Canada, 2008

I am honoured to be here

today on behalf of the Government of Canada to once

again reaffirm my country’s commitment to a strong

and effective United Nations.

(spoke in French)

For Canada, the United Nations remains

indispensable for addressing the many global

challenges that confront us today, be it the search for

peace and security, the promotion of human rights,

democracy and international development, combating

terrorism or the protection of the environment.

(spoke in English)

Those challenges require collective and

cooperative strategies. They cannot be tackled by any

one country acting alone. That is why we must

redouble our efforts to make the United Nations more

effective and efficient so that it can deliver real results.

Today, I would like to speak to the Assembly

about Canada’s priority global engagements, and how

they are helping to achieve the fundamental objectives

of this Organization.

From the very founding of the United Nations,

Canada has contributed ideas, action and resources to

help to fulfil its mandate. We helped to develop the

concept of peacekeeping. We helped it to meet the

changing nature of security, when more robust action

was required to end conflict, to protect civilians caught

in the crossfire or to build peace in its aftermath. We

have served in successive peacekeeping and

peacemaking operations and today we are serving on

the Peacebuilding Commission.

Today, Canada is contributing to peace and

security and making sacrifices in places as diverse as

Afghanistan, Haiti and the Sudan. Each of those

Canadian engagements flows from a United Nations

mandate.

Canada’s largest and most important overseas

engagement is in Afghanistan, where we have more

than 2,500 Canadians on the ground in support of the

Security Council-mandated International Security

Assistance Force. Canada continues to call for safe and

unhindered humanitarian access to all those in need in

Afghanistan. We condemn in the strongest possible

terms the attack of 14 September against members of a

United Nations convoy in Kandahar province who

were carrying out a polio vaccination campaign for

Afghan children.

Sadly, the Government of Afghanistan and the

international community are all too familiar with such

brutal and cowardly tactics. We will not be swayed

from our efforts to improve the lives of ordinary

Afghans. To that end, at the International Conference

in Support of Afghanistan in Paris, Canada announced

that it would make an additional contribution of $600

million for Afghanistan, bringing its overall total to

$1.9 billion over the period from 2001 to 2011.

Continued leadership by the United Nations is

essential in Afghanistan. Canada stands behind the

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. We

call on Member States to work with the United Nations

to enhance the capacity of the Mission and to give it

the tools required to do its job. We remain ever mindful

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of the challenges that Afghanistan continues to

confront — security, access to basic services and

impending food shortages. Collectively, we — the

States assembled here — must deliver on the promises

made to the Afghan people.

(spoke in French)

Canada also remains committed to the promotion

of security, governance and development in Haiti,

efforts that are important for building a more

democratic, prosperous and secure hemisphere. We

consider the partnership with the United Nations in

Haiti to be an integral part of those efforts. That is why

we are providing the United Nations Stabilization

Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) with civilian police

officers, military staff officers and corrections experts.

Canada takes a comprehensive approach to

reconstruction and development in Haiti. We are the

second largest bilateral donor in Haiti, with a

$555 million commitment over five years through 2011

in support of the country’s long-term reconstruction

and development. MINUSTAH is in Haiti at the

request of the Haitian Government, the most important

partner of all in a commitment we share with Member

States within the hemisphere and beyond. Sustained

efforts, political stability and lasting progress on

reforms will combine to build a better future for all

Haitians.

Canada has also been a long-standing partner of

the United Nations efforts in Africa. When the

Secretary-General took office, he said that one of his

top priorities would be the Sudan’s Darfur region. The

United Nations presence in the Sudan is based on the

very principles underlying the United Nations Charter.

The engagement of the international community in the

Sudan remains vital.

(spoke in English)

With contributions of over $477 million since

2006, Canada remains deeply committed to building

sustainable peace in the Sudan and alleviating the

suffering of those affected by the conflict. Canada’s

support for peacekeeping operations in Sudan includes

the deployment of personnel, a loan of armoured

vehicles and a large voluntary financial contribution.

Canada underscores the importance of full

implementation of the Comprehensive Peace

Agreement, and calls on Sudanese authorities and the

rebel movements to end the violence in Darfur,

facilitate the deployment of the African Union-United

Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID),

cooperate with the International Criminal Court and

respect human rights.

We are acutely aware that UNAMID is a difficult

and often dangerous mission. In that regard, allow me

to express the sincere condolences of the Canadian

Government for the deaths resulting from the

helicopter crash in the Sudan earlier today — a tragedy

that underscores the very real threats United Nations

personnel continue to confront in the field.

The current crisis in Georgia also calls for a

unified international response. Canada supports the

democratic and legitimate Government of Georgia and

Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Canada

calls on Russia to fulfil its international obligations,

reconsider its actions and cooperate fully with the

international community to resolve the crisis in

Georgia in a peaceful manner.

Canada has consistently sought to make the

United Nations instruments for promoting peace and

security more effective. At the centre of those is, of

course, the Security Council. Canada has long

supported proposals for greater accountability and

transparency of the Security Council to enable it better

to shoulder the global peace and security

responsibilities entrusted to it by the 192 Member

States. Canada is committed to working with all

Member States to promote a more unified and effective

Security Council that can move past stalemate and take

decisive action against threats to security wherever

they may arise.

We therefore welcome the recent decision of the

General Assembly to launch negotiations on Security

Council reform at this session. It is important that we

make progress in those negotiations. For our part,

Canada stands ready to support reform that ensures that

new realities are reflected in the Council while

preserving accountability through the discipline of

regular elections for Security Council membership.

Canada is proud to be the seventh largest

contributor to the regular budget of the United Nations.

We are also a member of a wide range of United

Nations specialized agencies and a major contributor to

United Nations funds and programmes.

Humanitarianism and compassion are hallmarks of the

Canadian identity. The United Nations is a key partner

for the delivery of Canadian humanitarian action, with

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Canadian commitments this year totalling over

$315 million. Our humanitarian assistance is aimed at

helping the world’s most vulnerable people, including

children, refugees and victims of conflict and natural

disasters, and supports key United Nations programmes

in those areas.

Canada is on track to meet its international

assistance commitments, and we are ensuring that our

aid is focused, effective and accountable. Canada will

deliver on its promise to double international

assistance to $5 billion by 2010-2011.

Canada is also serious about its commitment,

undertaken in the Group of Eight, to double aid to

Africa, and I am pleased to say that we are on target to

meet that goal in 2009. Canada is also committed to

working in partnership with other stakeholders to

accelerate development efforts to help achieve the

Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

In response to the global food crisis, Canada

provided an extra $50 million for food aid, bringing

our total contribution this year to $230 million — one

of the largest in the world. Canada was also pleased to

answer an emergency request from the World Food

Programme (WFP) earlier this month to provide

security for its food aid shipments to Somalia. A

Canadian Navy frigate, HMCS Ville de Québec, is

currently escorting WFP ships carrying life-saving

supplies to Somalia. Canada recently extended the

frigate’s WFP escort mission until 23 October 2008.

Canada is taking further concrete measures to

enhance the effectiveness of our aid. We recently

untied 100 per cent of our food aid to make sure it can

be provided in the most efficient and effective way

possible to the people who need it most. Canada is also

fully untying all of its development assistance

programmes by 2012-2013, in fulfilment of our

commitment to ensuring greater effectiveness of our

international assistance.

The challenges of environmental protection and

sustainable development are rightly at the top of the

global agenda. The most pressing challenge is that of

climate change, and the United Nations must play a

central role. Canada is committed to the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

and the need to reach consensus on a post-Bali

framework.

The response to all global challenges begins at

home. However, the sum of national actions must drive

a collective effort at the international level. One of the

most important components of the Bali Road Map is

that it recognizes that no country can effectively

address climate change on its own and that all

countries in a position to act must do so. As such,

Canada is fully aware of the importance of having all

major global emitters take on meaningful and binding

emissions reduction commitments in any future

international agreement.

Canada is also acutely aware of the risks faced by

countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate

change, particularly small island States and the least

developed countries. Canada is pleased to be a sponsor

of a draft resolution on climate change and security put

forward by the Pacific Island States. Canada has also

supported global efforts to promote climate change

adaptation and has contributed both expertise and

finances to various United Nations and other

international initiatives.

Sixty years ago, this body adopted the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights. Canada is proud to

recall the contribution of Canadian John Peters

Humphrey in penning the initial draft of that landmark

instrument. Sixty years on, we have not yet met that

“common standard of achievement for all peoples and

all nations” (resolution 217 (III)). We have much work

left to do.

As a member of the Human Rights Council,

Canada is working hard to make that new institution

live up to the reform objectives that led to its creation

two years ago. We have seen some progress and some

setbacks in ensuring that the Council’s agenda and

focus are balanced and objective.

We must continually challenge ourselves to

improve our own records. The creation this year of the

Universal Periodic Review, which Canada strongly

supported as an innovative improvement to the United

Nations human rights machinery, is an important tool

to help States identify and address their continuing

challenges.

As a community, we must stand up for the rule of

law and for those whose rights are violated or

undermined by the very institutions that should ensure

their protection. That is why Canada will continue to

take strong stands against Governments that commit

systemic abuses against their populations. As

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Governments, we must remain committed to working

together to hold each other to account on our human

rights records and to support countries that are making

sincere efforts to advance the human rights of their

people. We must continue to strive for fundamental

freedoms and human rights in order to fulfil the ideals

of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

(spoke in French)

Canada supports an effective, soundly managed

and results-driven United Nations. That is why it

supports broad reform. In that regard, we call for

extensive reform in terms of management, especially in

the areas of oversight, accountability and human

resource management. Those reforms are needed to

bring the management of the United Nations in step

with the best practices of the twenty-first century and

to equip it with the tools needed to deliver on the

important mandates that we as Member States ask of it.

(spoke in English)

The values and ideals on which the United

Nations was founded — the promotion of peace and

security, of human rights and of greater prosperity for

all through development cooperation — are also

Canada’s and we stand ready to work within the United

Nations to address new challenges, such as climate

change and combating terrorism. I wish to repeat

Canada’s willingness to work in partnership with all

United Nations Member States towards the common

purposes for which this Organization was created.