Union Update
Spotlight on Human Rights - December 2009
- December: a month to uphold human rights
- December 1st is World AIDS Day
- December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- December 6 – National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women
- December 10 — Human Rights Day
December: a month to uphold human rights
PSAC commemorates four significant days in December: World AIDS Day, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, Human Rights Day and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This issue of the Union Update is a collection of PSAC's statements for December 2009, as the union reaffirms its commitment to human righs, equality, social justice and solidarity.
December 1st is World AIDS Day
We know that the people and communities most affected by HIV/AIDS are those with limited access to fundamental social and economic rights. Ninety five per cent of all AIDS cases occur in the world's poorest countries where women are now the prime victims and an incredible number of children are being orphaned every day.
According to UNAIDS estimates, there are 31.3 million adults and 2.1 million children around the world living with HIV, and in 2008, about 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus. According to the latest UNAIDS Global Report, there has been progress in stabilizing the epidemic globally. However, human rights violations such as gender inequality, discrimination and stigma still exist in many places worldwide and in all cases impede an effective response to the epidemic.
Today, on World AIDS Day, we must break through these barriers.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada encourages its members and their families to wear the red ribbon on December 1st to bring attention to this epidemic, end discrimination and help lift the veil of ignorance about AIDS.
Read, discuss and learn more about HIV/AIDS and take action by putting pressure on our government to do its part to raise awareness, eliminate discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS and invest the necessary resources to find a cure.
December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
“Empowerment of persons with disabilities and their communities around the world”
Globally, almost one in ten people is a person living with a disability, and people with disabilities constitute up to 20 per cent of the population living in poverty in developing countries. In these countries, 80 to 90 per cent of workingage people with disabilities are unemployed, and it is between 50 and 70 per cent in developed countries.
The Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) is a national survey designed to collect information on people with disabilities in Canada. According to the 2006 PALS survey, 14.3 per cent of the Canadian population identify themselves as having a disability.
According to the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, people with disabilities and their families are twice as likely to live in poverty as other Canadians, and the incidence of poverty among Aboriginal Peoples with disabilities is even higher. Over two million Canadian adults with disabilities lack one or more of the educational, workplace, aids, home modification or other supports they need to fully participate in their communities. Over 56 per cent of working-age adults with disabilities are unemployed or out of the labour market. For women with disabilities, the rate is almost 60 per cent. Slightly more than half of Canadian children with disabilities who need aids and devices need more than what they receive. Rates of violence and abuse against people with disabilities, especially women, are among the highest for any group in Canadian society.
International Day of Persons with Disabilities is an opportunity to mobilize support and action in achieving the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities as established by the “World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons”, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1982.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has supported and advocated for the rights of persons with disabilities to live and work in society with dignity, autonomy and equality.
The PSAC continues to push the envelope and make further progress in the fight for true equality for and full participation of persons with disabilities in our society. The 2009 PSAC Triennial Convention passed a resolution that calls for a comprehensive duty to accommodate strategy including raising awareness in workplaces, and educating and mobilizing members to take action on the issue. The strategy will include developing tools and strategies to integrate the duty to accommodate in all the work we do in our union, workplaces and communities.
Whether through legislative changes, political action or collective bargaining, the PSAC will continue to fight to ensure that our workplaces and our communities are barrier free and free from discrimination.
December 6 – National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women
This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, when a man named Marc Lépine killed 14 young women at the École Polytechnique. This extreme example of violence against women will forever be branded in our collective memory. It is marked yearly on December 6th: National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.
When this misogynist crime was committed, women and men across the country promised to turn their grief and their outrage into action. We lobbied and we marched, signed petitions and demanded that governments adopt effective measures to end all forms of violence against women. Yet, 20 years later, violence against women remains endemic: spousal assault, sexual assault, incest and sexual abuse, sexual harassment and racial harassment continue to plague women, especially the most vulnerable women in society.
Over the last 20 years, the federal government has signed international declarations, adopted action plans and repeatedly made promises to the women of Canada, but with very few results. Today, the Harper government is supporting a bill that will dismantle the long gun registry that was adopted in response to the Montreal Massacre. Bill C-391 would eliminate the need to register rifles and shotguns, and it will require the destruction of more than eight million firearms records.
Since gun owners were required to register long guns, spousal deaths by guns have been reduced by 50 per cent. Everyday, the rate of police enquiries to the Canadian firearms registry online is over 10,000 queries. The registry allows police to check households for the presence of firearms which is especially important in the case of domestic disputes. Why is the federal government dismantling a program that has proven its effectiveness in reducing violence against women?
The federal government is also pushing its law and order agenda by proposing an increase in the types of crimes that will receive mandatory minimum sentences, and the length of sentences for several crimes. This is not the way to go: Removing the discretion of judges during sentencing will result in injustice and arbitrariness.
The real solution to violence against women is the adoption of social and economic programs such as childcare, social housing, increased welfare benefits, access to justice, programs that ensure that women with disabilities can surmount the multiple barriers in their path, employment equity for immigrant and racialized women, adequate pensions, and security for Aboriginal women. Measures such as these will provide women with the economic autonomy and social safety net to flee violence and find safety.
On this sad anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, the PSAC and our members want more than commemoration and empty promises: We want effective government action to end violence against women now!
December 10 — Human Rights Day
Struggle against discrimination faces uphill battle
The United Nations' Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 by the UN General Assembly. The UN has announced that this year's celebration will focus on non-discrimination.
Human rights are a priority for PSAC, which has a long history of defending human rights and fighting discrimination. The union has been at the forefront in promoting employment equity, pay equity and harassment-free workplaces and has been involved in the development and review of human rights legislation and jurisprudence. PSAC's commitment to human rights includes integrating antioppression and equity analyses at all levels of its activities.
PSAC remains diligent in monitoring and denouncing all forms of discrimination, especially in the face of rising social conservatism. In the last few years, the mainstream media and the government have been relentless in their attacks against Canada's values of equality and inclusiveness enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights laws. The federal Conservative government, in particular, has been dismantling the very systems that promote human rights and equality.
More recently, there has been a concerted campaign by rightwing pundits and media to entirely discredit the role and the need for human rights commissions in Canada, including the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Act, under the guise of defending free speech. Their attacks picked on certain decisions by the Commission and Tribunal around section 13, the hate messages clause, of the Act. However their often malicious criticisms expand beyond these specific cases and have the intent of turning public opinion against the human rights commissions, which they have variously labeled as the “thought police” or compared to violent dictatorial regimes. Attacks against the commissions have not been isolated to the federal level but have also been directed towards the Ontario Human Rights Commission and other commissions all across the country.
The federal Conservative government, in the meantime, has been pushing an anti-equality agenda that reversed the gains Canadians have made in the area of human rights. In the four years it has been in power, it has eliminated the Court Challenges Program; made major cuts to programs that provided services to women, children and other marginalized groups; expanded programs that deny migrant workers their labour and civil rights; and reversed gains in the fight for pay equity. It refused to sign on to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and implement the Kelowna Accord that would have recognized Aboriginal rights. It also cut funding or continues to underfund important organizations that promote and protect human rights, including the Commission itself. It also strengthened measures under the Anti-Terrorism Act which severely restricts civil liberties and has created conditions for rampant racial profiling.
Canadian civil society faces a tougher struggle to protect and promote human rights. This year, to commemorate International Human Rights Day, the PSAC calls on all its members to firm up their resolve and commitment to fight against all forms of discrimination and for true equality. They are essential to ensuring that we not only regain what we've lost but also forge ahead in our collective endeavour to building a world where all “are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Section 1).
