Silence on plight of Afghan refugees

Resolution number
13
Whereas
  1. The Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan for the U.N. Commission for Human Rights of February 1993 clearly shows that there are serious human rights crises in Afghanistan and in the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan;
  2. Women and non-fundamentalists are subject to persecution and selective assassination by extremist fundamentalists in the refugee camps in Pakistan, with women and girls being denied employment and access to education;
  3. Aid to the Afghan refugees in the camps in Pakistan has been severely cut back;
  4. Afghan refugees represent 20 to 25% of all the refugees in the world but this is not reflected in Canadian resettlement efforts;
  5. Church and group sponsorship applications have been refused by Canadian visa officers in Pakistan and India, who claim that they do not meet the refugee definition, despite the massive violations of the refugees' human rights;
  6. Some Afghan refugee claimants have been refused by I.R.B. members who are not aware of the true situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan;
Therefore be it resolved
  1. The CCR reaffirm the positions adopted in Resolution 7 of May 1993;
  2. The CCR call on the government and the UNHCR to use the Women at Risk program to assist Afghan women who are in need and to make visa officers aware of this program;
  3. The CCR call on the government to give special consideration to Afghan refugees for resettlement in Canada, recognizing their protection and resettlement needs in the light of the continued civil war.
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement