The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, today issued the following statement: “In Canada and around the world, an estimated one in three women still experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. This abuse can occur in many forms, from intimate partner violence to rape, trafficking, female genital mutilation or cutting and child, early and forced marriage. Sadly, most survivors do not feel comfortable coming forward because of outdated stigmas, complex legal systems and the pain of reliving the events.
The Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, today issued the following statement regarding the first administrative review by the U.S. Department of Commerce of U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on certain softwood lumber products from Canada:
“On World Children’s Day, Canada commits to taking action to improve the lives of children so that they can thrive and achieve their dreams and potential. The challenges are considerable. Worldwide, COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of 9 out of 10 learners. Almost 200 million of them are children, including adolescents and youths, living in countries facing humanitarian crises.
We, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States Secretary of State reiterate our serious concern regarding China’s imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong. Following the imposition of the National Security Law and postponement of September’s Legislative Council elections, this decision further undermines Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and rights and freedoms.
Today, the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee adopted a resolution on child, early and forced marriage. Canada is proud to have joined Zambia in leading this resolution, which received the support of a total of 114 co-sponsors from around the world. The resolution highlights concerning trends emerging in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and calls upon the international community to take concrete action to maintain and accelerate progress to end child, early and forced marriage.
We, the members of the Media Freedom Coalition, held our first ministerial-level meeting on November 16, 2020, to exchange views and coordinate action in the defence of media freedom worldwide.
The undersigned members of the Media Freedom Coalition’s Executive Group express concern at the continued restrictions on media freedom in Egypt, including the recent arrest and intimidation of individuals associated with journalist Khaled el-Balshy, editor-in-chief of the news website Darb. In particular, the Coalition is concerned by the arrest of Kamal el-Balshy, brother of Khaled, on September 20, 2020. The Coalition urges authorities to allow journalists in Egypt to practise their profession without fear of arrest or reprisal.
China’s decision to remove four democratically elected lawmakers from office in Hong Kong is a further assault on Hong Kong’s high degree of freedoms under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists was established on 2 November in 2013, drawing vital attention to the necessary protection of unrepressed journalism as a key element of freedom of opinion and expression, both online and offline.
