International Human Rights Law and the Protection of Non-Citizens in Canada

"The subject of this paper concerns the "front-end" use of international human rights law. It will explore how Canada fails to protect the human rights of non-citizens from the perspective of Canada's international obligations. This will be followed by a discussion of how international human rights law can overcome some of the existing systemic barriers in the jurisprudence, which impede effective human rights protection. Finally, this paper will provide some comments on how this international law will likely be received by domestic courts." The author argues that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been interpreted in a very limited way in these cases, and that the use of international human rights law in domestic litigation can help to re-orient the Charter back to its original promise of being a human rights instrument. [This article focuses on Canadian refugee and immigration jurisprudence and relevant international human rights instruments, not specifically women's rights.]