New York, April 30, 2018—Defense for Children International - Palestine participated in an advocacy delegation to Ottawa in late April to meet with members of Parliament and other policy makers to discuss the No Way to Treat a Child campaign.

Between April 24 and 27, Brad Parker, international advocacy officer and attorney at DCIP joined representatives from the United Church of Canada, Mennonite Central Committee - Canada, and Mr. Michael Lynk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 for meetings on Parliament Hill.

The delegation met with a number of individual members of Parliament to discuss the situation of Palestinian child detainees in Israeli military detention and the human rights and humanitarian situation in Gaza. The group also briefed the New Democratic Party (NDP) caucus as well as the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group.

On April 26, Lynk and Parker joined Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, for a public conversation moderated by Peggy Mason, president of the Rideau Institute and former Canadian ambassador for disarmament to the United Nations, at Knox Presbyterian Church focused on Palestinian human rights under endless occupation.

Mason noted in her introduction the “discussion is particularly timely, taking place as it is against a backdrop of the continued use of firearms, including live ammunition, by Israeli security forces against mostly unarmed Palestinian protesters and observers for a fourth straight week near the fence between occupied Gaza and Israel.”

Lynk explained his role as UN Special Rapporteur and highlighted the urgent situation in Gaza, including the dire need for improved health infrastructure and routine grave breaches of international law by Israeli forces as part of the ongoing closure of Gaza.

Elizabeth May reflected on her recent visit to Israel and Palestine as a member of a delegation organized by the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group in late March and early April, and declared “Canada must not remain silent. We must suspend all military trade with Israel and increase pressure for the world community to collectively present an honest broker to replace the United States in this ongoing conflict.”

DCIP and American Friends Service Committee jointly launched the No Way to Treat a Child campaign in the United States in 2015. The campaign seeks to challenge and end Israel's military occupation of Palestinians by exposing widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system. DCIP launched the No Way to Treat a Child campaign in Canada in July 2017.