CCR Resolutions Database

1. Palestinians represent the world’s longest protracted refugee situation and largest stateless community;
2. More than 80% of Gaza's population are refugees or descendants of refugees who fled their homes in 1948, and more than 90% of Palestinians in Gaza are now internally displaced, according to a November 2024 United Nations report;
3. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and construction of settlements is unlawful under international law, and that Israel has violated the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The ICJ mandated Israel to end its illegal occupation, dismantle settlements, provide reparations and facilitate the return of displaced people;
4. The urgency of this situation is compounded by the fact that in its first provisional order the ICJ has found it 'plausible' that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and has ordered Israel to take immediate measures to prevent and address such risks, including protecting civilians and allowing unimpeded humanitarian access, which is particularly crucial for refugees and internally displaced persons facing dire conditions in Gaza;
5. The ICJ has called for the collective responsibility of states and international organizations to refrain from supporting or legitimizing actions that contribute to unlawful occupation, displacement, or the obstruction of humanitarian aid;
6. As of November 22, 2024, almost 14 months into Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, Israel has cut off water, gas, electricity, and medical supplies; targeted journalists, medical personnel, aid workers, religious sites, hospitals, schools, every university in Gaza, and even designated “safe” evacuation routes, and forcibly starved and displaced almost 2 million Palestinians. Israel has killed an estimated 186,000 Palestinian refugees and IDPs in Gaza, thousands of children (20,000 of whom are estimated to be missing), more than 885 healthcare workers, more than 280 aid workers (highest number of aid workers killed in United Nations history), more than 130 journalists, and countless students and academics;
7. The CCR has a particular responsibility to take timely and decisive action to protect refugees and the forcibly displaced persons where their lives and well-being are seriously threatened by active military aggression. 

1. IRCC has created temporary immigration measures for Ukrainians that allowed for applications for Ukrainians looking to travel to Canada, whether or not they had family in Canada;
2. IRCC has highlighted the success of temporary protection and signaled an increasing use of temporary protection as a response to emerging crises;
3. There continue to be complex and emerging humanitarian situations in Sudan, impacting both Sudanese nationals and others living in Sudan including refugees from Eritrea and across the African continent;
4. The differential approach to Ukrainians and African refugees in terms of the requirement for existing family ties to Canada highlights inequities in the approaches taken by IRCC based on race, nationality, and ethnicity.

1. In December 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 68/237, which proclaimed 2015 to 2024 to be the International Decade for People of African Descent, with the theme “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”;
2. The specific objectives for the International Decade are:
   • To strengthen national, regional and international action and cooperation in relation to the full enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights by people of African descent and their full and equal participation in all aspects of society;
   • To promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies;
   • To adopt and strengthen national, regional and international legal frameworks in accordance with the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and to ensure their full and effective implementation.

1. The legal definition of family used in the Canadian immigration system is an impediment to family reunification;
2. The current definition of the family in immigration law is based on a traditional, first-world (Western or Global North) and heterosexist vision of the family. In effect, this definition is narrow and discriminatory;
3. As soon as a dependent person does not meet the current family definition criteria, the application is rejected;
4. Past CCR resolutions on family reunification that touch on the definition of family, including the November 2011 resolution: "An increased commitment to family reunification", do not include the reality of LGBTQ+ immigrants and other social groups.

1. The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), which was affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018, recognizes the expansion of resettlement and complementary pathways as one of the four objectives of the GCR;
2. In that regard, UNHCR has developed a three-year Strategy (2019 – 2021) on resettlement and complementary pathways with the goal of increasing the number of resettlement spaces envisaged by the GCR;
3. This Strategy envisions the admission by 2028 of 2 million refugees through complementary pathways, which are defined as safe and regulated avenues for refugees that complement resettlement by providing lawful stay in a third country where their international protection needs are met;
4. The CCR welcomes the expansion of third country solutions through complementary pathways to address the huge gap in securing adequate resettlement spaces for the refugees globally;

1. Eliminating root causes has been recognized by the Global Compact on Refugees as the most effective way to achieve solutions through resolving protracted refugee situations and preventing new crises from emerging;
2. Canada is implicated in some root causes of forced displacement in many countries in the world;

1. For refugees from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, and urban refugees in many countries, there is no possibility of receiving timely or any refugee status determination by UNHCR or a host country.
2. The requirement of host country or UNHCR recognition as refugees in order to be considered as eligible for sponsorship by a Group of 5 or by a Community Sponsor is a de facto limit on the Private Sponsorship of Refugees program that discriminates against refugees who do not have timely or any access to status determination.
3. The CCR has adopted many resolutions over the years in support of non-discrimination in access to refugee resettlement and of family reunification.

1. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration has outlined forthcoming changes to Canada’s Refugee Resettlement Program that use both protection and immigration criteria and, among other changes, call for a limiting of the numbers of refugees resettled who have high needs for services and support to achieve integration; furthermore these changes will unfairly disadvantage women refugees, the elderly and other vulnerable groups;
2. The changes include criteria for selection based on Canada’s foreign or economic interests and ministerial interests;
3. Recent changes to Canada’s Immigration Program will ensure that more immigrants will arrive with skills and expertise that will reduce the needs for settlement and integration services and supports;

The Government of Canada is proposing to reduce the maximum age of dependants in the Immigration and Refuge Protection Regulations from under 22 years of age to under 19 years of age;

CCR has numerous resolutions on refugee resettlement targets and levels, including Resolution 14 of November 2003 on “Refugee Resettlement Targets”;

1. It has become clear over the last decades that many corporations are complicit in human rights violations that contribute to forced displacement;
2. Many governments increasingly support these corporate activities through their economic development policies, further undermining protection of vulnerable populations;

1. The Canadian people through their faith and ethnocultural organizations wish to welcome and protect refugees;
2. The Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program allows Canadians to welcome and protect refugees;

1. Equitable access to resettlement and dignified treatment are fundamental to a just refugee resettlement system;
2. Processing times for refugees to Canada from Africa are unacceptably long;
3. The number of visa offices processing permanent residence applications in Africa is shockingly inadequate;
4. CIC does not have the physical office space and resources to process applications;
5. Refugees and their families suffer disproportionately from this situation in spite of the reality that African countries host huge numbers of refugees in need of resettlement;

1. The protection of Canadian citizens overseas, including Mr. Abousfian Abdelrazik who is stuck in Sudan, is an essential component of citizenship rights;
2. The denial of a Canadian passport to Mr. Abdelrazik may set a negative precedent of two-tier citizenship and leave citizens with a refugee background in orbit;

1. The right to access asylum in Canada is a legal international obligation under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees;
2. Resettlement of refugees from abroad, although not an obligation under the Convention, is a demonstration of Canada’s responsibility sharing and commitment to refugees;
3. The global trend of States to limiting access to asylum is causing the shrinkage of asylum space as the needs increase,

1. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Sri Lanka since early this year;
2. More than 300,000 Tamils displaced in the North and East of Sri Lanka are trapped in a deteriorating humanitarian situation and Tamils in other parts of Sri Lanka are vulnerable to harassment, humiliation and threat of violence;

1. Shelling is occurring in northern Iraq;
2. The relationship between the Kurdistan province in northern Iraq and the central government is fragile and could lead to violence at any time;
3. Iraqis are being deported from European countries to Iraq;
4. Canada has a moratorium on returns to Iraq;

the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria, in the number of about 1,000 persons, have been living in Kpomasse refugee camp in Benin for a period of approximately 10 years;

1. There are 3,400 Iranian dissidents in Iraq at Camp Ashraf who were granted protected persons status under the Fourth Geneva Convention by the Multinational Forces in Iraq. In December 2008 protection of the Camp was handed over to the Government of Iraq;
2. In January 2009, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie threatened to make life “intolerable” for the residents of Camp Ashraf in order to spur them to leave Iraq;
3. Among Al Rubaie’s threats was the forcible relocation of the residents from the Camp, where they have lived for more that two decades and constructed a fully developed town, to an empty desert near the Saudi Arabia border;
4. Both Amnesty International (AI Index: MDE 14/012/2009, 20 April 2009) and the European Parliament (resolution April 24, 2009) have protested Al Rubaie’s threat of intolerable treatment;
5. The recent introduction of a large Iraqi police force into Camp Ashraf despite the presence of both the Iraqi and US military at the Camp has alarmed the international community;
6. George Okoth-Obbo, Director of International Protection, UNHCR, in March 2007 asked the Government of Iraq to refrain from any action that could endanger the life or security of the residents of Camp Ashraf such as their forcible displacement inside Iraq;

1. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Sri Lanka since early this year;
2. More than 300,000 Tamils displaced in the North and East of Sri Lanka are trapped in a deteriorating humanitarian situation and Tamils in other parts of Sri Lanka are vulnerable to harassment, humiliation and threat of violence;
3. The largest Tamil diaspora community lives in Canada;

1. A humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Sri Lanka since early this year;
2. More than 300,000 Tamils displaced in the North and East of Sri Lanka are trapped in a deteriorating humanitarian situation and Tamils in other parts of Sri Lanka are vulnerable to harassment, humiliation and threat of violence;

1. The Colombian conflict has not lessened during the last year;
2. Different international organizations have pointed to the continuation of political persecution and human rights violations;
3. Displacement levels are higher than ever before;

1. There has been no functioning central government and/or other public institutions to protect vulnerable groups and/or prevent human rights abuses in Somalia since 1991;
2. In the past year, humanitarian workers and human rights defenders have been the victims of an increased number of targeted killings on the part of both the Transitional Federal Government and armed militia groups;
3. Humanitarian workers, human rights defenders and civilians who are not protected are forced to flee both inside and outside their country in order to find protection;

1. The Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program was established on the principle of additionality;
2. In November 2006, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration increased the upper limit of the PSR target to 4,500 persons in order to allow for flexibility for sponsors to respond to visa office referred cases without decreasing the number of sponsor referred cases processed;

1. Resettled refugees and dependants abroad of protected persons are required to repay the costs of overseas medical exams, IOM processing charges, and travel costs;
2. Under IRPA, Canada has made a commitment to resettle refugees who are most in need of protection, many of whom have multiple barriers to their integration;
3. Repayment of these loans by single mothers, youth, and families further marginalizes and impoverishes these groups, diminishing their capacity to integrate;