Blog

Request for a UNHRC Special Session on Police Violence in the United States

June 8, 2020

Coalition Letter: endorsed by the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, and Philando Castile and over 600 rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Human Rights Network, demanded the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) swiftly convene a special session to investigate the escalating situation of police violence and repression of protests in the United States.

Subsequently, the UNHRC held an Urgent Debate on “the current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful protests” on June 17, 2020, which resulted in this Resolution.

By |June 27th, 2020|Sign-on Letters|
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Call on Governments, Businesses, and Investors to Respond to Covid-19 Environmental and Human Rights Risks

May 14, 2020

Press Release by International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) and 30+ partner organizations. This release includes information on all three of their calls to action, which are also linked below:

Statement to Governments
Statement to the Business Community
Statement to the Investor Community

By |June 27th, 2020|Sign-on Letters|
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Letter of Solidarity with the Xinka People of Guatemala

May 6, 2020

Letter: 40+ organizations call for Pan American Silver to respect the rights of the Xinka people and refrain from exerting influence over the people and government of Guatemala, despite having long-term members of its executive team serving the current administration.

By |June 26th, 2020|Sign-on Letters|
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Call to Guarantee the Rights and Safety of Defenders, Social Leaders, and Communities in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

May 4, 2020

Letter: Earth Rights International and 100 other organizations urgently implore Daniel Andrés Palacios Martínez, Director of the Colombian National Protection Unit to guarantee human rights, environmental, and land defenders are protected in the context of the current social, economic, and health emergency.

By |June 26th, 2020|Sign-on Letters|
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Webinar: Responses to Homelessness in the Time of COVID19

Tuesday, August 18, 2020 12PM EDT

Register on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_l5OIO1fuTAmSJvdI1nPyZg

Registration is Free. Recommended donation is $20.  

Please send donations to Jur-Ed Foundation ‌@ https://‌www.canadahelps.org/‌en/charities/‌jur-ed-foundation/ Donations will be applied toward legal education (including covering the costs of this webinar) and homelessness advocacy.

Lawyers who attend may use this webinar as one substantive hour towards their Continuing Professional Development requirements.

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Join Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, Jur-Ed Foundation, and the Law Union of Ontario for a one hour webinar discussing the impact of COVID19 on homeless populations in Canada and what is being done to hold governments accountable for pandemic-related human rights violations.   

Leilani Farha, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, will discuss the recently developed National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada and its potential to encourage governments to move away from criminalization and forced evictions and towards meaningful engagement with encampment residents as rights holders.   

Sanctuary Ministries’ outreach worker, Greg Cook and Goldblatt Partners lawyer, Jessica Orkin will discuss the recent lawsuit filed against the City of Toronto by a coalition of public interest groups demanding appropriate distancing and sanitation standards in shelters and a swifter, broader plan to relocate residents to vacant hotels and alternative housing.

Together these speakers and moderator Jesse Gutman, host of Jur-Ed and CLAIHR Board member, will explain the disproportionate impact of COVID19 on already vulnerable homeless people and the need for stable, long-term, and affordable housing solutions moving forward.

See below for more information on our panelists and moderator.

Leilani Farha

Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (June 2014 – April 2020)

Leilani brought a dynamic energy to the role of UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing; energy she will need to reach her goal of prompting and facilitating an international paradigm shift in how housing is approached.

During her time as Special Rapporteur, Leilani presented reports to the UN on homelessness, the connection between the right to housing and the right to life, and the financialization of housing. She has traveled on official missions to Serbia and Kosovo, India and most recently to Chile, amongst others, to investigate and comment on the state of the right to housing.

In addition to her requisite work, Leilani has used her platform to start The Shift, a global movement to reclaim and realize the right to housing, which calls for everyone to approach housing as a human right, not a commodity.

A lawyer by training, Leilani assumed the role of Special Rapporteur in 2014, but she has been tirelessly advocating for the realization of the right to housing throughout her career. She is the current executive director of the NGO Canada Without Poverty.

In her previous role as Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, she was instrumental in launching a historic challenge to government inaction in the face of rising homelessness.

She has been a member of the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions for UN Habitat, and was a founding member of ESCR-Net, an international network of actors committed to economic, social and cultural rights.

Greg Cook

Outreach Worker, Sanctuary Ministries

Greg Cook is an Outreach Worker at Sanctuary Ministries in Toronto. Sanctuary is a healthy, welcoming community in which people who are poor and excluded are particularly valued. Sanctuary was the named plaintiff organization in the recent civil claim injunction against the City of Toronto to maintain proper social distancing in the Municipal shelter system.

Jessica Orkin

Partner, Goldblatt Partners

Jessica Orkin has a broad litigation practice including criminal, civil and administrative law matters, with an emphasis on constitutional, human rights, Aboriginal rights and access to information law matters.

Jessica appears at all levels of court, including the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. She is also a frequent speaker at legal conferences and seminars. She has been named in Best Lawyers as a leading aboriginal law practitioner.

Jessica received her law degree from the University of Toronto. She also holds an M.Phil. degree in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, and a bachelor of arts and sciences from McMaster University. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2006, after clerking at the Federal Court of Appeal.

Jesse Isaac Gutman

President, Jur-Ed Foundation and Board Member, CLAIHR

Jesse Gutman is a 2013 call Union-side Labour lawyer in Toronto, practicing in English and French. He is the President of the Jur-Ed Foundation and the host/producer of its podcast of the same name. Jesse was previously a high school teacher in Quebec and is a part-time Klezmer musician. He is passionate about human rights and international solidarity.

By |June 9th, 2020|Past Events|
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Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya: What the Canadian Supreme Court decision means in holding Canadian companies accountable for human rights abuses abroad

By James Yap, CLAIHR President

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC).

Momentum continues to gather for transnational human rights litigation brought in Canadian courts against Canadian corporations, with the release on February 28 2020 of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya.

The key legal takeaways from the decision can be summarized as follows:

• There is no independent act of state doctrine[1] in Canadian common law (unanimous)

• Violations of customary international law may be civilly actionable in Canadian courts (5-4 majority)

• Rules of customary international law that are binding on individuals are also binding on corporations (5-4 majority)

The decision looks to be foundational in terms of the treatment of customary international law in Canadian common law courts. This and certain other aspects of the decision, notably the ruling on corporate liability under international law, may also have implications further afield.

By |April 23rd, 2020|Blog, Mining and Extractives|
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Updates from the US-Mexico Border: A Week in the South Texas Family Residential Center

By Heather Cohen, CLAIHR Board Member

“Aren’t I human? Am I not the same as you?” my client asks.

She sits across the small, round table from me in the neon sweatsuit that marks her as an inmate of the South Texas Family Residential Center. Words do not seem enough, particularly when chosen in my second language. I want to reach across the table and take her hand to convey our shared humanity, but I cannot. Core Civic, the corporation that runs the jail, has decreed that we may never touch the thousands of women and children that the Dilley Pro Bono Project assists each year.

By |March 7th, 2019|Blog, Immigration|
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Nigeria: What Role for Canada in the Conflict With Boko Haram?

CEE-Hope Chibok Campaign

Wikicommons: #BringBackOurGirls

By William Onyeaju, JD candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School

As the Western gaze has shifted away from the conflict in the Lake Chad region of Nigeria, Boko Haram’s assault on the Nigerian state has continued unabated. On 19 February 2018, 110 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram in a repeat of the Chibok kidnapping which shocked the world and led to the social media campaign to secure their release, #BringBackOurGirls. Following negotiations with the Boko Haram faction which seized the schoolgirls, the Nigerian government secured the release of 101 girls, except those who allegedly died and another schoolgirl (Leah Sharibu) who defied Boko Haram by refusing to renounce her Christian faith. The rescue of over 100 girls has been met with statements of relief by the Nigerian state and the families of the rescued schoolchildren. However, this tragic incident marks another sad reminder of the human cost of Nigeria’s war with Boko Haram. A cost which is brought to bear with statements from victims of Boko Haram such as Leah Sharibu’s father, Lathan, who says, “I expect the federal government to bring her back to me the way they brought the others home.”

The crisis in North-East Nigeria requires significant international attention if we truly desire to see a betterment of the human rights situation in the region. Canada could play a significant role in improving the conditions of the people who have been horribly affected by nearly ten years of war.

By |May 10th, 2018|Blog|
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Google v Equustek: Are Courts Behind the Digital Revolution?

Equustek v Google on Google

By Isabel Dávila, JD Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School

On June 28, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released its judgement in Google Inc. v Equustek Solutions Inc. The SCC outlined what remedies are available when there is a clash between one party’s legitimate intellectual property rights (here, Equustek) and a third party’s (Google’s) role in accessing the information that is infringing the other party’s IP rights. Ultimately, the SCC’s decision in the case may set a potentially concerning precedent regarding access to information online, by enabling domestic courts to effectively censor the internet’s content.

By |April 18th, 2018|Blog|
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Canada Gets Progressive With Its Trade Agenda

Bay St. at King St., in the heart of Toronto's financial district [Wikimedia]

Bay St. at King St., in the heart of Toronto’s financial district [Wikimedia]

By Cassandra Knapman, JD Candidate, University of Western Ontario

Canada has approached its recent trade negotiations with the goal of forming treaties that both benefit Canadians and advance its progressive trade agenda (hereafter, the “Agenda”). The Agenda integrates gender equality, labour standards, environmental protections, and human rights more broadly into Canada’s trade agreements.[1] Despite its potential human rights advantages, critics say the Agenda has presented a significant hurdle to Canada’s trade negotiations. It has been partly blamed for crippling trade negotiations with China, and for stalling the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, formerly the TPP).[2] The Agenda is also becoming a contentious issue in the North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation.[3] Critics have suggested that if Canada wishes to successfully negotiate trade deals, it will need to either abandon or loosen the requirements set forth in the Agenda.[4]

By |April 2nd, 2018|Blog|
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