TJLP Joins UN Submission Urging Review of Canadian Arms Exports to Israel

Tech Justice Law joined over 40 civil society organizations across Canada, the United States, and Palestine in calling on the United Nations to review Canada’s role in enabling the violation of civil and political rights in Gaza. As documented in a report signed by Tech Justice Law and prepared jointly by the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto Henry N. R. Jackman Faculty of Law, the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), and the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, Canada’s insufficiently regulated arms export regime contributes to violations of Canada’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The provision of arms often occurred via indirect exports routed to Israel through third countries.

The report highlights how, absent strong regulation, corporations freely profit by selling military technologies into contexts where they will enable grave human rights violations. As AI is increasingly militarized, the human rights cost of regulatory failures applies to digital technologies just as much as weaponry. “There is no corporate greed exception to human rights,” said Tech Justice Law Fellow Maddy Batt. “Canada, and all states, must ensure that technologies from arms to algorithms are not exported for use in violation of international law.”

The UN Human Rights Committee will consider the submission during its upcoming periodic review of Canada during its 145th session in Geneva in March 2026. IHRP’s press release is available here, and the full report is available here.