Getting back on the "rights" track

A. Business, trade and human rights The potential human rights impact of the operations of Canadian companies, increasingly present in or near zones of conflict or serious human rights violations around the world, cannot be understated. [...] Canada’s willingness to comply with international recommendations with respect to Indigenous rights is once again in the spotlight with the need to implement the outcome of the UN Human Rights Council’s 2009 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Canada’s record, carried out by other governments. [...] C. The rights of refugees and migrants There have been serious human rights concerns with respect to the government’s response to the arrival of two boatloads of Sri Lankan migrants off the coast of British Columbia - the Ocean Lady in October 2009 and the Sun Sea in August 2010. [...] Recognizing the severity of this human rights crisis governments did, in 2000, commit themselves to a Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) of cutting the rate of maternal mortality around the world by 75% by the year 2015. [...] On December 10, 2008 – a day marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the UN adopted an important new human rights treaty, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.