MR. AXWORTHY - ADDRESS TO THE EMPIRE CLUB, TORONTO
99/43 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
TO THE EMPIRE CLUB
TORONTO, Ontario
June 28, 1999
(2:15 p.m. EDT)
Back home last week after a nightmare that forced him to flee his house, that
separated him from his family, that destroyed his possessions, Rifat Morina, a
Kosovo Albanian, thought he was safe. Safe to rebuild his life, safe to find his wife
and children, and safe to look, however tentatively, to the future.
However, in an instant, he was denied even this meagre hope. Mr. Morina stepped on
a landmine. He lost his leg, leaving him maimed forever -- a brutal, permanent and
daily reminder of the human cost of this conflict. Another life senselessly shattered
by landmines.
In Kosovo, NATO prevailed over evil. However, Mr. Morina's experience underlines
with devastating clarity that for him and hundreds of thousands like him the ordeal is
far from over. In their understandable eagerness to return home, many more ordinary
people will suffer like Mr. Morina.
Anti-personnel [AP] mines are strewn by the tens of thousands across the
countryside, poisoning the land from which Kosovo's people derived their
sustenance. They are at once the cruel instrument and the bitter legacy of conflict
and hatred.
The dimensions of the threat are staggering -- but not surprising nor unprecedented.
That is why Canada pushed hard to ensure that demining figured among the priority
tasks for KFOR and in reconstruction assistance. Canadian mine-clearing experts are
among those now on the ground. The task in Kosovo is dangerous, painstaking and
expensive.
The mine action problem in Kosovo is one we have seen all too often -- in Bosnia,
Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mozambique and many other countries. If Canada showed
some leadership in setting an international norm against these weapons, I think we
are also trying to show some leadership in how we address the landmine problems
that still exist. It is to be hoped that we have learned some lessons in Kosovo and can
face the enormous challenge without the horrendous casualties we have seen in so
many other places.
Last month, in Mozambique, those who had ratified the treaty held the First Meeting of
States Parties; a number of countries who had not yet signed also took part. I hosted
a meeting at which we discussed the need for a rapid reaction capacity, co-ordinated
by the United Nations, knowing we would face this challenge in Kosovo -- and not
only there but in Angola, and on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border and in other places where
mines are still being used in conflicts.
Out of that meeting Canada and Belgium sponsored a UN mission to Kosovo to do an
initial assessment of the mine situation. That has resulted in the establishment of a
UN Mine Action Co-ordination Centre that will co-ordinate the international response.
The rapid response priority will be to ensure that refugees can return safely. As a first
step, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will send two
experienced Canadian organizations that are here today, Wolf's Flat and the
Canadian International Demining Centre [CIDC], to work with the UN and the
international community to be part of that emergency response. Wolf's Flat has
recently completed a project clearing unexploded ordnance in Panama, and the CIDC
is currently doing mine clearance in Bosnia.
I have also asked our ambassador for mine action to be in Kosovo this week to help
raise awareness of the mine problem amongst refugees and to talk to the military,
other NGOs, the UN and local people to get an assessment of where Canada can best
play a role.
Kosovo's experience renews the urgency of the global landmines challenge. The
situation in Kosovo mirrors the plight of millions the world over. It underscores the
original impetus behind the Ottawa Process. It makes clear the need to sustain our
efforts to defeat this deadly weapon. Since the conclusion of the Ottawa Convention
we have made progress:
One hundred and thirty-five countries have foresworn the use of AP mines, and 82
countries have already ratified the Convention.
The number of mine victims in some of the world's most severely affected
countries is declining.
The once-flourishing trade in AP mines has all but vanished: fewer than 10 of the
world's mine-producing countries do not support a comprehensive moratorium or de
facto ban on the export of AP mines.
Since 1996, when the Ottawa Process began, 20 countries have destroyed more
than 14 million stockpiled mines. These are mines that will never take a life or a limb.
Resources for mine action are increasing: in the past year alone, 10 donor
countries have initiated 98 new mine action programs in 25 countries.
From the outset, the campaign to ban landmines was a new kind of partnership
among governments, international organizations, civil society and individuals. This
co-operation has contributed to the achievements we have made so far. And it is this
combined energy and resources that will get us to our ultimate goal of a world
without landmines.
Canadians have played a major role in the process. In what has already been
accomplished there is much of which we, collectively, can be proud. The Government
of Canada pledged $100 million over five years for mine action.
But governments cannot do it alone. Individuals and groups of Canadians must
continue to be active in pursuing landmine activities. That is why I am pleased to be
here today to launch the Canadian Landmine Foundation. Its aim is to create a
sustaining fund to which individuals and corporations can contribute to help
eradicate landmines and ease the human suffering they cause. It will encourage
Canadians to maintain the lead and set the example for demining efforts across the
globe. I am also announcing today a $1 million contribution from the Government of
Canada to the Canadian Landmine Foundation as seed funding. The Foundation
plans to raise significant amounts of money; it is committed to raising over $2 million
from individuals and the private sector this year.
Our involvement in the landmines campaign is part of Canadians' broader, traditional
commitment to global peace and security. Engagement in the world is bred in the
bone. Canadians consistently rate our activities and success abroad as an important
indicator of how we define ourselves.
This global involvement is based on enduring values. These are the same values we,
and generations of Canadians before us, have used to build a unique, prosperous
and free country: democracy, human rights, and respect for diversity and civil
society.
In a changing world, these values are more relevant than ever. Indeed, they form the
basis of the human security approach I have advanced for Canada's foreign policy,
an approach that puts new emphasis on the security and well-being of people.
The truth is that globalization and the end of the Cold War have put human security
more clearly at the forefront of international concern. Civilians are directly, and
increasingly, the main targets and tools of modern armed conflict. Ordinary people
are the immediate victims of terrorism, crime, illicit drugs, environmental degradation
and infectious disease -- threats that respect no borders. The information age brings
these realities directly into all our lives, underscoring our common destiny.
In response, there is clearly a new global dynamic emerging that puts the security of
people -- individual rights, dignity and well-being -- at the centre of the international
agenda.
The Ottawa Convention, the way we dealt with the landmine issue, changed thinking
about how we could deal with humanitarian crises. It was a novel, people-based
approach to disarmament that took aim directly at weapons that cause the most
damage to individuals.
The Ottawa Process is only one example of the human security agenda at work.
Canada is active in other areas. It is participating in global and regional action to
confront the threat of small arms and light military weapons; to fight the scourge of
illicit drugs; and to improve the condition of children (the most at risk) -- whether as
child soldiers, exploited labour, or victims of the global and cyber-sex trades.
By dealing with existing and emerging threats, these initiatives advance human
security. They need to be complemented by efforts to deter abuse from occurring in
the first place, and to set new standards of global behaviour.
For that, full accountability is key. This was a point I made a year ago in Rome at the
opening of negotiations for the creation of the International Criminal Court. With
Canadian leadership, the Statute of the Court was agreed. The International Criminal
Court was a bold step forward. It will hold accountable those responsible for crimes
against humanity and the most extreme violations of humanitarian law. It is part of an
effort to advance and consolidate the rule of international law to protect individuals
from the darker side of human nature.
Which brings me to our involvement in Kosovo. The Alliance's intervention was an
important step in the ascendance of human security as a norm for global action. With
its NATO allies, Canada was galvanized to act not from a cold calculus of realpolitik
but from a wish to defend the simple right of people to live in peace and security in
the face of a vicious spiral of premeditated murder, terror and brutality.
The military option for Kosovo was not chosen lightly. Still, it shows that sometimes,
when other means have failed, when inaction is unacceptable and the humanitarian
imperative to act is clearly evident, it may be the only option -- and it is a justifiable
one.
Canadians were right to act in Kosovo. Underlining this is the action taken by the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, indicting the Serb
leadership for war crimes. New, daily revelations of the atrocities and appalling
brutality committed against Kosovo's Albanians confirm it.
However, Kosovo must not be held up as a precedent justifying intervention
anywhere, any time or for any reason. It raises serious and legitimate questions. Most
evident is the challenge of reconciling emerging norms of human security with norms
of sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of states -- still a basic tenet of
global peace and security.
Standards and limits need to be worked out against which the necessity or not of
intervention can be judged -- and the criteria must be very demanding. This is where
the Security Council needs to play a central leadership role. As the only global
instrument for ensuring peace and security, it needs to be fully engaged -- not
absent -- in this process. The views of some of its members have made it less
relevant and flexible than it should be in adapting to the new global realities.
As a Security Council member, Canada has been trying to integrate the human
dimension into Council activities. For example, last February we proposed, and other
members accepted, examining concrete steps the Council could take to focus
attention and action on protecting civilians in armed conflict.
The safety of people is at the forefront of international concern. The human security
agenda is a modern Canadian response based on traditional Canadian values. It is
also a means of promoting and advancing Canadian interests.
In an interconnected world, sooner or later the insecurity of others becomes our
problem -- and sometimes our insecurity. A human security approach is therefore
not only desirable but increasingly indispensable. For Canadians, human security
means a safer, less expensive and more receptive world.
We are perhaps the most travelled people in the world. Every year, Canadians take
close to 20 million trips abroad as tourists or students or, like many of you, for
business. That means Canadians are vulnerable. A global society based on the rule
of law, with effective means to combat terrorism and international crime and
corruption, protects the security of Canadians.
Far-off conflicts that do not directly affect us are not cost-free for Canadians. We
provide tremendous resources every year to support refugee and humanitarian relief
programs to help the victims of conflict. Add to this the incalculable cost of Canadian
investments in people and infrastructure that are lost as a result of armed conflict; for
example, the Sudanese conflict costs over $1 million a day in humanitarian
assistance. Multiply that by the number of conflicts around the world, and the cost-effectiveness of human security -- especially preventive efforts -- becomes more
apparent.
Our prosperity requires global stability. Much of our economic growth is generated
by international trade and investment. This depends on a world where people are
secure and globalization works. We collectively ignore the human dimension of free
trade and open markets at our peril -- as we have seen in Asia.
The ongoing political turmoil in other areas of the world, notably in Africa, also
prevents local populations from developing and realizing their economic potential.
This affects not only local populations but Canadians too, who pay a price for the
insecurity through reduced opportunities and lost markets for our products and
investments. In short, the human security agenda promotes Canadians' interests --
including the Canadian corporate bottom line.
Canadians live in a world that is vastly, irrevocably different from the one we lived in
even a decade ago. In the face of change, I believe Canadians would prefer to
embrace it and put our distinctive stamp on the new global order, rather than let
others define our place in the world.
By all accounts, human security is something that strikes a chord with the Canadian
public. According to recent polling, Canadians have never been more confident about
our place in the world: 80 percent believe we have more influence today than 30
years ago; 64 percent feel more proud of Canada's international role today than five
years ago; 68 percent rate our international relations a top priority for the Canadian
government.
I attribute this to the fact that the human security agenda both reflects long-standing
Canadian values and promotes Canadians' fundamental interests. It is, in essence,
the global expression of the Canadian experience and the principles we cherish.
If the United States is the indispensable nation, I like to think of Canada as the value-added nation. Human security is the application abroad of the talents of
accommodation, tolerance and mutual respect -- talents we have used to build a
strong, unified country where all Canadians can thrive and prosper.
As a Canadian, I am committed to upholding these principles and promoting these
talents. All Canadians can play a part. As the response to the landmines campaign
has demonstrated, it is a role Canadians welcome with imagination and enthusiasm.
The creation of the Canadian Landmine Foundation carries on this tradition, one to
which I hope you will contribute.
Thank you.