India Recommends Canada to Prevent Attacks on Religious Places, Minorities at UNHRC Review Meet

The Indian delegation at the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) meeting led by Mohammed Hussain last week recommended that Canada introduce a framework to prevent misuse of freedom of expression, attacks on places of worship and minorities.

“In the spirit of constructive dialogue, India recommends the following to Canada – further, strengthen the domestic framework to prevent misuse of freedom of expression, for inciting violence and disallow activities of groups which are promoting extremism, effectively prevent attacks on places of worship of religious and racial minorities, strengthen legislative and other measures to address hate crimes and hate speech,” Indian diplomat Mohammed Hussain said.

Hussain said that India welcomes and notes the enactment of the National Housing Strategy Act, Accessible Canada Act, and the National Strategy in Canada, introduced to combat human trafficking.

“India welcomes and thanks the delegation of Canada for the presentation of their national report. We note the enactment of the National Housing Strategy Act, Accessible Canada Act, and the National Strategy to combat human trafficking,” Hussain said.

India further recommended that Canada take steps to end structural discrimination against children who belong to indigenous groups of Canada and address the disparities in access to services by all children.

“(India recommends Canada to) Put an end to structural discrimination against children belonging to Indigenous groups and address disparities in access to services by all children,” Hussain said.

The UN in a recent report criticised the Canadian government for not checking contemporary forms of slavery in the country. A special report by the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery showed that Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) is a top source of concern because of the program’s low-wage and agricultural streams because they “constitute a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”.

The UN special rapporteur Tomoya Obokata said he is disturbed that the number of workers entering Canada through this program is “sharply on the rise”.

“The Special Rapporteur is disturbed by the fact that certain categories of migrant workers are made vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery in Canada, by the policies that regulate their immigration status, employment, and housing in Canada, and he is particularly concerned that this workforce is disproportionately racialized, attesting to deep-rooted racism and xenophobia entrenched in Canada’s immigration system,” the UN rapporteur said in a statement released earlier this year.