Question Period Note: Human Rights Defenders

Refugee stream for at-risk human rights defenders.

• Canada has a proud and long-standing tradition of providing protection to those most at risk, including human rights defenders who promote and protect the fundamental freedoms and rights of people around the world.
• As more human rights defenders come under threat and are unable to return to their country, Canada continues to step up.
• In 2023, we doubled the number of refugee resettlement spaces dedicated to human rights defenders and their families to up to 500 persons each year.
• We will continue to work closely with experts on international protection, including in civil society, to identify and reach the defenders most in need of Canada’s protection.

HRD Global Stream

• Human rights defenders (HRDs) are people who protect or promote human rights, including human rights advocates, activists, journalists, scholars, LGBTQI+ rights defenders, humanitarian workers, and others. For their work, they can face persecution, including judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, intimidation, violence, torture and assassination.

• In July 2021, the Government of Canada announced a new dedicated refugee stream for HRDs, fulfilling a 2019 mandate commitment. Under this stream, 250 government-assisted refugee (GAR) spaces were added annually to the Multi-Year Immigration Levels Plan, beginning in 2021.

• The 2021 mandate letter committed to expand the HRD stream and to work with civil society groups to provide resettlement opportunities for people under threat. This commitment was met in July 2023, when the stream was expanded to up to 500 persons annually.

• In March 2023, direct referral partnerships were established with two of civil society’s foremost leaders on human rights defender protection: Front Line Defenders and ProtectDefenders. These two organizations, along with the UNHCR, are responsible for referring cases under the HRD stream.

• 179 human rights defenders were resettled to Canada under this program between January 1 and November 30, 2023. Given that the expansion to 500 dedicated resettlement spaces was only announced in July 2023, HRD arrivals in 2024 are expected to be higher.

• In designing and implementing the global HRD stream, the Department consulted extensively with nearly 30 organizations and experts on the protection of human rights defenders.

• The expert input of all organizations consulted was critical in designing the global stream to best meets the needs of HRDs. In line with their recommendations, this stream:
o Was established with additional refugee resettlement spaces, above pre-existing refugee resettlement commitments;
o Allows civil society experts to identify those most in need of resettlement;
o Provides human rights defender organizations in Canada and abroad with an opportunity to collaborate to ensure that this stream reaches those most at risk;
o Provides resettled human rights defenders with comprehensive settlement supports;
o Takes into account the needs of human rights defenders facing intersectional risks, including women, LGBTQI+, environmental, land, and Indigenous defenders.

• As government-assisted refugees, resettled HRDs become permanent residents upon arrival in Canada, and benefit from comprehensive government-funded settlement supports.

• In 2019, Global Affairs Canada launched guidelines on supporting HRDs called “Voices at Risk”, which set out actions that Canada can take abroad. The HRD stream complements the guidelines by adding a refugee protection pathway for human rights defenders at risk who have fled from their country and cannot return.

HRD Afghanistan Commitment

• As part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to welcome Afghan refugees to Canada, the Government implemented a special humanitarian program to resettle vulnerable Afghan nationals. This included persons who were part of one of the following groups: women leaders, human rights defenders, persecuted religious or ethnic minorities, LGBTQI+ individuals, and journalists and those who helped Canadian journalists. Under this commitment, expert human rights defender protection organizations worked with broad civil society networks to identify the human rights defenders most in need of resettlement to Canada.

• Under the Afghanistan humanitarian measures, 900 spaces were dedicated to HRDs. IRCC has received and is finalizing the processing of applications from these partners and is coordinating travel to Canada for approved HRDs. As of December 27 2023, approximately 855 Afghan human rights defenders referred by Front Line Defenders and Protect Defenders have arrived in Canada. Some of these individuals have worked to document and prevent human rights violations; others have been involved in advocating to protect and promote human rights. One group referred by Front Line Defenders, the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, has released a documentary chronicling their journey from Afghanistan to Edmonton and created a virtual museum documenting the victims of war in Afghanistan.

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