Canada rejects UN rights panel call for review of violence on aboriginal women | CTV News

20.9.13

Canada rejects UN rights panel call for review of violence on aboriginal women | CTV News: Canada was responding Thursday to the UN Human Rights Council, which is conducting its Universal Period Review of Canada's rights record, on a wide range of issues from poverty, immigration, prostitution and the criminal justice system.

Countries have their rights records reviewed every four years by the Geneva-based UN forum, but the Harper government has been skeptical in part because it allows countries with dubious rights records to criticize Canada.

Canada's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Elissa Golberg, offered a brief rebuttal to Belarus, but did not engage directly with the other countries that criticized Canada.

"Canada is proud of its human-rights record, and our peaceful and diverse society," Golberg told the one-hour session.

While no society is entirely free of discrimination, she noted, Canada has "a strong legal and policy framework for the promotion and protection of human rights, and an independent court system."

Recommendations from those countries were among the 40 of 162 that Canada chose to reject.