be left out of its proceedings and hearings, including executions, rapes and the burning of villages.
There is another problem. In order to expand the scope of this investigation and bring perpetrators to justice, the UN Security Council needs to pass a motion referring these crimes to the ICC. But, as we all know, some members of the Security Council will block such a move — in particular Russia and China.
Seeing the United Nations Security Council as an obstacle, Senator McPhedran has identified another route to justice and accountability. Her motion asks the federal government to invoke the Genocide Convention and to work with other like-minded states to bring this matter to the International Court of Justice.
While the International Court of Justice is not able to convict specific individuals for their crimes against humanity, it can compel the state of Myanmar to respond to the allegations of genocide put forward by UN observers. Provisional measures and reparations can be pursued in this court without having to navigate the UN Security Council.
The gap between the promise and the practice of preventing genocide over the last 70 years is dispiriting indeed. I believe, as Senator McPhedran believes too, that we must find multiple routes to justice. It is therefore entirely fitting that Canada lead on this by collaborating with international partners to pursue the matter with the International Court of Justice in addition to the examination currently under way in the ICC.
I want to briefly draw your attention to another clause in this motion. This clause urges the Senate to urge the federal government to continue to provide multilateral aid to address the humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees. Thus far, Canada has — and I’m pleased to say this — pledged $66 million to support the Government of Bangladesh and international humanitarian organizations on the ground in Cox’s Bazar. However, this is still a very long way from what Bangladesh, Cox’s Bazar and the refugees need.
In fact, Bangladesh has been put under such severe strain by providing for the refugees that it has, in some way, been incentivized to sign a voluntary repatriation agreement with Myanmar even though there are no indications that the Rohingya will be allowed to return safely with a pathway to citizenship.
I ask you to consider the soon-to-come monsoons. For those who have not lived through monsoons, you may have a romantic notion about them. I have lived through monsoons, and I know what they can do to infrastructure that is barely sustainable. Flash floods and landslides will destroy housing and infrastructure. People will sink. Clean water becomes contaminated. Malaria, cholera and other diseases spread rapidly.
I believe that we should act in an expeditious manner to approve Senator McPhedran’s motion. I have proposed another bill — the frozen assets repurposing act — which would provide another route for getting urgently needed resources to the refugees. While Canada may be a middle power, it is not without influence. By approving this motion, we are encouraging our allies to do so.
I thank Senators McPhedran, Ataullahjan, Andreychuk, Munson and others for keeping our attention on this urgent global problem. Thank you very much.
Honourable senators, before I begin, I would say that a free and independent press is one of the cornerstones of democracy. As such, I was elated to learn of the release of the Reuters reporters held in Myanmar after more than 500 days in prison.
I rise today in support of Motion No. 476. I have been speaking about the situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar in the Senate for the past 10 years. In September 2017, I spoke in this chamber specifically about the brutal and horrifying situation that the Rohingya people in Myanmar were enduring at that time. I spoke of widespread systematic attacks and gross violations of human rights against Rohingya people being perpetrated by the Myanmar government forces, including sexual violence; rape; mass gang rape; torture; extrajudicial and summary killings of civilians, including infants and children; arbitrary detention and forced disappearances; systematic evictions; families burned alive in their homes; torching of villages and indiscriminate attacks against those fleeing, including the shooting of women and children.
The attacks were in breach of international human rights conventions, international law and international criminal and humanitarian law. Furthermore, the Myanmar government failed to uphold its responsibility to protect the civilian Rohingya minority population and must face justice.
At the time, the attacks were mostly referred to as crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, notwithstanding that international experts warned that the situation in Myanmar had every hallmark of the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia.
One year later, the Parliament of Canada formally recognized the attacks against the Rohingya people as genocide.
Subsequently, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar found sufficient information to warrant investigation and prosecution of senior Myanmar military officials on charges of genocide. It found “. . . that genocidal intent, meaning the intent to destroy the Rohingya in whole or in part, can be reasonably inferred.”
In its interim report on the situation of the Rohingya, the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights recommended that the Government of Canada continue engaging with UN member states to ensure that the perpetrators of crimes against the Rohingya were held accountable.
As we have learned from Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia ad hoc war crimes tribunals, accountability is a vital component in the healing process of victims, witnesses and their families.
Honourable senators, it is generally understood that the court best situated to prosecute those who perpetrate such crimes as genocide is the International Criminal Court. However, as Myanmar is not a state party to ICC, it is barred from exercising its jurisdiction over crimes committed within Myanmar.
In fact, the ICC has already ruled that since Myanmar is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and Bangladesh is, the court may only exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
The only way the ICC could exercise its jurisdiction over the crimes committed in Myanmar would be if the UN Security Council referred the matter to the court. However, a referral would require the support of China, which enjoys a close relationship with Myanmar, including strong commercial relations and, moreover, holds the power of veto in the Security Council and would almost certainly block any such attempt.
In light of this, and in order to seek provisional measures and repatriation for the Rohingya people, the motion before us asks the Government of Canada to invoke the Genocide Convention and pursue the matter before the International Court of Justice, a court that decides legal disputes submitted by states.
To this point, Professor of International Law at McGill University Payam Akhavan and Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa John Packer published an analysis recently on the Centre for International Policy Studies blog affirming this regarding the International Court of Justice, or ICJ:
The ICJ, on the other hand, has jurisdiction over the crime of genocide, and Canada could immediately bring a case against Myanmar based upon the available evidence. Canada and Myanmar are both signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention . . .
. . . Article IX of the treaty confers jurisdiction on the ICJ to determine the responsibility of governments, including their failure to prevent or punish perpetrators of genocide.
In this regard, the Government of Canada must uphold its positive duty under the Genocide Convention and demonstrate global leadership in the promotion of international human rights by engaging with like-minded states to pursue the matter before the ICJ. Furthermore, unobstructed access to Rakhine State by independent monitors in order to investigate the international crimes committed is of paramount concern.
As such, the Organization of Islamic Conference underscored in a recent resolution:
. . . the need to establish the facts of the situation on the ground in Rakhine State through an independent investigation body, and in this regard, noting with concern that the Government of Myanmar has ceased cooperation with UN mechanisms . . .
Canada can and must do more with its global partners to facilitate unfettered access to Myanmar, in particular Rakhine State.
The protection of an estimated 530,000 Rohingya who remain in Myanmar also is of paramount concern. Ensuring that humanitarian organizations have access to affected communities is an urgent priority as is the ability to monitor the security and human rights situation on the ground, again particularly in the Rakhine State.
Furthermore, in its study, the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights heard repeatedly that the need for humanitarian aid to the more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees who have fled persecution in Myanmar is monumental and dire.
The majority of refugees are concentrated in Cox’s Bazar. As we heard Senator Omidvar mention, there they face a lack of food and water, shelter and sanitation. Sexual violence is prevalent, as are human trafficking and limited access to health care and trauma services. These issues were addressed in the Human Rights Committee’s recommendations to the Government of Canada, also calling for particular attention to the needs of women, girls and the provision of education.
Honourable senators, I cannot stress strongly enough the level of humanitarian crisis facing Rohingya refugees and also the Government of Bangladesh. The Government of Canada must continue its provision of assistance to the Government of Bangladesh through multilateral aid which seeks to address both the short- and long-term humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees.
I would like to thank Senator McPhedran for moving this important motion, which I support and I ask that you do as well. To quote Professors Akhavan and Packer:
There will always be political reasons not to do anything, to remain as bystanders rather than taking a risk to achieve justice. But what do we as Canadians want to remember when we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Rohingya genocide? Can we enter the ranks of the good Samaritans like Raoul Wallenberg, who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust, or General Roméo Dallaire, who rescued Tutsis in Rwandan in 1994? Surely Canada can and should be on the right side of history.
Thank you, honourable senators.
On debate. Senator Ravalia, I remind you that at 3:30 I will have to interrupt you for Question Period.
Honourable senators, I rise to speak to Senator McPhedran’s motion which, amongst other issues, calls upon the Government of Canada to continue to assist the Government of Bangladesh through multilateral aid in addressing the humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees, with a particular focus on the needs of women and children.
Honourable senators, we have all heard about the gut-wrenching accounts of the more than 730,000 Rohingya who fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the violence in their homeland of Myanmar beginning in August 2017.
We have heard the eyewitness accounts of widespread torture, of women being brutally violated, of people who have had their loved ones killed before their eyes. We have heard the horror of burning villages, of men slaughtered en masse, lying face down, and of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers being separated and lost. The Rohingya will forever be haunted by the atrocities they have endured. The majority of them reaching Bangladesh are women and children, including newborn babies and the elderly who require additional aid and protection. These brutalized people have endured dangerous sea voyages across the Bay of Bengal or walked for days through hostile jungles and mountains.
The scale of the crisis is now so large that it is estimated that there are now more than twice as many Rohingya living in exile than in Myanmar itself.
Let us not forget that this is not the first time that these people have had to flee from persecution to Bangladesh in the past 40 years. In 1978, a wave of violence forced 200,000 Rohingya to escape to safety with their neighbour. In 1992, the world witnessed another 250,000 flow into Bangladesh. The horrendous cycle continues unabated.
In an altruistic act of generosity and kindness, Bangladesh has once again taken in all these refugees in a short period of time to provide them with relative safety, but, honourable senators, the suffering is severe and much more international support is needed. The Rohingya need to feed their families. They need clean water and sanitation facilities to wash, cook and clean. They need a secure shelter to weather the monsoons and the heat and, importantly, their children need an education.
Although Bangladesh is a charitable country, they have limited resources. Just a few weeks ago, Bangladeshi officials informed the UN Security Council that refugees fleeing Myanmar can no longer be accepted. This reaction should not be unexpected. Bangladesh should not have to shoulder the responsibility of caring for these individuals alone. The international community, including Canada, should step up and provide sufficient humanitarian aid to meet the needs of refugees while at the same time working to ensure conditions in Myanmar are conducive to their return.
We should also provide financial support to those who have generously hosted them for the past year and a half. The Bangladeshi villagers living near the camp have very little to call their own, yet they have offered everything to help the Rohingya.
Honourable senators, time is running out for these individuals. In the past couple of months, an outbreak of chicken pox has infected thousands of the children and adults in the vast Kutupalong settlement. This and many other normally-low-risk pathogens pose serious threats to the refugees. It is only a matter of time before they face even more deadly diseases with catastrophic outcomes.
It is particularly perilous for the children in the camp because they are immune-compromised. Not only were they not vaccinated against these preventable illnesses, many of them are malnourished which makes them even more susceptible to disease.
My nephew, Dr. Munir Ravalia, a United-Kingdom-based dentist recently spent time at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh where he personally witnessed the tragic health circumstances amongst these traumatized individuals.
Honourable senators, there is hope, however. In February, the United Nations aid agencies and NGO partners launched the 2019 Joint Response Plan to address this humanitarian crisis. They seek to raise $920 million U.S. to meet the needs of these refugees.
Funding requested will be used for critical aid and services such as food, water, sanitation and shelter. It will also be used for health care, education, protection activities including child protection and for addressing sexual and gender-based violence. Finally, it will be used to assist Bangladesh in hosting communities whose quick action and subsequent generosity saved many lives.
Honourable senators, we have seen all of this before. In 1948, Canada made a promise to the brave survivors of the Nazi atrocities when we signed the UN’s first human rights treaty, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The horrors of the Holocaust were fresh in the minds of the entire planet at the time. By signing that treaty, we gave our word that we would never again allow a group to be singled out because of their race, religion or colour. We have promised never again.
Sadly, the horrors of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur have demonstrated how unsuccessful we have been in implementing “never again,” but that does not mean we should abandon the rule of law and give up. Persecuted, helpless and defenseless, Rohingya refugees are in dire need of international assistance and, as Canadians, we should respond in an expeditious manner. We can no longer turn a blind eye to what has become a genuine humanitarian catastrophe.
