You might recall that a couple of years ago the Harper government eliminated "gender equality" from the court challenges program. Now it appears they have taken the same tack on the international level, reversing efforts by previous Canadian governments.
"Canada worked hard and long to include gender-based violence in international documents, in the world of children and armed conflict where Canada is a leader, we've worked very hard to include gender-based violence as a serious violation. So removing that is a serious step backward and I would argue that the Canadian public would not agree with that," said Kathy Vandergrift, chair of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children.
According to this article, the Harper government has also quietly axed "child soldiers" and "international humanitarian law" from our statements on human rights abuses, including sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape is a routine political weapon. Details are here.
I think this is a major step backward for Canada, and I don't think many Canadians would agree with the government's attempt to sidestep justice for such vulnerable people. This is not how we should be treating people suffering in other countries.
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