UN Calls on Canada to Repatriate Detainees from North-eastern Syria and Iraq

March 24, 2026 – The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on Canada to repatriate 14 Canadian men and children (as well as two mothers of the children) in order to end what has in some cases been upwards of a decade of arbitrary detention under appalling conditions in north-eastern Syria and, more recently, in Iraq.   

In a concluding report (Online Link) from its 145^th session, the Committee noted that Canada had already repatriated from north-eastern Syria 30 Canadians (22 children and 8 women) since 2020, but expressed concern “about reports indicating that at least nine men and five Canadian children continue to be held in very difficult conditions in north-eastern Syria, together with two mothers who are not Canadian nationals.” 

The Committee also raised concerns that Canada has made repatriation of the children contingent on forced separation from their mothers. 

 

Multiple Violations

While pointing out this crisis violated Articles 6 (inherent right to life), 7 (prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment ) and 24 (non-discriminatory guarantees of child protection) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Committee called on Canada to “intensify its efforts to repatriate all its nationals currently held in armed conflict zones, in particular in the Syrian Arab Republic, together with the mothers of the Canadian children, through a clear and fair procedure that upholds the principle of the best interests of the child and ensures adequate access to rehabilitation services and care upon repatriation.”

 

In response to the report, human rights activist and international human rights lawyer Alex Neve, who visited some of the Canadian detainees in north-eastern Syria as part of a civic delegation in August 2023, declared: “The Human Rights Committee has, in fact, been generous in calling on Canada to ‘intensify its efforts’ to repatriate all of the Canadians the government has abandoned in north-eastern Syria for years, and now also in Iraq. The truth is that there are no efforts of any kind underway at all. Clearly this exhortation from the body responsible for overseeing one of the world's most important human rights instruments must finally catalyze action from the federal government. Given the precarious and rapidly evolving political, security and human rights situation in the region, it has never been more important - but also there has never been a clearer opportunity - to bring all Canadians home.”

 

The UN recommendations come in response to a brief (Online Link) submitted earlier this year by Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, which for years has led a campaign to repatriate the detainees. Group spokesperson Matthew Behrens noted that the Canadian detainees were on the verge of being illegally transferred to Iraq at the time the group’s brief was submitted, adding that the Committee’s reference to “armed conflict zones” is clearly intended to include those now held in Iraq. 

 

Canada Backtracks on Repatriation Pledge

Earlier this month, Canada’s ambassador in Baghdad led Iraqi officials to believe Canada would repatriate its citizens, only to see Global Affairs Canada (GAC) walk back that commitment once the office of Iraqi national security adviser Qasim Al-Araji posted online about Canada’s “readiness to receive its nationals among the detainees who were recently handed over” to Iraq.

"Canada is not currently in the process of repatriating any detained Canadians from Iraq," GAC subsequently wrote to Sally Lane, the mother of the longest held detainee, Canadian Jack Letts.

“Canada has subcontracted my son Jack’s arbitrary detention and torture to Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria and now Iraq for almost nine full years in complete violation of his Charter rights and this country’s international human right commitments,” Lane said. “Will Canada continue to defy the calls from many United Nations Special Rapporteurs on human rights, and now this committee, to repatriate my son and the other Canadians?”

Lane is especially incensed that Canada did nothing to prevent the illegal transfer of her son and other Canadians to Iraq where, in addition to arbitrary detention, they face the prospect of torture, unfair trials based on brutally coerced statements, and possible execution under a judicial system widely condemned for its failure to uphold international fair trial standards.

“Is Canada really going to allow my son’s death by hanging?” asked Lane, who has not seen the 30-year-old Jack since he was 18 and traveled to Syria to assist those under attack by the former Assad regime. “Canada refuses to justify its deliberate inaction to me; perhaps they can now explain to the UN why they condone arbitrary detention, torture and, possibly, execution?”

The UN’s report is the latest in a significant body of repatriation calls from a diverse set of voices, from the US State Department, UN Special Rapporteurs, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, former Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock and hundreds of Canadian legal professionals, to the International Committee of the Red Cross, a Canadian Parliamentary committee, the Kurdish jailers in NE Syria, and, more recently, Iraqi officials currently holding five Canadian men who were illegally transferred to their custody by the US in January and February, 2026.

“Every day, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand posts that Canada is there for its citizens in the region, and has rightly expended considerable resources to help with evacuations,” Behrens says. “But while even Canadian troops have pulled out of Iraq because it has been deemed too dangerous for them, Anand has chosen to abandon these unarmed, defenceless, and traumatized Canadians in detention centres that are perilously close to the bombing.” 

 

Canada’s Ongoing History of Obstruction

The issue of Canadians illegally detained in north-eastern Syria and now Iraq has previously been challenged at the Federal Court, which in January 2023 issued a decision calling on Ottawa to take the necessary steps to repatriate the men. Notably, the Court wrote: “The [Government of Canada] Respondents filed no evidence identifying the Applicants’ motives for their travel or of their activities in the region. Notably the Respondents do not allege any of the Applicants engaged in or assisted in terrorist activities. The Respondents affirmed this position at the hearing,” adding that “Canadians are entitled to have political opinions, no matter how abhorrent they may be to other Canadians. The limitation is when Canadian opinion holders take actions, whether inside or outside of Canada, that constitute offences against Canadian law including the Criminal Code of Canada. However there is no evidence to that effect before this Court.”

That decision was appealed and overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal which, while declining to rule in favour of the detainees, nonetheless reminded the government that “these reasons should not be taken to discourage the Government of Canada from making efforts on its own to bring about [repatriation].” The Supreme Court twice refused to hear an appeal.

 

In November 2024, Global Affairs Canada invited representatives of the male detainees to make submissions on the question of whether Canada would consider repatriation under a widely criticized “Policy Framework” that was found to discriminate against the men by the Federal Court (that Framework is also the subject of a Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint launched in May 2025). Despite the brutal conditions endured by the men and the passing of 15 months, Global Affairs Canada and Public Safety have yet to render a decision after receiving extensive submissions. 

 

The toll this has taken on families is severe. John Letts, father of Jack Letts, said: “Mr. Carney claims he wants Canada to lead a new democratic world order based on genuinely ethical values, but it seems he wants to outsource Canada’s dirty work abroad. He’d prefer Canadian citizens to be burned as witches out of sight, far from home, rather than be returned and investigated to see if they’ve actually done something wrong. We know the Federal Court of Canada has said there’s no evidence they've committed a crime. This injustice has been going on for 10 years. My Canadian son is dying of torture and neglect, and Canada won't lift a finger to help. When is this nightmare going to end?”

 

For more information: Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, tasc@web.ca