The Canadian Press reports that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child says the Harper government’s tough-on-crime agenda is “excessively punitive” and that C-10, their omnibus crime bill, does not conform with the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The article notes, “The UN committee on the rights of the child has finished a 10-year review of how Canada treats its children and how well governments are implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. …The Harper government’s Bill C-10 — an omnibus crime bill that includes stiffer penalties for youth and makes it easier to try them as adults — no longer conforms to the child rights convention or other international standards. …The committee also repeatedly expressed its concern that aboriginal and black children are dramatically overrepresented in the criminal justice system. …In order to meet the standards of the UN convention, Ottawa should raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility and ensure that no one under 18 is ever tried as an adult, the report said.”
On March 12, 2012, Postmedia reported, “The deeply polarizing Safe Streets and Communities Act, which passed by a vote of 154 to 129, effectively will become law in a matter of hours, if not days, when the bill receives royal assent. The Tories will mark their 100 day milestone on Friday (March 16).”
It should also be noted that the Council of Canadians’ Blue Planet Project has just submitted a report to the United Nations on the Harper government’s record on the implementation of the UN-recognized right to water. Canada will have its human rights record reviewed by the UN’s Human Rights Council during a ‘Universal Periodic Review’ process taking place between April 22 and May 3 in Geneva.
The full Canadian Press article is at http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/un-calls-canada-s-tough-on-crime-agenda-excessively-punitive-1.988812.
