Canada, 2013

As we gather near Ground

Zero, site of the World Trade Center mass murder, I

wish first to honour the victims of terrorism. I honour

all victims everywhere, including those killed and

wounded at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi.

Tragically, we lost two Canadians in Nairobi, including

one of our diplomats. There is no more fitting venue to

honour the life of Annemarie Desloges and her service

than right here at the United Nations. The crime of

terror is an assault on all people. In its wake, the human

family is one — united in pain, mourning and our

resolve that we will never allow evil to triumph.

At this moment of grief, the oneness of humankind is

the theme of my remarks today.

Allow me to begin with an observation drawn from

the Canadian experience. The province of Newfoundland

and Labrador was the last province to join Canada, but

it is the site of the earliest known European settlement

in the New World. L’Anse aux Meadows is more than

1,000 years old. We consider the province’s capital city,

St. John’s, to be the oldest English settlement in North

America, dating back to 1497.

The early Newfoundland settlements are the

subject of significant archeological activity. Among the

artifacts commonly found is a three-handled drinking

mug known as a tyg. The three handles are designed

for sharing. During the seventeenth century, it was

common to share eating and drinking utensils. Further

research reveals that the tyg is not unique to Canadian

and English history. On the contrary, cups with three

or more handles are common to many of the world’s

cultures. Indeed, nearly three millennia ago, Homer

wrote in the Iliad of a multi-handled mug. The tyg and

its many counterparts around the world are tangible

reminders not just of the fact that eating and drinking are

social activities, but that, as long as human beings have

inhabited this planet, sustenance and the necessaries of

life have been community endeavours. Human beings

share out of necessity. We cooperate to survive. We

form communities because that is our natural state. As

Cicero observed, we were born to unite with our fellow

men and to join in community with the human race.

Animated by the same spirit of community, the

Charter of the United Nations declares that our goals

include to live together, to be neighbours and to unite.

The very first words of the Charter of the United

Nations make clear that the Organization is a body of,

by and for human beings. It begins, “We the peoples

of the United Nations” — not “We the countries” or

“We the Governments” or “We the political leaders”,

but “We the peoples”. That is an important reminder of

why and on whose behalf we are all here today.

At the United Nations, Canada targets its efforts

on securing tangible results for the human family. It

is much more important to consider what the United

Nations is achieving than how the United Nations

arranges its affairs. Canada’s Government does not

seek to have our values or our principled foreign policy

validated by elites who would rather go along to get

along. The billions who are hungry, or lack access to

clean water, or are displaced, or cannot read and write

do not care how many members sit on the Security

Council. But they do need to know that their brothers

and sisters in humankind will walk with them through

the darkness.

Peace, prosperity and freedom are the conditions

that have been sought by human communities from the

beginning of recorded time: to live in peace, to live in

prosperity, to live in freedom.

Of those priorities peace is the foremost objective of

the United Nations. It is no surprise that the Charter

of the United Nations mentions the word peace four

dozen times. Sadly, peace the word is easier to locate

than peace the condition. Since the moment the

Organization was created, not a day has passed without

the human family being pained by war somewhere on

the planet. Almost always, the suffering is felt by the

most vulnerable among us. Far too often, that involves

women and violence.

In the context of war, rape and serious sexual

violence are war crimes. I have met girls who were

victims of that very war crime, and their stories are

absolutely horrific. The war criminals involved must be

identified, pursued, prosecuted and punished. Earlier

this year, Canada and other Group of Eight nations

agreed to treat sexual violence in conflict as a violation

of the Geneva Conventions. I applaud the United

Kingdom and Foreign Secretary William Hague for

their work in this very important area. But he would be

the first to acknowledge that the fight to eradicate this

crime has been led by women, including the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual

Violence in Conflict, Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangura.

Tragically every year, millions of girls, some

as young as nine years old, are forced into marriage.

Since I began my remarks today, 100 children have

been forced into marriage at a rate of 1,100 per hour, or

more than 26,000 per day. The effects of early forced

marriage are documented and beyond dispute. Early

forced marriage harms health, halts education, destroys

opportunity and enslaves women in a life of poverty. A

young woman once recounted her wedding date. She

remembered, “It was the day I left school”. No country

is immune from this scourge.

This is a global problem — a problem for humankind.

Forced marriage is rape — an act of violence against

women. Early forced marriage is child rape — an act of

violence against young girls. The practice is abhorrent

and indefensible. We condemn it, even though some

might prefer that we kept quiet. The discomfort of the

public is of small concern, particularly in the context of

a crime that calls to heaven for justice.

(spoke in English)

If the United Nations does not act to protect young

girls, who will?

Another way to protect the vulnerable is to improve

the health of mothers, newborns and children so that

we can reduce the number of deaths. I would like to say

how proud I am of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen

Harper for having led a global effort — the Muskoka

Initiative — to reduce maternal and infant mortality

and to improve the health of mothers and children in

the world’s poorest countries. That is about half of the

world’s population, and all of its potential.

While those efforts, to eradicate sexual violence

in conflict, to eliminate early forced marriage and to

improve maternal and newborn health are essential,

we must do more than react to crises. We must invest

in opportunities for women and young girls. We must

ensure that women participate fully in all parts of our

society and in all the countries of the United Nations.

That will help us build a stronger, more secure, more

prosperous and more peaceful world. It is in every

nation’s self-interest to ensure every young girl realizes

her full potential. And it is from the perspective of the

human family, one family, that we must address other

threats to peace and security.

Among the most urgent crises remains the violence

in Syria. Canada’s position is clear: we support the

Syrian people, the innocent people caught up in this

senseless violence and those who show great courage in

working on their behalf. We will never support a brutal

and illegitimate regime that has unleashed weapons of

mass destruction on its own people. Nor will we tolerate

extremism and terrorism as alternatives to Al-Assad’s

tyranny.

The people of Canada have been generous in

helping those most in need. When success is achieved,

I believe that it is important to recognize it. The near-

impossible work of the World Food Programme must

be applauded, and Canada has responded by being the

second-largest single-country donor in the world. Its

work in Syria is paramount and has not gone unnoticed.

I also commend the work of the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in providing

assistance to the refugees fleeing that terrible conflict,

as well as the generosity of Syria’s neighbours in

providing safe haven.

Canada joins the entire world in seeking a political

resolution to the conflict. Canada supports a peaceful,

democratic and pluralistic Syria that protects the rights

of all communities. But let us not confuse a peaceful,

negotiated outcome with equivocation or moral

uncertainty. There can be no moral ambiguity about the

use of chemical weapons, particularly against civilians.

Today, 30 September, is a dark reminder of the

price of accommodation with evil. It is the seventy-

fifth anniversary of the Munich Agreement, by which

Czechoslovakia’s freedom was sacrificed to appease

the Nazi regime. The appeasers claimed they had won

peace in our time. In fact, their abandoning of principle

was a calamity for the world. Nobel Peace Prize winner

Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned

at Auschwitz, has been even blunter:

“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

Silence encourages the tormentor, never the

tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When

human lives are endangered, when human dignity

is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities

become irrelevant.”

Just as we are not neutral or silent on the crimes

being committed against the Syrian people, neither is

Canada neutral on Israel’s right to exist and to defend

itself. There can be no bargaining over Israel’s existence.

While dialogue is a virtue, there can be no virtuous

discussion with anyone wedded to Israel’s destruction.

Today, the Jewish people are masters of their own fate,

like most other nations, in their sovereign Jewish State.

And like all other nations, Israel has the right to defend

itself, by itself.

Canada fundamentally believes peace is achievable

and that Palestinians and Israelis and their neighbours

can live side by side in peace and security. We, like

many nations, wish to see a prosperous Palestinian State

living in peace with its Jewish neighbour. That is why,

although at times we have fundamental differences

on how statehood is achieved, Canada is providing

significant assistance to build the institutions that are

vital to the establishment of a viable future State. In the

West Bank, Canada is contributing greatly to economic,

security and justice initiatives.

Recent developments in negotiations between Israel

and the Palestinian Authority are indeed encouraging.

I want to salute the leadership and courage of the

Israeli Prime Minister and the Palestinian Authority’s

President. I commend United States Secretary of State

John Kerry for his personal leadership in this area. We

must all commit ourselves to this cause, united by the

prospect of peace.

I look forward to the day when Israeli and

Palestinian children can live side by side in peace and

security in a Jewish and in a Palestinian State.

Dialogue is important, yes. But our dialogue must

be a prelude to action, and action must mean achieving

results. Action must mean making a difference. If we

take the recent statements coming from the regime in

Iran, some observers see encouraging signs, but sound

bites do not remove threats to global security. Kind

words, a smile and a charm offensive are not a substitute

for real action. We will welcome and acknowledge

reform, if and when it comes. By the following test

we will know when genuine reform has occurred: has

there been real, measurable, material improvement in

the lives of the Iranian people and in the security of the

world? Not yet. We will judge the regime on the basis

of its actions and results.

The five permanent members of the Security

Council plus Germany have had five rounds of formal

negotiations with Iran in the past two years. While

everyone says the meetings have been productive, the

fact remains we have not seen any change in Iran’s

actions. Next year, nothing would make Canada more

pleased than to see a change in Iran’s nuclear ambitions,

a change to its terrible human rights record and an end

to its material support for terrorism, including for

Hizbullah.

Now is the time for the global community to

maintain tough sanctions against Iran so that the country

takes a different path on its nuclear programme. The

Iranian people want peace, and they are suffering great

hardship because of their Government. Canada wants

the Iranian people to be able to access a life of freedom

and prosperity for themselves.

How do we as a human family achieve and maintain

prosperity? We do so through free trade among open

societies operating under transparent, consistent and

fair rules. Canada continues to diversify its markets

because it is a trading nation. We are aggressively

pursuing free-trade agreements with other nations.

Bounded by three oceans, with the second-largest land

mass in the world, Canada is literally open to the world.

We are both deepening existing economic relationships

and building new ones. Whether with China, which

is now Canada’s second-largest trading partner, or

the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations, where Canadian trade and investment ties are

dramatically increasing, or the Pacific Alliance, which

provides new and exciting opportunities, or the European

Union, where we are negotiating a comprehensive free

trade agreement, Canada and Canadians are supporting

market liberalization. In the process, ordinary lives are

becoming enriched and entire societies stronger.

But the quest for prosperity must never come at the

expense of our commitment to freedom. Prosperity is

inextricably linked to peace. After all, those who lack

security usually lack the means to provide for themselves

and their families. With economic opportunity, a fruit

vendor in Tunisia may not have felt compelled to end his

life seeking the dignity to provide for his own family. A

young man in Afghanistan may never feel compelled to

join terrorist elements simply to raise his children and

ensure that their lives are better than the one he lived.

I will always remember the 7-year old girl that I

met at Zaatari refugee camp, in Jordan. Her parents

had made the difficult decision to leave their home and

to seek refuge in another country, braving hardship

because they were motivated, like all parents, by the

desire to keep their family safe. I asked the young girl

how she was doing. With tears in her eyes, she said

simply, “I do not like it here. I want to go home.” It was

absolutely heartwrenching. And millions of people are

in the same tragic position around the world — millions

of members of the human family who cannot even begin

to contemplate prosperity until a more basic need, their

need for security, is addressed.

The global family will never achieve the prosperity

that is our full potential unless we address the peace and

security concerns that constrain human opportunity.

Everyone has an interest in contributing to the solution,

because peace and prosperity ultimately ensure the

freedom of the individual. That is why we need the

people of these United Nations gathered here to promote

that freedom: freedom from oppression, freedom from

discrimination, freedom to worship, to think, to speak,

to love, to believe — freedom to be.

Human freedom can be exercised and, sadly,

limited in far too many ways. Religious persecution

continues in too many places. Since we gathered

here last year, the world has witnessed bombings of

mosques in Iraq and Pakistan and Catholic churches in

Tanzania; attacks against Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim

places of worship in Burma and Bangladesh; the bloody

persecution of Christians in Syria; attacks on Coptic

Christian churches in Egypt; attacks on a mosque

and on a Catholic church in Sri Lanka; the detention

of Sri Lankan Muslim leader Azad Sally; the murders

of Catholic worshippers in Nigeria; and the Iranian

regime’s ongoing persecution of the Baha’i.

Canada this year opened an Office of Religious

Freedom. Its mandate is to promote freedom of religion

and belief as a foreign policy priority, and to combat the

enslavement into fear by those who seek to intimidate

and undermine the right to worship freely in peace

and in harmony. We reject the pernicious notion that

human dignity can be sliced up, compartmentalized or

compromised. In a pluralistic society, it is impossible

to protect some human rights and freedoms while

infringing others. All freedoms are rooted in the

inherent dignity of human beings.

Whether the issue is religious freedom, sexual

freedom, political freedom or any other freedom,

some people ask: What business is it of ours? What

interest do we have in events outside our borders?

Our business is a shared humanity. Our interest is the

dignity of humankind. Many assaults on human dignity

have common roots. I refer to neo-fascist ideology

masquerading in different forms, and the threat that it

poses to individual freedom.

I spoke earlier of the anniversary of the Munich

Agreement. What the signatories claimed as a triumph

of practical politics was in fact a craven capitulation

that betrayed human dignity and bankrupted the

peace it purported to secure. It was wrong then to

underestimate and to appease fascism, just as it is now

to underestimate its modern incarnation. Extremism

that subjugates human dignity and crushes individual

freedom beneath rigid ideology must be opposed for

what it is.

One year ago, the world lost the great Somali poet

known as Gaarriye. Although his pen has been silenced,

the inspiring words remain. He wrote: “And tell them

this: our purpose is peace; our password ‘freedom’;

our aim, equality; our way, the way of light.”. In

other words, peace, prosperity and freedom — three

universal human priorities. Like the three handles of a

mug from which we all drink, they are three values that

all humankind shares.

As I close, I cannot help but reflect on the three

young girls, and my heart breaks for them: the child

bride who said, “It was the day I left schoo.”; the young

girl who was a victim of rape and sexual violence; the

refugee who said, “I just want to go home”. We are not

here to achieve results for Governments or political

leaders. We are here to protect and defend those three

girls and 7 billion other members of the human family.

Let us remember that as we embark on discussions to

shape a new global agenda, focusing on those most in

need.

I am confident that everyone here feels the

overwhelming honour and privilege it is to serve

our people. It is not without great challenge and

responsibility, but we all must stand up and deliver on

that unique mandate for the people, for it is the people

who expect nothing less.