Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the members of the committee for this invitation.

I will make my remarks in English, but if you ask questions in French, I can answer them.

I will start with a brief overview of the context and then highlight two human rights issues that require urgent attention: the right to seek asylum and the issue of ageism.

I understand that UNHCR colleagues will brief you more fully on the global statistics and demographics of forced migration, so I'll not repeat those now. Instead, I wish to highlight three global trends.

First, internal displacement makes up the majority of forced migration but is too often overlooked. Because internally displaced persons are citizens, they should benefit from the same legal rights and protections as other citizens. The guiding principles on internal displacement point to applicable human rights and humanitarian law.

However, country visits by the UN special rapporteur regularly highlight human rights concerns. For example, Sudan has over 10 million internally displaced persons who face severe risk of famine and grave human rights violations, including reports of gang rape as a weapon of war.

Second, the vast majority of forced migration occurs in low- and middle-income countries of the global south, where scarce financial resources already jeopardize the realization of basic human rights to housing, food, education, health, etc.

Third, forced displacement situations are often protracted, lasting years and in some cases decades. For example, the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya have existed since 1991. Babies are born and people get married, grow old and die in refugee and displacement camps around the world, in temporary structures that become permanent homes.

Forced migration is too often treated as a short-term humanitarian emergency. We need longer-term, rights-based planning. A case in point is the temporary protection accorded to Ukrainians in both Europe and Canada that was limited to just three years. Of course, the conflict goes on.

The universality of human rights applies to all people everywhere, but forced migration contexts create human rights gaps. I'd like to draw the committee's attention to two worrying global trends.

First, the right to seek asylum is under threat. This right is enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and domestic law, including Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. However, countries are increasingly closing their borders to people seeking refugee protection. The March 2023 amendment to the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement is one such example. The expansion of this agreement to the entire land border, including internal waterways, severely limits the ability of people to make a refugee claim in Canada. Another example is the Pakistan government's plan to forcibly repatriate Afghan refugees, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. Some of these Afghan refugees are awaiting resettlement in Canada, which requires them to cross into Pakistan.

Second, generalized responses to forced migration overlook the specific lived experiences of displacement. A person's ability to exercise their rights is impacted by their positionality in relation to gender, social age, disability, race, religion and class. My research focuses on age discrimination, so I'll highlight two worrying human rights issues that demonstrate widespread ageism in forced migration policy and programming.

First, the lack of systematic birth registration in situations of displacement is a serious human rights issue. Under article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children have the right to birth registration. Birth certificates provide proof of legal identity, which is necessary to secure other rights. However, many children born in displacement contexts are denied the right to birth registration. Some countries only allow fathers to register births, do not recognize children from same-sex relationships or require marriage certificates. For example, many Syrian refugees in Jordan cannot legally register their children's birth because the Jordanian state does not recognize traditional Islamic marriage. Their children are deemed to be born out of wedlock.

At the other end of the life-course, older people are under-represented in forced migration policy, programming and research. They are more likely to remain behind in their country of origin due to physical barriers to movement or emotional attachment to their lands, homes and communities.

Those who cross international borders face particular linguistic, physical and social barriers to accessing services and exercising their rights. For example, Ukraine has been called “the oldest humanitarian crisis in the world” because of the large number of older people affected by violence, human rights abuses and displacement.

In conclusion, people in situations of forced migration are human beings with human rights. I urge the Government of Canada to uphold its international and domestic obligations to the right to asylum.

I also recommend social age analysis of all forced migration policies and programming to ensure rights-based approaches to displacement across the life-course.

Thank you very much. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.