Resolution number
19
Whereas
- The Canadian government is participating in UN discussions preparing a conference document for the International Conference on Population and Development to take place in Cairo, Summer 1994;
- Non-governmental discussions tend to focus on family planning and the environment, although a significant part of the conference business involves migration and refugee affairs;
- The document so far reflects a shift from the promise of safeguards for the rights and dignity of refugees and migrants expressed in the 1994 Mexico Declaration to a bald assertion of an absolute right of states to control the entry and residence of persons onto their territory;
- The need to uphold the right of asylum was declared by all governments at the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in June 1993 and was declared by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to her Executive Committee in October 1993;
Therefore be it resolved
That the CCR and its members urge MPs and Canadian government officials to work to ensure that the Conference documents fully reinforce the right to asylum and reinforce the need for safeguards for the rights of refugees and migrants at borders and elsewhere on state territory.
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement