Once again, an official from the United Nations has said that Canada and other countries have an obligation to repatriate ISIS fighters imprisoned in Iraq and Syria.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council that all members of the genocidal terrorist group should be given “fair trials” by their home countries or released immediately.
Nations, including Canada, “must assume responsibility for their nationals,” she said.
“I urge all states to assume responsibility for their nationals, and to work together to provide resources to help the relevant authorities and actors in Syria and Iraq to address urgent humanitarian needs.”
There are about 190 ISIS fighters with Canadian citizenship imprisoned in the Middle East, most of them held by Kurdish rebels in Syria.
As the United Nations does not recognize the authority of many of these groups to hold prisoners, they would like to see them be repatriated to their country of origin, even though this will not guarantee that they will ever face justice.
This is not the first time a UN official has pushed nations to repatriate violent radicals.
UN rapporteur Agnes Callamard was brought on CBC radio in January to tell Canadians
that they are legally required to return ISIS fighters to their communities.
“I believe it has a legal obligation to do so, if those foreign fighters are currently held in Syria by a non-state actor, in this case, a Kurdish group,” she said.
The biggest concern for Callamard was that these ISIS fighters may face the death penalty in Iraq and Syria, which the UN strongly opposes.
Despite committing genocide on multiple groups and denying citizens the rights laid out in the UN’s “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” it appears the UN’s priorities are with the wellbeing of ISIS fighters.
Law enforcement officials within Canada has made it clear that prosecuting ISIS fighters in Canadian courts would be difficult.
Most countries have so far refused to repatriate any of their fighters, judging that local authorities would best prosecute the terrorists.
