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The primacy of human rights in Indonesia

Resolution number
8
Whereas
  1. Many victims of the widespread violence of May 1998 in Indonesia remain in safe-houses under the care and protection of indigenous humanitarian organizations;
  2. Ethno-racially and religiously motivated violence continues in many regions and provinces throughout Indonesia;
  3. The lack of the rule of law prevails in Indonesia as evidenced by the over 200,000 East Timorese nationals who remain trapped in West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia, held hostage and victimized by the Indonesian army and their surrogate militias;
  4. The Indonesian military continue to hold many of the more senior and strategic portfolios in the Cabinet of the recently elected government;
  5. The Source Country Class was designed to facilitate effective protection for internally displaced persons;
  6. During the crisis of May 1998 and persistently through the violence which has continued to the present time Canada Immigration has refused to place Indonesia on the Source Country list due to the officially expressed fear of thereby compromising the considerable bilateral economic ties between Indonesia and Canada;
Therefore be it resolved

That the CCR:

  1. Call upon the Canadian government to embrace publicly the principle that fundamental human rights always take precedence over actual or potential trade and investment relationships;
  2. Renew its call for the elimination of the Source Country Schedule, and call for the processing of all those who are in need of urgent protection in their respective countries of origin, under the Source Country Class, including those in Indonesia.
Working Group
Overseas Protection and Resettlement