A majority of Canadians support seizing the Canadian assets of foreign officials who are violating human rights, and using these assets to help victims, according to a new public opinion poll.
Making States Accountable for Deliberate Forced Displacement — Research Paper No. 17
While the international refugee regime is anchored in the 1951 Refugee Convention and the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Convention is silent on the question of state culpability, and the UNHCR’s Statute established its entirely non-political character.
Watch: Council Member Ratna Omidvar on Using Frozen Assets to Help Refugees
Independent Canadian Senator and Council Member Ratna Omidvar explains how countries — including Canada — can enact laws that would allow governments to repurpose corrupt foreign leaders’ assets for the benefit of refugees, internally displaced persons and others who have been harmed by their actions.
Senator, former UN envoy to table bill allowing Canada to spend assets seized from foreign dictators
Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press The following is an excerpt from an article published in The Globe & Mail. An independent Canadian senator has proposed a bill that would allow the government to take the frozen assets of dictators and their cronies to help refugees forced to flee their tyranny. Senator Ratna Omidvar tabled the […]
Keeping the Promise: Three Proposed Accountability Mechanisms for the Global Refugee Regime — Discussion Paper No. 1
Accountability is lacking at every point in the refugee cycle — from upstream, where refugee flows are triggered violently and with impunity by criminal regimes and non-state actors, to downstream, where governments shirk their treaty commitments and moral obligations for political gain. In many ways, the modern refugee regime represents a classic case of strong […]