CCR Resolutions Database

That the CCR request the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work to include a section on refugees in the social work curriculum as a mandatory component.

That the CCR:

1. Request the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board to study the interaction of the above two reports and to prepare an implementation plan to co-ordinate the changes to be made as a result of these reports;
2. Request that the CCR be made a full participant in the preparation of the above implementation plan;
3. Undertake to develop by the end of September 1994 a common position on the essential principles from both of the above reports that it will advocate in discussions with the government and the IRB.

That the CCR undertake to communicate to the government that:

1.   Immigrant settlement services should not be limited to new arrivals within a restricted time period (wherever limitation exists);
2. Immigrant serving agencies are qualified not only to provide initial settlement services but also a wide range of specialized services such as family counselling, employment and job training, etc.;
3. Immigrant serving agencies should have equal access to funding to meet unmet needs of the community they serve, including those needs which extend beyond the initial stage of settlement.

That the CCR call upon the IRB to ensure that:

1. There is coherence in the overall accreditation of the interpreters in all the languages;
2. Interpreters are made accountable through licensing and be required to observe codes of conduct;
3. Those previously recruited are made to take an updated test before certification.

That the CCR encourage its member organizations to monitor and respond to the media portrayal of refugees and immigrants and to advocate for more balanced coverage, and that the CCR member organizations having experience in media monitoring and media relations make their expertise known to the CCR for sharing among its members.

That

1. The CCR request that the Government of Canada investigate the true costs of each refugee claim and produce its findings
2. The Legal Affairs Committee of the CCR be directed to investigate the possibility of initiating legal proceedings against the Department of Immigration for "spreading false news" and for knowingly distributing incorrect information that is prejudicial to refugee claimants.

That the CCR bring to the attention of funders the need to recognize and provide administrative support costs to their funding programmes.

That the CCR request the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to direct visa officers to accept and process expeditiously the referrals of Women at Risk cases from the UNHCR and NGOs without an interview for the details of the persecution experience.

That the CCR:

1. Request the Canadian government to make representations to the UNHCR, the CPA steering committee and the CPA fellow signatories to:
   1. establish a mechanism to identify, review and correct cases which have been egregiously denied refugee status, with the use of the UNHCR's mandate authority;
   2. respect the safety and dignity of asylum seekers, by immediately recanting the policy of deprivation measures which has led to reductions in food rations and cuts in educational and medical services;
   3. abstain from the use of force and violence in the repatriation programme;
   4. quickly resettle recognized refugees, many of whom have languished for years in transit camps.
2. Make direct representations to the UNHCR to this effect.

That:

1. The CCR is interested in participating in the "interim review" of rejected refugee claimants announced by the Minister;
2. CCR involvement must include full participation in designing the review process and establishing its criteria and would include representation at all working sessions of the Departmental planning body;
3. All rejected claims, irrespective of date of rejection, be included in the review;
4. If the CCR is adequately represented on a management committee to oversee administration of the review, the CCR recommend to its members that they circulate information on the review and that the CCR also encourage its members to assist eligible claimants in making appropriate submissions to the review process, on a non-exclusive basis.

That:

1. The CCR as a priority undertake a programme of public education to dispel refugee myths. One major undertaking should be the incorporation into press releases of the contribution of newcomers to this society;
2. The CCR incorporate a statement into all its external and internal documents, such as its mission statement and its By-Laws, that part of the role of the Council is to actively promote an anti-racist perspective/initiative in all its work;
3. The CCR set up an internal core group that includes representation from the diverse refugee and immigrant communities to devise strategies to combat racism;
4. As part of its mandate, the core group encourage linkages between immigrant and refugee groups.

That the CCR:

1. Endorse the May 1994 report on detention as its official paper on detention;
2. Condemn the systematic violation of article 9 of the Canadian Charter and our international obligations;
3. Urge the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to establish clear rules consistent with the Charter to delineate grounds for detention;
4. Urgently demand the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to establish a mechanism for sanctions and accountability for immigration officials who abuse the rights of non-citizens and to study the possibility of an independent ombudsman for complaints about immigration practices;
5. Demand that a code of ethics be established for immigration officials which stresses the need for normal courtesy and respect for physical conditions for visitors, as well as emphasizing a non-discriminatory attitude towards those coming to this country;
6. Contact provincial tourism ministers to make them aware of the treatment that visitors to this country are subjected to at the current time;
7. Invite the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Human Rights Commission to visit Canada on a fact-finding visit to investigate the conformity of Canadian practices with international standards of behaviour;
8. Advocate to the Minister that, while awaiting legislative amendments:
   1. Interpreters must be more quickly available at points of entry. No one should be detained simply because an interpreter cannot be found in time;
   2. A citizens advocates mechanism should be established in order to guard against abuse by self-contained administrative tribunals;
   3. The Department should facilitate access to review sessions to advocates willing to accompany detainees;
   4. A mechanism should be established for publishing and making available to counsel noteworthy decisions rendered by adjudicators;
   5. Maximum periods of detention should be established (no more than 4 months), except in cases where there is serious reason to believe the person poses a security risk or risk to the public. At the very least, the 4 month mark should trigger a special review with counsel, if necessary, funded by the federal government to actively seek solutions other than detention. A community advocate should also be present, if desired by the detainee;
   6. Detainees awaiting removal should be released, if the removal cannot be effected in the immediate future, as long as the person is not a security risk;
   7. Regulations establishing standards for detention centre conditions, rights and treatment of detainees and conditions for transfers to jail should be adopted. These regulations should be drawn up in consultation with the NGO sector;
   8. Detainees exhibiting signs of psychological stress should be given access to appropriate medical personnel immediately. Known or suspected survivors of torture should be referred to specialists. Reports of medical personnel should be taken into consideration in all decisions concerning the person's continued detention;
   9. Suicide attempts must be treated with the seriousness such an act merits. Relevant legislation should be reviewed and medical experts consulted to ensure that appropriate procedures are established and followed;
   10. Adequate medical care should be made available to all detainees in a timely manner. Special attention should be given to the medical needs of pregnant women;
   11. NGO's should be invited to participate in the training of personnel at detention centres, so as to increase sensitivity to the rights and needs of detainees;
   12. An independent review mechanism should be set up to oversee conditions of detention;
   13. In cases of detention in jails, detainees who have not been accused of a criminal offence should be separated from the general prison community. Special efforts should be made to expedite the case and to ensure that the detainee has access to counselling and community advocates;
   14. Minimum standards for outdoor exercise facilities should be established. There should be more than a small concrete courtyard;
   15. Airport detention facilities should be improved. Comfortable chairs should be provided. The specific needs of children should also be considered with special reference to the UN Convention on the Rights of Child. Food and drink should be made easily available;
   16. All detainees should be provided with an information sheet that clearly outlines their rights and obligations. The information sheet should be translated into as many languages as possible;
   17. All detainees should be provided with a list of organizations that might provide assistance;
   18. There should be opportunity for NGO representatives to meet with regional immigration officials at regular intervals;
   19. Staff cuts should not be made at the expense of the client. Staff needs should be regularly evaluated and reassignments immediately made if necessary;
   20. In seeking to increase the capacity of NGOs to anticipate and respond to the needs of incoming refugee claimants, the department should keep records of gender, age, and country of origin. These statistics would also permit the department to more effectively anticipate changes that might be required at detention facilities;
   21. Access to chaplaincy on a faith-appropriate basis should be provided.

That the CCR:

1. Call upon all funders and particularly the federal government to recognize the value of research activities carried out by community-based immigrant and refugee organizations;
2. Call upon all funders and particularly the federal government to provide financial resources for community-based organizations to continue to improve and expand research activities on immigrant/refugee service delivery;
3. Continue to provide at the semiannual consultation a forum for community-based organizations to present the results of and exchange information on the various research activities across the different regions.

That the CCR:

1. Continue to organize sessions on international refugee and development issues;
2. Investigate initiating dialogue with CIDA, Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Finance to discuss the overlapping responsibilities/ funding criteria relating to refugee relief and development assistance.

That the CCR:

1. Urge the government of Canada to:
   1. support our request for an impartial international or regional inquiry into the events which led to the genocide of the Rwandan people;
   2. support appropriate measures to ensure that following such an inquiry those responsible for the massacres are judged and punished, whether in Rwanda, here or in another country;
   3. support appropriate measures to establish a democratic government of national unity and to ensure respect for human rights, in the spirit of the Arusha Accord;
   4. continue its generous humanitarian aid to the Rwandan people;
   5. study and discuss the problem of how the local personnel employed by Canadian organizations or government were abandonned when Canadian expatriates were evacuated, in order to ensure that such a situation does not happen again;
   6. reject the imposition of conditions on the participation of Canadian forces in the UN troops, according to which 5,500 troops are to be brought together in Rwanda;
   7. implement special measures with simple and clear criteria to offer protection in Canada for those with family or other links with Canadians of Rwandan origin and to refuse visas and landing to previously identified criminals;
   8. cease all non-justified removals of Rwandans in Canada;
2. Request its members to educate the Canadian public on the origins as well as the solutions to the current crisis in Rwanda;
3. Request the Canadian government to finalize an urgent special procedure to collect unaccompanied orphaned minors whose sole remaining relatives are in Canada; i.e. Canadians of Rwandan origin whatever their eligibility for existing sponsorship programmes (humanitarian cases).

That the CCR:

1. Petition the Government of Canada to request the Government of Thailand:
   1. to honour their responsibilities to provide safe asylum to Burmese nationals; and
   2. to issue exit visas to Burmese nationals upon completion of Canadian immigration processing;
2. Petition the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to increase the number of government sponsorships to at least double the current seventy-five positions and in addition appropriate one-third of the contingency allocation in recognition of the urgency of the situation;
3. Urge the Government of Canada to use all means at its disposal to pressure the Burmese (Myanmar) SLORC to restore human rights and to honour its own democratic process and the outcome of the election of 1989;
4. Request the Government of Canada to provide human resource development opportunities to Burmese refugees in neighbouring countries as they await restoration of human rights and the democratic process in Burma.

That the CCR Executive in discussion with funders at the next roundtable meeting determine how these major stakeholders will work together in the development of evaluation tools, including national performance indicators.

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.

That the CCR call on Government of Canada to bring to both the Sub-Committee of the Whole on International Protection and the "friends of the rapporteur" a request that non-governmental organizations be allowed to be present and to participate in the workings of both these committees.

That the CCR advocate to the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship and the Provincial Premiers for:

1. The equality with Canadian citizens of access to health, education, shelter and social services for refugee claimants;
2. The guarantee of the provisions and access to rights and freedoms as outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to all persons in Canada regardless of their citizenship or status.

That, to show that Master Agreement holders are committed to the Women at Risk Programme:

1. The CCR Working Group on Overseas Protection and Sponsorship (OPS) establish terms of reference by December 1993 for the processing of refugee women under a Five Year Women at Risk Sponsorship Plan;
2. The CCR write all Master Agreement holders by January 1994 asking for a commitment to UNHCR-referred Women at Risk cases over the next five years;
3. The OPS follow up with all Master Agreement holders with regard to their sponsorship commitments in February and March 1994, and compile information by April 1994 on commitments that have been made.
4. The OPS on behalf of Master Agreement holders work out an implementation plan with the UNHCR and Immigration with regard to the Five Year Women at Risk Sponsorship Plan.

That the CCR strongly urge the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to honour the promise implicit in these notices, and facilitate the entry to Canada of parents and their dependent children through the government sponsorship process, where the family in Canada is not yet sufficiently settled to place an undertaking of assistance.

That the CCR ask the governments of the U.S. and Canada to amend the memorandum of understanding to incorporate the following changes:

1. Country of Determination
   1. The country of determination should be the one chosen by the claimant.
   2. If the rule of country of choice is not accepted, and the rule of first arrival remains, the rule of first arrival should not apply in every case.
   3. Where the claimant has a family member in one state, and the country of first arrival is another, the claimant should be free to choose between the country of first arrival and the country where the family member is present.
   4. "Present" for this purpose means physically present. It would cover family members who have no status in the country of choice, but are only there for the purpose of making a refugee claim.
   5. Family member, for this purpose, means both the family class and assisted relatives.
   6. Where the claimant has a visa for one state and the country of first arrival is another, then the claimant should be able to choose between the country of first arrival and the country of visa issuance.
   7. Where the claimant has been lawfully present in the country of second arrival at any time prior to the claim, the claimant should be able to choose the country of claim.
   8. A country of transit should not be considered a country of first arrival.
2.   Safeguards
   9. The parties should agree to apply minimum standards of procedural fairness in the determination of refugee claims. The agreed minimum standards would be listed in the memorandum.
   10. The parties should agree not to deter the making or maintaining of refugee claims either by detention or by any other means.
3.   Access
   11. The parties should each agree to grant access to its refugee determination system on the merits of the claim to every person allocated under this agreement.
   12. The undertaking to examine claims should include persons who are at the border as well as persons who are in the country.
4. Confidentiality
   13. Any information exchanged under this agreement about individuals should be considered confidential and may not be passed on to any third party.
   14. Any information about an individual that is exchanged under this agreement must be accessible to that individual without regard to any exclusion that may exist in the privacy legislation of either country about information exchanged between governments.
5. Appeals
   14. The parties should establish a joint appeal tribunal to consider and decide on appeals from persons whose determination of claims have been allocated under this agreement, and who have been denied refugee recognition.
   15. The appeal tribunal should be a judicial body independent from both governments.
   16. Access to the tribunal should be subject to an admissibility requirement. The tribunal should be able to consider any appeal from a person allocated under the memorandum where there is a reasonable possibility that the determination would have been different if the claim had been in the other country.
   17. The appeal tribunal should have the power to reverse a negative determination and determine the person to be a refugee.
   18. The appeal tribunal would also have a power to decide disputes between the two state parties or between claimants and a state party on the country of allocation.
6. Third Countries
   20. Removal of a person allocated under this agreement to a third country should not be possible unless the claimant has a right to have his/her claim considered on the merits in the third country.
   21. Removal of a person allocated under this agreement to a third country should not be possible unless there is an agreement with the third country that incorporates all the provisions that are in this memorandum.
7. Status of the Memorandum
   22. The memorandum should be a legally binding agreement between the state parties enforceable by refugee claimants.
   23. The parties should undertake to provide to claimants free access to the courts of their countries for the enforcement of this agreement.
   24. All international human rights or refugee protection instruments by which a signatory state may be bound, including the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Refugees and Protocol, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Charter of the Organization of American States, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention against Torture, should be respected in the application of this memorandum by that signatory state. In case of conflict between an international human rights or refugee instrument by which a signatory state is bound and this memorandum, the international human rights or refugee instrument should predominate.
8. Quotas
   25. Except in the case of a claimant whose claim has already been determined on its merits by one of the signatory states, each party should not, in any year, invoke the memorandum of agreement to allocate determination of a claim until after that country has accepted for determination on the merits a minimum number of refugee claims. The minimum for Canada should be 30,000.
9. A Coordinating Committee
   26. A Coordinating Committee should be established, to consist of representatives of Canada, the U.S., non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The Committee would be responsible for supervising the administration of the memorandum. The Committee would set the minimum numbers that would have to be reached to make the memorandum operational.

That:

1. The CCR call for an independent and impartial inquiry into this treatment;
2. The CCR demand that the government revise the criteria for the review process so that the immigration officials' discretion not be unduly fettered and normal humanitarian considerations be addressed;
3. The CCR ask that the government make a clear commitment not to deport torture victims, and particularly victims of rape, unless there be clear and imperative reasons to deport these persons related to serious criminality;
4. The CCR request that the evaluation under the post-determination review be completely separated from the officials in charge of deportation and that the review officers receive proper training in Canada's international obligations;
5. The CCR call upon the government to address in an effective and open fashion all the concerns raised by the recent report by the CCR.

That the CCR request the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to take measures so that the Immigration officers not consider Section 19(1)(b) of the Act when establishing whether a single mother, or other woman who has parental responsibilities for children in her care, meets the admissibility criteria.