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Canadian Council for Refugees

Background

The Canadian Council for Refugees (abbreviated CCR, formerly known as the Standing Conference of Canadian Organizations Concerned about/for/with Refugees) is a non-governmental umbrella organization that critiques the Government of Canada's public policy regarding refugee settlement and determination, and provides consultation to Canadian immigration authorities. The organization is based in Montreal. According to the CCR, refugee services should focus on mental health. The breadth of their concerns include, protection of refugees in Canada and abroad, issues related to family reunification, lengthy process of processing sponsored refugees, sex trafficking, impacts of national security agendas, refugee determination system, immigration detention, social integration of refugees, newcomer's access to services, migrants without status, children's rights, newcomer youth, anti-racism, and LGBTQ refugees.

CCR's Mission Statement

According to the CCR's mission statement page of their website, the following points are made in regards to their goals and what they stand by.

• Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution; (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 14.1)
• Refugees, refugee claimant, displaced persons and immigrants have the right to a dignified life and the rights and protections laid out in national and international agreements and conventions concerning human rights
• Canada and Canadians have responsibilities for the protection and resettlement of refugees from around the world;
• Settlement services to refugees and immigrants are fundamental to participation in Canadian life;
• National and international refugee and immigration policies must accord special consideration to the experience of refugee and immigrant women and children and to the effect of racism.

The CCR states that their mission is fulfilled by the following.

• Providing opportunities for networking and professional development through conferences, working groups, publications and meetings;
• Working in cooperation with other networks to strengthen the defence of refugee rights;
• Advancing policy analysis and information-exchange on refugee and related issues;
• Advocating for the rights of refugees and immigrants through media relations, government relations, research and public education.

These fulfillments were created by the leadership of the CCR in November of 1993, and redrafted in November 2013.

CCR Policy

The CCR creates it's policy around the definitions of Discrimination, Oppression, Systemic Oppression, Individual Oppression, and Anti Oppression.

• Discrimination is the treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit and that can be used to privilege (special treatment in favour of) as well as disadvantage (special treatment against) a particular group or individual.
• Oppression is the use of power or privilege by a socially, politically, economically, culturally dominant group (or groups) to disempower (take away or reduce power), marginalize, silence or otherwise subordinate one social group or category.
• Systemic Oppression consists of practices, policies, laws and standards that disadvantage a particular group or category of people.
• Individual Oppression is demeaning and oppressive behaviour towards and treatment of a particular group or category of people, expressed through individual attitudes, beliefs and values.
• Anti-oppression is the work of actively challenging and removing oppression perpetuated by power inequalities in society, both systemic oppression and individual expressions of oppression.

The policy statement of the CCR includes various different topics that revolve around the above definitions. The CCR states that they recognize that individuals or groups in society face "oppressive experiences because of individual and systemic unequal power related to race, colour, culture, ethnicity, language and linguistic origin, ability, socio-economic class, age (children, youth, seniors), ancestry, nationality, place of birth, religion or faith or other forms of conscientiously held beliefs, sex, gender (including gender identity and expression), sexuality (including sexual orientation), family status (including marital status), and residency/migratory status in Canada." Furthermore the CCR recognizes that oppression operates within Canada and acutely targets the aboriginal population. In particular, the CCR notes that many refugees that have been historically or currently persecuted due to indigenous status are internally displaced by the extraction and use of natural resources.

CCR's Commitment

Mentioned in the commitment section of their website, the CCR states that they strive to reduce oppression in all areas of society and in all areas of their work. The CCR states that "change is not only necessary but possible, through an intentional process of learning and change." The CCR ensures that this change is not only manifested in the populations that they focus on but also within their organization through the following means.

• The organization will represent and reflect the variety of groups and individuals that create and make our society.
• Meetings and consultations conducted by and within the organization will be transparent and accessible to all.
• All work done by the CCR will be informed by the goal of reducing oppression and identifying said oppression.
• All communication from the CCR will address all different types and forms of oppression that displaced individuals or groups face.

Structure of the CCR

The structure of the CCR is divided into four groups identified as the Executive Committee, Legal Affairs Committee, the Youth Network, and Working Groups which are then subdivided into three different subgroups which include the Working Group on Immigration and Settlement, Working Group on Inland Protection, and the Working Group on Overseas Protection and Resettlement.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee of the CCR is the governing body of the organization. It holds thirteen members including a president. Each member serves terms of two years in length and are to be representative of the broad range of individuals and groups that create society.

Legal Affairs Committee

The Legal Affairs Committee guides and reviews the organizations involvement in legal areas including appearances before courts of law. This body actively looks for opportunities to improve the protection of human rights in regards to those who are displaced.

Youth Network

The Youth Network is a governing body of the CCR that gives and increases the voices of youth and youth networks to address the challenges faced by youth newcomers ad youth overseas.

Working Groups

The different groups that form the Working Groups of the CCR forums in which information is exchanged and networks are developed.These groups draft and create resolutions needed in order to facilitate the change in which the CCR wishes to create and see.

Working Group on Immigration and Settlement

The Working Group on Immigration and Settlement focuses primarily on issues related to settlement of refugees in their Immigration to Canada. The group outlines that it focuses on provision of settlement services, which include learning the native languages, housing, and education, and broader social justice context for newcomers to Canada. This group in particular fights issues that arise involving the unfair treatment of the displaced that arrive in Canada, for example, Ottawa's plan for April 2018 to dismiss and disapprove immigrants who arrive with medical conditions and could be considered a strain on Canada's Healthcare system. Another example of an issue that the CCR's Working Group on Immigration and Settlement is actively seeking resolve for, is the fact that many might find the Canadian immigration website confusing or daunting.

Working Group on Inland Protection

The Working Group on Inland Protection focuses their assets and interests on the protection of asylum and refugee claimants once within Canada. The Working Group on Inland tries to protect the claimants throughout the entire integration and settlement process by including access to asylum in Canada, in-Canada refugee determination, post-claim resources, family reunification, detention, removals, and the regularization of persons with precarious status in Canada. Current issues that this group is working to improve are the Canadian Refugee Determination System, by making the process easier to access and more all-encompassing, Safe Third Country status, which in November of 2007, the Canadian federal court deemed that the Canadian-American agreement that both countries entered into invalid. Furthermore, the Working Group in Inland Protection calls for the Canadian government to suspend the Safe Third Country agreement. The Working Group on Inland Protection calls for family reunification and identifies the flaws within the Canadian system at hand. The Working Group on Inland Protection also calls for immigrant detention reform due to Canada's reduction of detention to a minimum standard. And lastly, the issue of legacy claimants, or those claimants who have been forgotten in time, is a problem that the Working Group on Inland protection wishes to reform as well.

Working Group on Overseas Protection and Resettlement

The Overseas Protection and Resettlement working group focuses on the protection needs of refugees and others that have been forcibly removed or displaced around the world, the resettlement of refugees to Canada and internationally, the needs and challenges experienced by refugees prior to, during, and after resettlement in Canada and abroad, and the needs and challenges of private sponsors.

Success Stories of the CCR

Canadian Private Sponsorship Program

The Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program was established in 1978 and allows refugees to enter Canada with support and funding from a private sponsor. Throughout the programs existence, over 200,000 immigrants had been successfully settled in Canada, 6,623 of which were settled in 2013 alone. There is an increasing amount of tension between westphalian sovereignty and refugee integration. A private sponsorship program is an effective way to circumvent many of the issues around state bureaucracy. The process involves approving the refugee overseas and upon arrival, are considered a permanent resident of Canada.

History

In 1978, when the organization was still known as the Standing Conference of Canadian Organizations Concerned for Refugees, it was composed of approximately 100 refugee advocacy groups.

Before the September 11 attacks in 2001, the CCR issued a statement that there was a disproportionate amount of immigration security provisions applied to particular refugee communities, including Kurdish people, Sri Lankan Tamil people, Palestinian people, people from Algeria, Sikhs, and people associated with the People's Mujahedin of Iran.

The CCR said that refugees became far less likely to show up for their asylum hearings starting in January 2003 when Canadian officials stopped asking the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States to guarantee that these refugees would not be arrested.

Towards the end of 2005, the CCR became part of a coalition with Amnesty International and the Canadian Council of Churches to question the constitutionality of the Canada–United States Safe Third Country Agreement. According to the CCR, the agreement would result in increased illegal immigration and people smuggling.

Will edit wikipedia page on Canadian Council for Refugees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Council_for_Refugees Improvement needed: