Statement made on 08 December 2009 by Senator Mobina Jaffer
Hon. Mobina S. B. Jaffer:
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. In January 2010, Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives of Christian organizations that aim to effect social change through advocacy, education and research programs, was to initiate work on its gender-based violence legal clinic in Congo. The goal of the gender-based violence legal clinic was for women who are currently targeted by different forms of human rights violations, particularly sexual violence. In eastern Congo in 2005, 40,000 women were raped in the Kivu district alone.
Recently, the Minister of International Cooperation announced that the government has cut the funding for this multi-year project that was to begin in January 2010.
How can a project like this one be cut, particularly when the Development Assistance Accountability Act is concerned with the promotion of international human rights standards?
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