Comments from the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations
Transcript of Agnes Callamard - Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Mark Arnold:
If I may introduce Madam Callamard as having been the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations who prepared an extremely important Report on this event, and in fact, the Report did go to our judge, who reviewed it and who made reference to it in his Decision. Madam Collamard, thank you so much for your efforts and I would love to hear from you.
Agnes Callamard:
Well, thank you very much, Mr. Arnold. It's a pleasure to speak now. I just wanted to congratulate you for what you did and for pursuing the cause, for being persistent, being demanding and ensuring that justice could be delivered. I also wanted to say that I could not agree with you more regarding Canada. And I could not agree with you more regarding the notion that ultimately certainly in many cases that I have had to work on including the shooting down of the plane, it is not governments who will deliver justice. It is the victims with their lawyers and a good court. This is what I’ve learned over the last many years. Yet again this is what happened in this case that is a typical example of why we need to be persistent and why we need to look beyond the official institutions of government for the delivery of justice. The work you've done is, of course about the sentence and the court decision. But it is also about truth. It's about people being heard. It's about the fact that we are not turning the page on the victims, which is what governments want to do, Canada wants to do, the US wants to do, Iran wants to do. And in the case of 911, that's what Saudia Arabia wants to do.
They all want to turn the page and move on. But this did not happen. That is a fantastic lesson and I can't thank you enough for the work that you have done for the delivery of justice and for demonstrating that even when you're fighting against one of the most terrible governments in terms of its human rights record, something can be done. And you've done it, with the victims' families. So THANK YOU.
Mark Arnold: I agree fully with every single thing that you have said and I hope that in the future that there can be a collaboration with you and the work that you're doing and the work that we are doing. The truth of it is that we will never give up. we are not turning the page. our governments may change but we are never turning the page in our search for justice here. We're just not doing it. And you are absolutely correct that victims cannot rely upon their governments to protect them or to assist them. Governments will speak the speak but they won't walk the walk. They won't do what has to be done. And as I've said in this press conference before, I am begging the Canadian government to collaborate with us and to use our number in any public negotiations with Iran. But you know what, I've received lots of emails of congratulations and big words but not a single member of our government, either the elected government or the bureaucracy, have called or emailed. They don't seem to care. And so if there are families on this call, you cannot put faith in your government to protect you, regretfully.
Madam Callamard thank you so much for your work. It was instrumental in our judge's decision, particularly your analysis of the assassination of General Soleimani that was not in the context of an armed conflict, but a skirmish. Armed conflict was critical in getting this judgment. If there had been an armed conflict going on between Iran and Iraq, we would not have accomplished what we accomplished.
Agnes Callamard: Yes. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And congratulations again. Thank you so much.
Dr. Agnes Callamard (France) was the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial summary or arbitrary Executions from August 2016 to March 2021.
For further information family members of Flight PS752 may contact Jonah Arnold at (416) 640-0508 jonah@healthlawfirm.ca or Mark Arnold at (416) 363-2614 mark.arnold@gmalaw.ca
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