Human rights matter for us all*

The recent death of a Canadian woman in a Turkish prison further underscores that all citizens who remain locked up in northeastern Syria must be repatriated immediately.

SENATOR KIM PATE, ALEX NEVE, HADAYT NAZAMI**

When we met FJ and her six young children – all seven, Canadian citizens – in a detention camp in northeast Syria in August 2023, it was immediately clear that their bonds were close.  Not surprising, given that they were trapped in a lawless dystopia, abandoned by their government, and had no one else to turn to for survival.

Fourteen months later, FJ has mysteriously died in troubling circumstances, in a prison in neighbouring Turkey, and the children have been in foster care in Canada for the past four months.

There are many unanswered questions about how FJ died, what led up to her death, how this tightly connected family was forced apart, and Canada’s refusal to protect her and her children’s rights. That refusal likely led to the desperate course of action that ended in FJ’s death in a Turkish prison.

The federal government must immediately launch an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding FJ’s death. Above all, FJ’s children have the right to know what happened to their mother.  Canadians need to know why the citizenship of seven Canadians was callously disregarded.  And Canadian officials need to understand what role government policies played in this tragedy.

What happened to FJ further underscores that all Canadians who remain locked up in NE Syria must be repatriated immediately. That includes seven other Canadian children whose non-Canadian mothers we interviewed. The government says the children can come home, but their mothers have to stay behind. Once again, the prospect of families being torn apart.

This is part of a wider human rights travesty that has dragged on for years. After Syrian Kurdish forces, backed by the United States and other allies, ended the ISIS reign of terror in NE Syria, they were faced with more than 50,000 foreign nationals who remained in the region.

Lacking capacity to review cases individually, everyone was rounded up.  For years, women and children have been held in two detention camps, while men and teenage boys are locked up in jails. Charges have not been brought. Trials have not been held.  And there is no legal process for challenging the detentions.

Inflammatory headlines quickly and inaccurately labelled all prisoners as ISIS fighters and supporters, blaring that they deserve no one’s sympathy.

It isn’t about sympathy, though; it is about upholding universal human rights. And the broad-sweeping accusations are simply wrong.

Yes, there most certainly are individuals responsible for heinous crimes among the prisoners. So why is nothing being done to ensure they face justice?

More than half of the prisoners are children. No one is suggesting they were involved in terrorism. Women who were trafficked into NE Syria are among the prisoners, as are Yazidi refugees who fled from the horrors of ISIS genocide in Iraq. ISIS dissenters and opponents are also among the prisoners.

This is where FJ and her children were locked up.  This is where Jack Letts and at least eight other Canadian men are locked up.  This is where the seven other Canadian children, between five and twelve years of age, remain locked up.

FJ too was told that her children could come home, but she could not.  She was told that her views were too radical to allow her to return. She was effectively banished from her country, for which there is no basis in Canadian law.

It became too much to bear. FJ escaped from the camp, intent on reaching a Canadian embassy where she could obtain a passport and travel home. She made the impossible choice to leave her children, hopeful that they would be repatriated, which they were.

But it went terribly wrong. FJ was arrested in Turkey and charged with being a member of a terrorist group. Canadian consular officials visited her twice. Her Turkish lawyer says that the RCMP also met with her in prison, after which she was psychologically distressed.

There was hope again when a Turkish court acquitted FJ on October 15. Two days later, she died in the middle of the night, while being held in an immigration holding centre.

FJ and her children’s human rights were ignored at every turn. That neglect and abandonment continues for the Canadians still illegally held in cruel conditions. It cannot go on.

FJ’s death must be independently investigated. Canadians must be brought home from NE Syria. Any allegations of terrorism or other criminality should be dealt with in our legal system.

Human rights do not matter only when it is convenient or when we feel sympathetic. They matter always and they matter for us all.

 * Originally published as an opinion piece in the Hill Times, November 11, 2024.

** Senator Kim Pate; Alex Neve, Senior Fellow with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa; and Immigration and Human Rights Lawyer Hadayt Nazami were part of a humanitarian delegation to NE Syria in August 2023.