International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
39 Queen's Park, Room 106 Toronto, ON, Canada

NEW REPORT: The Problematic Legality of Tear Gas Under International Human Rights Law Authored by IHRP research fellows Natasha Williams, Maija Fiorante, and research associate Vincent Wong. The report finds that the use of tear gas, particularly in canister and grenade form, is rightfully banned in warfare, and should equally be banned as a riot control agent in law enforcement contexts. Lawmakers at all levels of government should act to put forward legislation that bans us...e of the chemical weapon, eliminates existing stockpiles, and prohibits import, export, and manufacture. Used as an area weapon, tear gas is inherently indiscriminate and is frequently abused when deployed against peaceful assemblies, in enclosed spaces, in excessive quantities, and against vulnerable populations. It cannot distinguish between the young and the elderly, the healthy and the sick, the peaceful and the violent. Its deployment can also cause myriad health harms, including severe injuries and death. While international guidance governing the use of tear gas exists, a myriad of soft law instruments have shown to be largely ineffective in constraining misuse of tear gas or in protecting fundamental rights. It is almost *never* deployed in a necessary and proportional way. Although frequently touted as relatively safe, an increasing number of medical students are finding that long-term exposure found in protest sites result in higher risk of contracting respiratory illness, heart disease, eye injuries, damage to skin and gastrointestinal damage. Banning tear gas under international human rights law will force police to redouble their efforts on de-escalation tactics and less harmful crowd control strategies that protect democratic freedoms of expression, assembly, and protest. The report also tracks how international norms are starting to shift with respect to tear gas. Increased efforts are being made by international rights groups and the UN and EU to restrict the use and trade of tear gas. Countries are passing legislation to ban exports. Read more: https://ihrp.law.utoronto.ca//new-ihrp-report-problematic-

We at the IHRP and our friends at Downtown Legal Services are helping three Uyghur gentlemen: Ayub Mohammed, Salahidin Abdulahad, and Khalil Mamut - reunite with their Canadian wives and children. *Please consider signing this petition to help make that a reality.* Their civil liberties and human rights been repeatedly violated over the last 2 decades. After fleeing ethnic persecution in China, they moved to Pakistan and Afghanistan for schooling and work opportunities. Then ...9/11 happened. They were subsequently: - Sold by Pakistani bounty hunters to the US military. - Interned illegally for 4-7 years by the US at Guantanamo Bay and subjected to torture and cruel and inhumane treatment. - After being legally exonerated for any wrongdoing by US courts/tribunals, their release and relocation was greatly delayed by lobbying from the Chinese government as well as US Senate republicans. - They were sent to forced exile in Bermuda and Albania. - Despite posing no threat to Canadian national security, these men have been waiting over five years to reunite with their families. - Canada continues to parrot CCP talking points that they should be inadmissible for terrorism related reasons, even though these allegations have been found to be specious and unsupported by the evidence for many years. No more re-victimizing these three men. Their children should not be growing up without a dad. Justice for the Uyghur three. https://www.change.org/p/marco-mendicino-reunite-ayub-khali

A coalition of progressive organizations in Toronto is mobilizing in solidarity with Pat, a transgender woman from the Philippines, and hundreds of migrants and refugees who are detained and abused by Japanese immigration authorities despite the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. Join us for a webinar tomorrow contextualizing the problem of migrant detention as manifestations of capitalist crisis and imperialism, and highlighting the efforts of grassroots activists to organize migr...ants and refugees. --- Webinar: Imperialism and Migrant (In)Justice Time: Wednesday, August 5, 8pm EST / Thursday, August 6, 9am JST / 8am PHT Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us//tZwsc--tqz8vHd2Kv9C_DQ9bDxjelyLVe SPEAKERS PROFILE: Ken C. Kawashima is Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Dept. of East Asian Studies. He is author of The Proletarian Gamble: Korean Workers in interwar Japan (Duke UP, 2009); co-editor of Tosaka Jun: A Critical Reader (Cornell UP, 2013); and the English translator of Uno Kozo’s Theory of Capitalist Crisis (Brill Press, forthcoming 2019). He is currently writing a book with Prof. Gavin Walker of McGill University called Surplus alongside Excess. Sharmeen Khan has been an organizer with No One Is Illegal-Toronto for close to 10 years. She is also an editor with the anti-capitalist, activist journal Upping the Anti- A Journal of Theory and Action and also coordinates Tools for Change. Roger Raymundo is an organizer with Migrante Japan based in Saitama Prefecture. He joined Anakbayan in 2001 when he was in college in the Philippines and became a fulltime organizer. He was able to go to Japan because of his Japanese ancestry in 2008. He joined Migrante Japan in 2012 and since then became active in various migrants rights and welfare issues. The latest of which is the case of Loida Quindoy, a Filipina mother, grandmother, and community leader who was detained and deported by Nyukan after living in Japan for 22 years. At present they are handling various welfare cases involving marriage migrants and abandoned Japanese children. Nami Nanami is an activist translator based in Tokyo. She coordinates on the ground support for Pat. Bahaghari, which means Rainbow in Filipino, is an organization of militant LGBT activists. They fight alongside the masses of their people in the Philippine National Democratic movement for liberation from imperialist domination in the economic, political, and cultural spheres. : () : 85810 /86911 /810 : https://us02web.zoom.us//tZwsc--tqz8vHd2Kv9C_DQ9bDxjelyLVe : https://note.com/free_them_all/n/n117613427849 :

Thank you to everyone who came out to our event on Feminist Advocacy and the Law at WeirFoulds LLP!