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Canada, as a supporter of multilateral cooperation, a long-time contributor to UN peacekeeping missions, and the seventh largest donor to the United Nations, has been and remains highly supportive of reform of the UN system. For example, during its 1999-2000 term on the UN Security Council, Canada worked to improve the Security Council’s effectiveness and transparency, and its accountability to member states. Canada also supported such innovations as - expanding the Security Council agenda beyond traditional security to include human security,
- including the protection of civilians as a regular part of peacekeeping mandates,
- holding regular meetings of the Security Council with countries contributing troops and other personnel to UN missions, and
- introducing Security Council sanctions that target governing elites rather than whole populations, and introducing mechanisms to monitor sanctions, so they produce the desired results.
The reform process should help enhance the credibility and effectiveness of the UN. Canada’s reform efforts at the UN have focused on making the United Nations more effective, not simply less expensive. These efforts include simplifying the structure of the UN Secretariat services involved in development, strengthening the Economic and Social Council, reducing overlap in UN specialized agencies, reviewing the UN’s funds and programs to ensure better coordination of their activities in the field, and streamlining the UN machinery in the economic and social fields so that the efficiency savings achieved may be devoted to the UN’s development activities. Canada welcomed the reports of both the High-level Panel and the Secretary-General and is supporting the adoption of many of their proposals. Canada believes that the United Nations cannot be allowed to be marginalized or replaced by other mechanisms. As former prime minister Lester B. Pearson said, the United Nations is “our best, and perhaps our last, hope of bringing about a creative peace if mankind is to end a savage tradition that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
Canadian Statements on UN Reform
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