China urged the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday to pay attention to Canada’s severe violation of human rights of indigenous women and children.
Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the UN in Geneva, made the remarks at an annual discussion meeting on the human rights of women of the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Recent reports exposed more than 1,000 unmarked tombs with a large number of remains in a former boarding school for indigenous children, many of them were abused and raped, Jiang pointed out. He added that Canada also performed forced sterilization on a large number of indigenous women and children.
China urges the UN Human Rights Council to conduct a comprehensive and fair investigation on Canada over all of the cases involving the harm of indigenous women and children, and all those responsible should be punished by law, Jiang said.
Simply apologizing is not enough, and Canada must take actual actions to correct its mistakes, Jiang said.
China also calls for Canada to combat racial discrimination and hate crime in the country aimed at Africans, Asians and their descendants, particularly women and children, Jiang said.
A woman holds a placard during a rally in Toronto, Canada, on July 1, 2021. Hundreds of people gathered here on Thursday to pay tribute to indigenous children whose bodies were found in mass graves near former indigenous residential schools in Canada. Photo: Xinhua