VIDEOS
Canada's
Duty to Protect Human Rights Abroad: The Case of Omar Khadr
(9 October 2008)
Does Canada have a legal obligation to secure Omar Khadr’s
release from Guantánamo Bay prison and repatriation to Canada?
Gail Davidson examines Canada’s legal duty to provide protection
to citizens whose internationally protected rights are being violated
by another state, as demonstrated by the Omar Khadr case. She also
examines whether failure to act to prevent and punish violations
of a citizen’s internationally protected rights, is, in itself
a criminal offence. Gail Davidson, LLB Chair of Lawyers Against
the War Founder and Executive Director of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada
(42 minutes).
CBC
Documentary: The U.S. vs Omar Khadr
(16 October 2008)
The murder trial of Canadian Omar Khadr before a U.S. Military
Commission in Guantanamo is expected in the fall of 2008. Accused
of killing an American soldier with a grenade during a firefight
in Afghanistan in July 2002, most of the evidence against him is
based on a series of confessions Omar allegedly made at the age
of 15 while in U.S. custody at the military base in Bagram and later
in Guantanamo. Omar's defense team claims that these are false confessions
extracted under torture.
The U.S. vs Omar Khadr includes Omar's first-hand account
of the torture and mistreatment he claims to have suffered. Not
only is there extensive evidence that the U.S. Forces were using
torture in that time period, but a Bagram cellmate and one of his
interrogators corroborate his story. One of Omar's interrogators
was later convicted in the murder of a detainee in U.S custody in
Bagram (44 minutes).
REPORTS
Statement
and Request Concerning Omar Khadr’s Repatriation
(15 September 2008)
Advocats sans frontières/Lawyers without borders
Request
Concerning Omar Khadr’s Repatriation (30 September
2008)
Advocats
sans frontières/Lawyers without borders
Universal
Periodic Review of Canada: Report of Lawyers
Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)
Through
the new (2006) process of Universal Periodic Review (UPR), every
four years, the UNHRC will conduct a review of each member State's
fulfillment of human rights obligations and commitments arising
from the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the instruments to which each State is a party. The UNHRC review
will be based on three reports: the state's report, the report of
NGOs as summarized by the Offive of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) and a summary of information prepared by the OHCHR.
NGOs are invited to file report and to also participate in the review
of the reports that takes place before the conclusions of the UNHRC.
On September 8, 2008, LRWC filed a Canada report identifying Canada's
failure to prevent and punish violations of the internationally
protected rights of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr (including his non-derogable
right to freedom from torture and access to an independent and impartial
judiciary) and Canada's acquiescence to and participation in US
violations of Khadr's rights (UPR.Canada.LRWC).
The Universal Periodic Reviews of China and Canada will occur in
2009. The UPR.Canada.LRWC report has been endorsed by over 20 NGOs
and is still open for endorsement. While additional endorsements
cannot be added to the copy of reports already filed with the OHCHR,
there will be an opportunity to inform the UNHRC of additional endorsements
during the review process in Geneva in February 2009.
>>
Read full report
Organizations Endorsing the UPR/Canada Report
1. Lawyers Against the War;
2. Dr. Irma Parhad Programmes-University of Calgary;
3. Canadian Muslim Forum;
4. Dr. Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and
International Law,UBC;
5. Réseau du Forum social de Québec Chaudière-Appalaches;
6. Stopwar.ca;
7. Canadian Arab Federation;
8. Vancouver Catholic Worker;
9. Canadians for Peace and Socialism;
10. Council of Canadians;
11. National Lawyers Guild (re: international law);
12. Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations;
13. Islamic Society of York Region;
14. Consortium for Peace Studies- University of Calgary;
15. Peace Alliance Winnipeg;
16. Lawyers Without Borders Canada;
17. Ontario Federation of Labour;
18. Asian Legal Resource Centre;
19. Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association;
20. Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture;
21. Edmonton Small Press Association;
22. Mississauga Coalition for Peace and Justice;
23. Moeen Centre for Physically Disabled and Developmentally Challenged
Young Adults
24. Canadian Muslim Union
25. Arab Canadian Lawyers Association
Contact Gail Davidson at lrwc [at] portal.ca
to endorse or for information.
LETTERS
Lawyers
Against the War
Duty of Canadian government
to protect the rights of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr imprisoned
by U.S. authorities since July 2002 – first in Afghanistan
and, since November 2002, in Guantánamo Bay. (June 12,
2008)
Release
and repatriation of Omar Khadr, Canadian citizen imprisoned in Guantánamo
Bay. (July 30, 2008)
