Resolution number
9
Whereas
- General Augusto Pinochet is presently detained in the United Kingdom pending extradition proceeding initiated by Spain, France and Switzerland;
- General Pinochet's 1973 coup d'état against Chile's democratically elected government and the brutal dictatorship which he directed until 1990 was responsible for the deaths and/or disappearance of more than 3,000 Chileans and others, the torture and imprisonment of many thousands more and the forced exile of still more thousands to many countries including Canada;
- Applications have been made to the government of Canada by a Canadian citizen who was detained and tortured in Chile in October 1973, as well as by a number of Canadian citizens of Chilean origin who experienced severe abuses throughout the Pinochet years, for the prosecution and extradition of General Pinochet;
Therefore be it resolved
That the CCR:
- Send congratulations to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords on their historic decision upholding the primacy of human rights over state rights;
- Send a message to the United Kingdom Home Secretary urging him to uphold the primacy of human rights over political considerations and to allow the extradition proceedings against General Pinochet to go ahead, or prosecute him in Great Britain for his crimes against humanity, and request the government of Canada to send a similar message;
- Urge the government of Canada to institute criminal proceedings against General Pinochet in the above mentioned cases and request his extradition from the United Kingdom to Canada.
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement