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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MINISTER AXWORTHY - ADDRESS TO THE CONFERENCE ONCHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM - MONTREAL, QUEBEC</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 99/57 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE CONFERENCE ON CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM MONTREAL, Quebec November 24, 1999 (4 p.m. EST) In considering our responsibilities to our children, I am often reminded of a saying of the Opaskwayak Elders of the Cree Nation. Expressing a common belief of their people, they say, "A child is a gift or loan from the Great Spirit, and one is given the responsibility to raise and care for that child. Since a child is a gift from the Great Spirit, the child is sacred and must be treated with respect and dignity." The Convention on the Rights of the Child was an effort to give that sentiment global meaning. It set the international standard for our responsibilities. Since its adoption, it has deservedly become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. It remains the centrepiece for global action on the issue. The need to safeguard and advance the interests of children and youth is as compelling as ever. Concern about the state of our children put the subject on the global agenda in the first place, and that concern continues undiminished today. Indeed, it is given new urgency by a changing world, with new threats that place our children and youth at risk. A decade ago, Canada was a leader in drafting the Convention because Canadians were concerned about the problems facing children. We helped craft a Convention that espouses respect, compassion, tolerance and equality -- a document reflecting the fundamental values that we cherish at home. I was proud to have been involved in that process. In the intervening years, an important objective for me has been to realize its ideals. Ten years later, improving the condition of the world's children and youth remains a priority for Canada. The Speech from the Throne last month was unequivocal. The promotion of human security -- an approach that puts the safety of people first -- was affirmed as a focus of Canada's foreign policy. And in advancing human security, the welfare of children is front and centre. For that reason, I strongly welcome this Conference. It offers an opportunity both to assess the past and to look to the future. To move ahead, we need to learn and build on what has already been achieved. Progress has been made in advancing the safety of children and youth, and Canadians are playing a part. There is greater awareness of the threats and challenges faced by children. The Convention focussed the world's attention on this issue. Today, in war zones, at work, in the areas of health and development, there is more understanding about the special needs of children and youth and increased sensitivity to the impact of events on them. The international legal framework to protect and advance the rights of children has also moved forward. The Convention itself covered much ground. Where gaps remain or new threats emerge, there is momentum to overcome them. The past decade has seen the negotiation of further agreements -- for instance, to ensure legal safeguards in the process of inter-country adoption, and to prevent and eliminate the worst forms of child labour. There has been progress in putting the rights of children and youth into the mainstream of a wider sphere of global activity. The rights of children and youth have become a crosscutting theme for development co-operation and humanitarian action. In matters of peace and security, Canada is making efforts to reflect the special needs of children and youth at the Security Council. This is part of our larger effort to integrate human security into the Council's work. Finally, there is recognition that children and youth should have a voice in solving problems that affect them. As victims of war, crime, sexual and labour exploitation, unfortunately they are already full participants, directly affected by the darker side of life. It is only logical to learn from their experience, and to give them a say in how to improve their lives and security. To that end, the involvement of youth in this Conference is welcome. Another positive sign was UNICEF's consultation with children last week, asking them which rights they considered most important. In Canada, we established a Youth Internship Program in 1997; the aim is partly to give Canadian youth the opportunity to help other young people around the world. To date over 1400 young Canadians have participated in the Program. Together these developments are a promising beginning, but they are not enough. The hardship and fear suffered by too many of the world's young people make the Convention's 10th anniversary year less a cause for celebration than a time to call for renewed and concerted global action. Canada is committed to working vigorously to consolidate and further the advances that have been achieved. We seek action to improve the security of children and youth, and we also seek their direct involvement in this endeavour. Three issues are of particular concern: child labour; sexual exploitation of children; and war-affected children. Child labour ranks among the most insidious and vexing issues faced by those promoting children's security. It defies easy definition and straightforward answers. That is why we are approaching it from both a developmental and a human rights perspective. Child labour is closely linked to extreme poverty. Yesterday, International Co-operation Minister Minna outlined how the issue is addressed by Canadian assistance programs, with their priority on poverty reduction and meeting basic human needs. For example, the programs include investments in primary education, alternative employment opportunities for adults, and projects specifically targeted at child labour. From a human rights perspective, not all forms of child labour are exploitative or abusive. Some of them, however, deprive children of their right to realize their potential, and expose them to hazardous and dangerous work. These forms of child labour do contravene basic human rights and need to be confronted. Earlier this year, the ILO [International Labour Organization] concluded a convention aimed at eliminating the worst forms of child labour: hazardous work, debt bondage, forced labour and slave-like conditions, as well as the use of children in prostitution, pornography and drug trafficking. It was an important advance. Through co-operation at the federal and provincial levels and with employers' associations and labour organizations, Canadians worked hard for this agreement. Our common goal is now a reality: we have an effective and simple instrument that sets international standards against which all countries can be assessed. Our attention now turns to ensuring that the convention is ratified -- and, most important, that as many countries as possible adhere to it. We are supporting the ILO in other ways. With Canadian assistance, the ILO has put in place an International Program for the Elimination of Child Labour; this seeks to develop, test and apply "best practices" in eliminating the worst forms of child labour. Last year, we also contributed to another ILO program known as SIMPOC, or the Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labour, with the aim of gathering data on child labour in about 40 countries. There can be no more heinous threat to our children than sexual exploitation. It robs them of their innocence and can inflict lifelong damage. Today the predator's reach is worldwide, and so we must have global solutions. In 1996 in Stockholm, I was part of the Canadian delegation to the World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. The high degree of participation at the Congress indicates the level of commitment to effective action in this area. To follow up on the Agenda for Action developed at the Stockholm Congress, the Government of Canada and Canadian NGOs formed a joint Committee on War-Affected Children. The Chair of the Committee is Senator Landon Pearson. Canada has also been working at the United Nations to develop a protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, designed specifically to deal with this threat. It would require countries to criminalize activities associated with the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It would urge countries to extend their jurisdiction on such matters to acts committed by their citizens abroad. Canada has already taken steps on extra-territorial reach. We now have the means to prosecute our citizens who engage in commercial sexual activities with children while outside the country. We are working to ensure that the law is enforced. I am encouraged that other countries are moving in the same direction. There can be no tolerance and no sanctuary for such activities. The private sector can play a part, too, by discouraging sex tourism. I note, for example, Air Canada's efforts to develop messages for this purpose. In our wired world, the Internet poses a new challenge. The information highway can transport the best but also the worst, including child pornography and child exploitation. This is abuse that must be stopped. We are working with other governments -- through the OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development], the UN and others -- to prevent the Internet from becoming a safe haven for those who seek to hurt or harm our children. While we weave an international net to ensnare predators, we must also take action to free those traumatized by exploitation. Last year, Canada hosted "Out From the Shadows," an international conference of youth from across the Americas who had experienced some form of sexual exploitation. The conference gave them a platform. Now their Action Plan is contributing to our efforts at the United Nations: Canada sponsored a meeting at which the youth participants presented their recommendations. As a result of the conference, we have also undertaken projects with Canadian NGOs for sexually exploited youth in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru and Chile. The projects focus on counselling and rehabilitation, education and training, and reintegration into the work force and the community. As we move into the next century, the welfare, rights and protection of war-affected children are increasingly at risk. One of the most disturbing human security issues we face is the plight of war-affected children, particularly the cynical practice of targeting children both as fighters and as victims. The devastating toll exacted on children over the past decade brings home the tragedy: millions killed, disabled, orphaned, displaced and psychologically scarred by the trauma of abduction, detention, rape and witnessing the brutal murder of family members. More than 300 000 girls and boys serve in armed forces and rebel gangs. The advent of light weapons technology, the rise of intra-state conflict and an increase in irregular forces have all exacerbated the problem. The definition of "child soldier" is broad. It includes child fighters with weapons, but also the many boys and girls who "serve armies" as cooks, porters, messengers, spies, labourers and sexual slaves. The child soldier challenge is complex. It has three aspects: to protect children and provide them with alternatives so that they do not become child soldiers; to remove child soldiers from active combat; and to reintegrate children into families and communities if they have been soldiers. Canada is regarded as a leader in these efforts. Our approach has been multi-faceted. First have been political advocacy measures. Canada supports Mr. Olara Otunnu, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, particularly in his role as an advocate raising awareness of the issue of children and armed conflict with both governments and rebel groups who employ children in conflict. Earlier this year, Canada contributed $400 000 to the Special Representative's trust fund. Mr. Otunnu's office remains a focus of awareness-raising and action. While on the Security Council, we have worked to make child protection a recognized integral part of UN peace support operations. We have also identified the issue of war-affected children as a key element in our Council initiatives with the objective of promoting the protection of civilians in armed conflict. There has been some movement forward: two Council resolutions have been adopted. The first deals directly with children affected by armed conflict; the second is on the protection of civilians, where the specific needs of children are highlighted. Canada is working with other committed governments to bring the assistance and protection of war-affected children to the fore in a variety of regional and sub-regional organizations, such as the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe], the OAS [Organization of American States] and ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States]. To that end, I met with President Rawlings of Ghana earlier this year, and together Canada and Ghana will co-host a conference next spring on war-affected children in West Africa. This is part of an effort to focus on the regional dimensions of this global problem. Canada is also committed to assisting the plight of war-affected children through development and peacebuilding efforts. As you have already heard from my colleague, Minister Minna, CIDA [Canadian International Development Agency] assists children and youth affected by conflict through projects to rebuild schools and to meet basic human needs -- including access to clean water, food, health care and shelter. This is the first level of needs, but we must do still more. And we are doing it through the Canadian peacebuilding Initiative and also through local Canada Fund programs in affected countries. We are working with NGOs and local populations to reintegrate child victims and child soldiers alike, by means of education projects, disarmament, reunification programs, sports and skills training. In Sierra Leone, for example, Canada has devoted over $9 million to humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts. A significant portion of this money is going to meet the specific needs of children. We have also made a strong effort to work closely with civil society. The Committee on War-Affected Children is proving extremely effective at forging partnerships with all sectors of Canadian society. Internationally, we were the first government to provide financial support to the international Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Earlier this month, Canadian representatives worked hard at the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] conference in Geneva to bring attention to the plight of war-affected children and to make it a focus of ICRC activities. Finally, Canada is seeking to strengthen international legal instruments against the use of child soldiers. The rules governing the recruitment and deployment of children in war are inadequate. That is why Canada took a strong position in negotiations on the International Criminal Court [ICC]. Once it is established, the ICC will criminalize the conscription, enlistment or use of children under the age of 15 as soldiers. For the same reason, negotiations have started on a strong Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, dealing with the involvement of children in armed conflict. Canada supports these efforts. A central aim is to raise the minimum age of recruitment and participation in hostilities from 15 to 18, in conformity with the rest of the Convention. We have been very involved in negotiations and in garnering support. At the UN this September, I hosted a Child Soldier Strategy Session with a small number of foreign ministers for this purpose. We agreed to form a Friends of the Optional Protocol group (under Canada's leadership) to push for the adoption of a "straight 18" position at the next round of negotiations in January. In a related development, we have been reviewing our own legislation and practices in this regard. It has been three short years since Graça Machel presented her Report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children at the UN General Assembly and revealed to the world the tragedies faced by war-affected children. Her report recommends that a conference be held in 2000 to evaluate global progress and future ways and means of assisting children affected by conflict. This recommendation was more recently endorsed by the Berlin Declaration on the Use of Children as Soldiers, issued by a broad coalition of NGOs last month. Canada would like to take up Graça Machel's challenge. I am announcing today that, next year, Canada will host an International Conference on War-Affected Children. The Conference will bring together governments, international organizations and civil society from every region of the world. Together, their task will be to formulate a comprehensive, global plan of action for addressing the full range of problems and potential solutions for children affected by conflict. In 2001, the world will gather at the UN for a Special Session to review the achievements of the past decade, and to agree on new commitments and a new global agenda for the next one. As the Speech from the Throne makes clear, Canada is committed to playing an active part in the preparations for this meeting and in ensuring its success. Prime Minister Chrétien has designated Senator Pearson as Canada's representative on the six- country preparatory committee. She has already used the opportunity to highlight Canadian priorities and to underline the importance of enabling children and youth to participate in the preparatory process and the Special Session. The aim of promoting the security of the world's children and young people is central to Canada's human security agenda. Our efforts focus on protecting children and helping young people confront threats from sexual predators, from labour exploitation or from the traumas of armed conflict. Doing so is an essential part of our broader aspiration to promote human security and to create stable, peaceful societies. To build a world that values human security, we must start with concern and action for those who will inherit it. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was a beginning, a way for the international community to exercise its role of trust for the world's children. In less than two years, at the UN Special Session, we will be collectively held to account for how we have acquitted this responsibility. There is precious little time. We will use it to bring a tangible measure of security to the lives of children and young people at risk -- and, with them, to set a firm course for the future. Thank you. </body> </html>

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