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The University of Winnipeg

Human rights oversight of COVID-19: Amnesty International Canada

Thu. May. 21, 2020

The Global College (GC) marks Amnesty International Canada's efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Please find en electronic copy of the article "Putting Human Rights at the Heart of Canada's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic" here.

The GC features "A total of 301 organizations, academics and former politicians from across the country are calling on all levels of government in Canada to take urgent steps to strengthen human rights oversight amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including: 

  • Ensuring that Indigenous knowledgekeepers, representatives of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions, representatives of relevant municipal human rights offices and language commissioners have an official advisory role to special committees, emergency task forces, crisis response working groups and other bodies established by governments to coordinate their response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • Immediately establishing independent human rights oversight committees made up of First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives from both rural and remote Indigenous communities and urban centres, impacted communities, frontline service providers, human rights advocates, labour representatives, and academics. Those committees would bring an intersectional genderbased plus analysis to their oversight role and report publicly on a regular basis."

 

Please see the following statement, letter, and principles: 

Letter Regarding COVID human rights oversight statement.pdf 

COVID and human rights oversight public statement.pdf

COVID and human rights principles for Canada.pdf 

 

For more information, please visit: https://www.amnesty.ca/category/media-types/news/news-releases