At the outset, allow me to express my gratitude for being the first recipient of the McGill International Review Award of Distinction. The commitment of the Review to quality and thought-provoking material will no doubt contribute to the very lively debate about international affairs in our country. It will also give added lustre to McGill University's international reputation as a centre of academic excellence.

I am therefore very honoured to accept this expression of your appreciation, an award I share with all those who work with me in the service of Canadians and of Canadian interests abroad.

This honour is all the more special given the important occasion at which it is given. A decade ago, the McGill Model UN Assembly was established -- testament to the active interest and engagement of faculty and students in the world around them.

During the past ten years it has flourished. Today, it is the largest gathering of its kind in North America with over a thousand participants. This is in no small part the result of the dynamism of its volunteer student organizers, all of whom I commend this evening for their energy and commitment.

It is this dedication, drive and optimism that are typical of a new generation of Canadians. I witnessed this again earlier this month during a visit to Colombia. I met two young Canadian diplomats who volunteer virtually all their spare time on a project aimed at helping Colombian street children. This example is not unique. It is repeated around the globe. Through the Canadian International Internship Program, for instance, thousands of young Canadians are or have served abroad helping others.

I am constantly impressed by the brimming confidence of young Canadians across the country and the unbridled enthusiasm with which they -- you -- are embracing the brave new world beyond our borders, with all its promise and all its challenges.

Indeed, it is a brave new world we all face. The past decade of achievement by this model UN has closely parallelled a decade of dramatic change internationally -- change to the issues, the subjects and the actors -- which you are gathered to debate and discuss.

Fundamental to all of this change is the evolving nature of world peace and security. The central aspiration of the UN Charter, set out over a half century ago, is to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. This goal remains the same.

However, in a vastly different global context, how we achieve this objective needs serious review. Advancing national security and stability have been the traditional focus. This continues to be important, but it is no longer enough.

Threats to human security -- direct challenges to the safety and welfare of people -- as a result of armed conflict, environmental degradation, the impact of international crime and terrorism, the spread of infectious disease -- increasingly define the global security agenda. Responding to these threats is more and more a central impetus for concerted global action.

Events of the past year that seized our attention, and that compelled action, provide ample evidence. In Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone for example, ordinary people have been victims of massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law.

Some in Canada are tempted to believe that these events -- however tragic -- happen far away and have little bearing on our own lives, our worries, our hopes, our future. They should think again -- we all should.

Consider the ordeal of Shirley Macklin from Winnipeg, taken hostage by terrorists in the Air India hijacking; the kidnapping last year of eight Albertan oil workers in Ecuador; the insidious influence of the illicit drug trade on young Canadians; the impact on Canada of the global traffic in human cargo; the spectre of terrorist activity in our country. These are all human security threats happening today in Canada or to Canadians.

As a result, we need to pay attention to the human dimension in global affairs: because the realities of globalization link our destinies as never before; because acting out of concern for others is a proud part of Canadians' humanitarian tradition; and because it matters very much and very directly to Canadians' own interests.

It is time, therefore, that we adapt our foreign policy thinking, re-tool the instruments of the diplomatic trade, seek out new partnerships and creative solutions -- all in order to pursue an approach to global peace and security that puts people first. That is behind Canada's human security agenda.

A strong and relevant United Nations is indispensable to this goal. Supporting an effective United Nations has long been the cornerstone of our foreign policy. It is virtually bred in the bone of Canadians' international personality. A long line of distinguished Canadians from John Humphrey to Lester Pearson to Louise Arbour to Louise Frechette have served its goals with imagination and dedication. It is in this spirit that we are making efforts to adapt the Organization to meet the human security challenges of the new century.

Earlier this week, I was at the Security Council for a special session on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This meeting underlined to me the dual dynamic at work at the United Nations; on the one hand the world of limousines, grand meeting halls, and indeed, fine speeches by statesman; and on the other, the reality of violence, deprivation and suffering to which so many ordinary people are subject -- the alleviation of which is the Organization's raison d'etre.

The UN's founding document, with its emphasis on we the peoples -- not we the member nations, nor we the heads of state, nor we the ambassadors -- already makes the promotion of human security a clear, guiding principle.

We now need to give new meaning to these words, to make the UN's actions more relevant to the security and welfare of individual human beings, in a way, to give the Organization back to the world's people for whom it was founded.

That is why Canada sought election to the Security Council. It remains the only global body with a mandate for maintaining peace and security. Yet it has not always resolutely risen to the challenges posed by new security threats.

Indeed, as a result of big power politics, absolutist notions of sovereignty held by some of its members, and selective engagement in certain conflicts and not others, the Council has sometimes shrunk from its obligations -- in the process making itself less rather than more relevant.

Our goals in taking a seat at the Council table were threefold: to reassert the Council's global leadership, to make its operations more transparent and linked to wider developments in the UN system; and above all, to reflect the new realities of global peace which increasingly turn on matters of human security. In short, we are working to build a Council for the new century, not the last.

About this time last year I addressed another group here in Montreal. I laid out how we planned to achieve our goals. Twelve months later, I believe that we have made some progress and that we have made a difference.

The tragic, plain truth of modern armed conflict is that ordinary people -- innocent civilians -- suffer most. In World War I, 5 percent of casualties were civilian; today that figure is closer to 80 percent.

Civilians are direct targets of war and live on its battlefield. They have increasingly become tools in warfare -- herded about to destabilize governments, pressed into military service, held hostage, exploited sexually, used as human shields. They are exploited and terrorized by the new war economies where modern-day warlords sell resources to fund violence. And humanitarian workers, seeking to mitigate the effects of conflict on the vulnerable, also find themselves more at risk.

Such attacks against civilians are most often carried out with impunity in direct violation of international law.

Clearly, the victimization of civilians is not an incidental result of modern armed conflict, but a central component. As a result, the protection of civilians must figure at the top of Security Council concerns.

To this end, we initiated a debate at the beginning of our Council term to raise awareness and shape action. The result was a comprehensive report by the Secretary- General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, presented to the Council this past September, and the unanimous adoption of a Council resolution, drafted by Canada.

The report suggests a blueprint for action -- forty recommendations containing measures the Council and the international community should take to increase both the physical and legal protection of civilians.

The key recommendations include efforts to: implement practical measures to prevent conflict, including preventive peacekeeping and monitoring deployments; strengthen the UN's ability to respond rapidly when a crisis breaks out, including rapidly deployable units and mission headquarters; impose arms embargoes; make greater use of targeted sanctions against belligerents; underscore that civilians must have unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance; authorize missions to close down hate media outlets; and in the face of massive and ongoing abuses of human rights and humanitarian law, to consider appropriate enforcement action.

Our initiative, and the Secretary-General's report, have put the human dimension of peace and security squarely on the Council agenda. There is good support among Council members to maintain the momentum of the report and to translate awareness into action. Canada now chairs a process aimed at locking in key recommendations.

In the meantime, we have made progress on other fronts.

The Council's authority to impose sanctions is a powerful and legitimate instrument for influencing the behaviour of belligerents, for resolving conflict and ultimately for ending human suffering. However, they have not always been effective, used for the right reasons, targeted properly, or avoided inflicting a high price on civilian populations. They need to be adapted so they hurt where they are supposed to hurt.

This is Canada's objective in the efforts we are making with regards to Iraq. Shortly after joining the Council, Canada made a proposal to move the issue forward in a way that would ensure the full respect by the Iraqi regime of its disarmament obligations while addressing the humanitarian impact of the sanctions and charting a clear path for their eventual suspension. This initiative helped to break the Council impasse and paved the way for the Council's decision last month to restore UN weapons inspections and to provide enhanced humanitarian measures.

In Angola, Canada as chair of the Council's Sanctions Committee has been working on practical ways to make the sanctions regime relating to the illicit trade in diamonds, weapons and petroleum, more effective. These measures are aimed at bringing an end to the senseless civil conflict that has claimed so many lives. If accepted -- and successful -- these new, targeted measures could provide a model for constraining the marketplace of war and in the process, help minimize suffering and save the lives of innocent civilians.

In the area of peacekeeping, the creation of new peace operations for Sierra Leone and East Timor are an encouraging signal of the Council's willingness to act to protect and advance the interests of civilians. At Canada's insistence, these missions, UNSOMIL in Sierra Leone, and first INTERFET and now UNTAET in East Timor, have mandates which explicitly include the protection of civilians and have been given the resources to do so -- a first for the UN.

Earlier this week in New York, I signaled Canada's support for a robust UN operation in the DRC to help with the implementation of a peace agreement, including unambiguous authorization to ensure the security of civilians.

Finally, a word about Canadian efforts to make the Council's work more transparent. This may not sound riveting -- it isn't. But changing the way the Council operates can have a real impact on its effectiveness, its credibility and ultimately the relevance of its actions.

Here, too, Canada has helped to open up its internal workings and decision-making process through: the exposure of Council members to an increasingly wide range of humanitarian actors and concerns; increased involvement of non-Council members in Council discussions; the linking of Council activities to the rest of the UN system; and updating the Council's working methods. Together, these changes are making the Council more accessible, accountable and democratic.

During our first year on the Council, Canada has made a difference. As a result of Canada's presence, the Council is taking concrete action to protect civilians in conflict. As a result of Canada's efforts, the Council now addresses issues that pose a direct threat to people -- such as war-affected children, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons or the unprecedented Council meeting last month on the AIDS epidemic, unimaginable even a year ago. As a result of Canadian initiatives, the voice of human suffering -- through the first ever appearance by the UNHCHR [United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights] and the President of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] -- is being heard, and listened to, at the Council table.

This is making the Council more relevant to people. This is real progress.

We have compiled a record of our work in the first year, which I am pleased to note is being made available to participants at this model UN and to the wider public. However, our Council term remains very much a work in progress. The challenges ahead are significant. With the promotion of human security our leitmotif, allow me to outline briefly some areas of focus for the next twelve months:

1. Follow-up to the Secretary-General's Report on the Protection of Civilians. To make a difference, the Secretary-General's recommendations need to be firmly and formally anchored in Council practice. Those that relate to activities outside the Council need to be pursued in the appropriate venue. By April, when Canada assumes the Council Presidency, we hope to reach agreement on implementing many of these proposals, especially those concerning the physical protection of civilians.

2. Bring consistency to the Council's consideration of conflict and human security crisis. The tendency for Council to ignore certain conflicts while focussing on others remains highly problematic. For example, far from the media spotlight, the long-running armed conflict in Sudan has taken over two million lives, with millions more injured or displaced. And there is little prospect for anything other than further human suffering. Yet it remains off the Council's radar. The Council needs to exert its influence to support regional mediation efforts now underway.

3. Launch a review of the Council's approach to sanctions. I mentioned earlier Canada's case-specific approach, in Iraq and Angola, to making sanctions regimes more effective and to mitigating their negative effects on civilians. This needs to be complimented by a more comprehensive re-examination aimed at making the sanctions process less ad hoc, better focussed, more rigorous, and more humane. To that end, Canada has commissioned a report by the International Peace Academy containing recommendations that could possibly form the basis for Council discussion.

4. Encourage full Council examination of humanitarian intervention. Last year two independent inquiries released their findings about the Srebrenica massacre and the genocide in Rwanda. They were a devastating indictment of Council failure and inaction in the face of appalling humanitarian crisis. The Council's paralysis during the Kosovo crisis demonstrates it has yet to come to grips with this issue. In a groundbreaking statement to the General Assembly in September, the Secretary-General laid out the challenges. The stakes are high. Council members -- indeed the entire UN membership -- need to engage in this debate.

5. Reassert the UN's leading role in peacekeeping. The tendency to rely on ad hoc "coalitions of the willing and paying" -- rather than UN operations -- to undertake robust peacekeeping is disturbing. Whatever the reasons -- political, financial, capacity, or risk aversion -- this trend must be reversed. The voluntary approach places undue burdens on those able to pay, and erodes the principle of universal participation in collective security enshrined in the Charter. And when the UN is assigned a task -- it must be given the mandate and resources to do the job. Srebrenica and Rwanda are tragic reminders of what happens when this is not the case.

6. Further strengthen links between Council activity and the larger human security agenda. For example, the needs of war-affected children -- a Canadian priority -- is a matter of considerable international concern. Last week in Geneva, the Optional Protocol on Child Soldiers was agreed to. This spring Canada and Ghana will co-host a seminar in Accra, and later this year Canada will hold an international conference on the subject to move global action forward. The subject is also on the Council agenda. We need to ensure Council efforts are complimentary to these non-Council initiatives.

Without a doubt, this is an ambitious agenda for Security Council renewal. However, to maintain its relevance there is little alternative but to adapt the Council to the changed realities of international life, to the new global dynamic that is putting the promotion of human security and safety at the forefront of concern and action.

It is, therefore, an agenda that we are committed to pursuing -- an agenda firmly rooted in Canada's tradition of support for the United Nations and resolutely dedicated to achieving its lofty aspirations.

I hope that you have the opportunity to debate and exchange some of the ideas I have laid out this evening. To assist you, we have updated the Canadian Reference Guide to the UN, designed to help Canadians understand the UN and Canada's role. I am pleased to launch this new edition here and to provide all of you with a copy, and to present your Secretary-General with a commemorative bilingual edition in recognition of this 10th anniversary of the McGill Model UN.

Thank you.

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