Canada, 1999

Allow me first to

congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the

General Assembly. Canadians are proud to have

accompanied you and your people on their journey to join

the community of nations.

On behalf of Canada, allow me also to welcome the

Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru and the

Kingdom of Tonga as new Members of the United Nations.

Mr. President, your election is a tribute to your

wisdom and your dedication to the goals of the United

Nations. I am convinced that you will guide us well in

carrying out the work that we are gathered here to do on

behalf of all of the world's people.

Indeed, it is we the people for whom the United

Nations was founded and its purposes forged. We the

people, not we the nation States, or the ministers, or the

ambassadors, or the Secretariat. Let us recall these lines

from the United Nations Charter:

“We the peoples of the United Nations

determined to save succeeding generations from the

scourge of war, ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental

human rights, ... to establish conditions under which

justice ... can be maintained, and to promote social

progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

... have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish

these aims”.

These are noble words and compelling goals. But do

they still ring true, or is there a need for new meaning and

new commitment?

How would we the people assess the handiwork of the

United Nations to date and judge the world scene today

when we have seen in the last year alone the brutal ethnic

cleansing of Kosovo, the slaughter and maiming of

innocents in Sierra Leone, Angola, both Congos and Sudan

and the cruel suppression of the independence agreement in

East Timor? Or when we see kidnapping and terrorism

plaguing virtually every region, the growing, powerful

influence of the drug-traffickers and criminals, the return of

the slave merchants and the emergence of modern warlords

who brutalize and exploit communities for economic

gain? Or when we are all subject to the darker side of

globalization, where international commerce brings new

but poorly distributed wealth, where helpless children are

recruited into armies or sold on the internet for exploitive

purposes, where environmental degradation inflicts a high

cost on the smallest countries, which can least afford it?

Our world on the eve of the millennium is

increasingly shaped by these and a variety of other direct

threats to people. If we the peoples were to have the

chance to rethink the Preamble to the Charter, we might

well say that we are determined to save existing

generations from the grave new risks to their personal and

family security.

It is true that there is another perspective, one that

gives a glimmer of hope. We could point with some

satisfaction to the fact that, through the combined efforts

of people working together across borders, there is an

emerging sense of accomplishment in responding to these

new threats to human security.

As of today, 86 nations have ratified the Convention

on antipersonnel mines, ushering in a legal regime and a

plan of action that will save the lives of thousands.

Working together last year, 120 nations voted in

favour of an International Criminal Court, which will

establish individual accountability for crimes against

humanity.

In the field of conflict, the United Nations is now

attempting to rebuild the broken fields of Kosovo after an

unprecedented intervention for humanitarian reasons. And

in East Timor, peacekeepers are bringing order to that

long-troubled land.

So we the peoples have not given up in the face of

the confusion, turmoil and misery which beset our world;

and we still search through the corridors of this building

for words of cooperation and acts of consensus.

(spoke in French)

But it is not easy, because many forget that it is we

the peoples, all the world's people, whom we are here to

serve, not just their particular national interests. Too many

protect their prerogatives, engage in exclusive power

politics or refuse to pay their bills, thereby paralysing the

institution and rendering it incapable of meeting the

challenges to our collective well-being.

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It is difficult to promote an agenda for the security of

people when some stand opposed, on the basis of a desire

to protect at all costs the sovereignty of the State. Of

course, State sovereignty remains a fundamental tenet of

peace and security; but it is not absolute, and it is not a

shield behind which the most egregious violations of human

rights and fundamental freedoms can be hidden.

It is time, therefore, for we the peoples represented in

this Assembly to reassess our influence and make our

voices heard.

(spoke in English)

There is a new road map to lead the way. Last week

the Secretary-General tabled a report on the protection of

civilians in armed conflict (S/1999/957) in which he

captures many of today's challenges and sets out 40

recommendations for action.

The heaviest burden falls on the Security Council. The

search for global peace increasingly turns on issues of

personal safety. Modern conflict takes a huge,

disproportionate toll on civilians. In this world, the

protection of civilians must be central to the Council's

work. It must provide the subtext for our future collective

action and the impetus behind our efforts to prevent

conflict, keep the peace, enforce sanctions and support the

collective will of the United Nations.

The way ahead is not without obstacles. There are

legitimate questions about the purposes, limits and

standards for Council engagement for humanitarian ends,

which itself also present difficult contradictions with regard

to the principle of non-interference. Clear and consistent

criteria are needed against which the necessity or otherwise

of humanitarian intervention — including enforcement —

can be judged and applied. These tests must be very

demanding: the basis must be the existence of fundamental

breaches of international humanitarian and human rights

law.

The human dimension makes it imperative that the

Council adapt the blunt instrument of sanctions into a

targeted tool so that they hurt where they are supposed to

hurt. The Council needs also to show the resolve to

implement sanctions once they are in place. This is

Canada's objective as chairman of the Council's Angola

sanctions Committee established pursuant to resolution 864

(1993) — to develop tougher measures to constrain the

trade in arms and diamonds, thereby making it more

difficult for UNITA to wage war. It is time to tackle the

new war economy in which a direct relationship exists

between certain businesses, mercenaries and warlords, a

relationship that perpetuates misery, conflict and the

victimization of innocent people.

A human security agenda highlights the urgent need

to face clearly the issue of the Council's representation

and its decision-making processes, especially the

inappropriate use and persistent threat of the veto where

it can compromise, complicate and slow down

determined, urgent international action to protect people.

The Council needs to come to grips with these challenges

if it is to maintain its credibility in the eyes of the people

it serves. Membership in the Council is a trust, and

Council members need to demonstrate their capacity to

maintain that trust.

The issues raised by the Secretary-General in his

report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict are

issues that plague all peoples. The Secretary-General's

proposals in fact go beyond the purview of just the

Security Council; the onus for taking action lies with all

Member States. For that reason, I strongly urge that the

General Assembly should begin consideration of this

report and move quickly to establish mechanisms to give

effect to its recommendations, including a system of

reporting to review implementation. Towards this end,

Canada looks forward to working with the Secretary-

General and fellow Member States to establish a “friends

of civilians in armed conflict” group to help guide these

efforts.

To protect civilians in armed conflict, the Assembly

has the means to enable the United Nations to act more

quickly; the moral authority to establish universal

standards that hold us all accountable; and the legitimacy

to direct efforts into new areas of global endeavour. The

ability to respond rapidly when the security of civilians is

threatened is essential. Giving the United Nations a rapid

response capability — particularly through the creation of

a United Nations headquarters for rapid deployment —

would be an important step. How much more effective

could the United Nations have been in East Timor or in

Kosovo if such a capability had existed?

The civilian side of peace operations — the police

and the judges, the civil servants and the human rights

experts — is also of growing importance, but insufficient

capacity for rapid deployment is a problem here too.

Clearly the “White Helmets” are as critical to building

peace as the Blue Helmets, and they deserve no less of

our attention. Those of us who are able might start by

17

improving our respective national capacity to make

contributions to be put at the service of the United Nations.

This is something my Government has begun and is

working to improve. Globally binding humanitarian and

human rights standards for behaviour and practical

mechanisms to hold transgressors accountable would also

advance the security of people subjected to the horrors of

armed conflict.

The adoption of the Statute of the International

Criminal Court was a qualitative step forward. It will help

to end the culture of impunity and protect all people against

the most egregious violations of humanitarian law. The

Assembly's priority now should be to bring the Court to

life. This means continued cooperation from us all in

building the technical underpinnings of this Court. It also

means ensuring prompt and widespread ratification of the

Court's Statute.

Strengthened standards and strategies are needed

elsewhere. For example, negotiating the strongest possible

optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed

conflict, which should be accompanied by a comprehensive

action plan, will help to confront one of the most heinous

aspects of modern warfare and other conflict.

We agree with the Secretary-General that more must

be done to protect humanitarian workers who risk their

lives to help the victims of war. That is why Canada will

be seeking an additional protocol to the Convention on the

Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel to

provide legal protection to all personnel working in

situations of armed conflict, including a broader range of

non-governmental organizations and locally employed

personnel.

Finally, the Assembly can direct its efforts towards

making the safety of people the emphasis in a wider range

of global endeavours.

(spoke in French)

The greatest threat to human safety remains the

possibility of annihilation by nuclear or other weapons of

mass destruction. Yet the non-proliferation regime that we

have painstakingly built over the past 50 years remains

fragile. We should now ensure that the obligations under

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons are

respected, and we should implement the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and reduce the risk that nuclear

weapons pose to our collective security.

Human security is also the impetus behind efforts to

address the problem of small arms, which kill in conflict

zones as well as on neighbourhood streets. This is a

global challenge that requires a global solution. We

should therefore convene a conference on the illicit traffic

in small arms, with a comprehensive agenda.

(spoke in English)

Transnational crime, including the illicit drug trade,

terrorism and human smuggling, is a closely related

challenge. It has a direct impact on the safety of all our

people. The conclusion of an effective United Nations

transnational organized crime convention and its protocols

would be a start to providing that protection.

Taken together, those efforts would be a strong

beginning to orienting the Assembly to meet the real

security needs of people today. I must be very blunt:

improvement in human security is a necessary condition

for success in the other important actions that we take to

advance human, economic, aid and trade development.

Farmers cannot work fields strewn with mines. Children

cannot learn when they are abused and brutalized by war.

Investors will not send money to regions racked by

conflict. Societies cannot flourish when resources are

pillaged to fuel violence and people are victimized by

terror.

Ultimately, freedom from fear is intimately

connected to the freedom from want. And it is freedom

from fear for all peoples — which is at the heart of the

Secretary-General's report and his recommendations —

that provides the United Nations with a clear, defining

role at the century's close. Our collective efforts towards

that end will give concrete expression to the hopes and

dreams of the generation that first made “we the peoples”

the basis for this Organization. Next year's Millennium

Assembly and summit offer an opportunity to articulate a

vision of the United Nations that places the safety of

people at the centre of its agenda.

The United Nations cannot do it all. The challenges

to advancing human safety are complex. Regional

organizations play an important role. Practical cooperation

between countries can address specific problems and the

participation of members of civil society and non-

governmental organizations is also imperative. But

security for all of us begins and ends with a strong,

effective United Nations focused on this goal. We the

peoples should resolve to work together to achieve this

end.