Earlier this year, almost 5,000 residents of Canada signed a petition,E-3312, calling on Canada to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and human rights under military law in regard to the children of Palestine. Liberal Member of Parliament, Salma Zahid presented this in the House of Commons, but the election was called before the government responded. So we are back at it!
Thanks to Salma Zahid, MP for Scarborough Centre, Liberal Caucus for once again supporting this Parliamentary Petition.
All residents of Canada are asked to please sign it, including if you have signed the previous one or not.
Sign at:
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3608
With the recent attack on Al-Haq, DCIP and other organizations, the message of this petition is that we respect and value the decades of human rights and international law experience and expertise of these organizations.
These organization’s work is critical to our call on the Canadian government that the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development undertake immediately a review of Israel’s treatment of children in Israeli occupied Palestine and require compliance with Israel’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Read full Petition to the Government of Canada below, and be sure to sign.
Whereas:
- The protection of the rights of children around the world is a priority of the Canadian government;
- As signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Israel has an obligation to ensure basic due process rights and the absolute prohibition against torture and ill-treatment of children in accordance with international juvenile justice standards;
- The Secretary General of the United Nations 2019 report on children and armed conflict on June 20, 2019, reiterated the Special Representative’s “call upon Israel to uphold international juvenile justice standards, as well as to cease the use of administrative detention for children and end all forms of ill-treatment in detention, and to cease any attempted recruitment of detained children as informants”;
- Israel automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections;
- For over 30 years, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International Palestine and other human rights groups have investigated, documented, and exposed human rights violations against children; and
- Under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, all high signatories, of which Canada is one, are required to take actions to ensure that violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention do not occur under any circumstance.
We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to call for an urgent study by the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development to review Israel’s treatment of children in Israeli occupied Palestine and compliance with its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Sign the petition at: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3608
