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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. AXWORTHY - ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY TO THE OPENING OF THE NGO PEACEBUILDING CONSULTATIONS - OTTAWA, ONTARIO</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 99/16 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE OPENING OF THE NGO PEACEBUILDING CONSULTATIONS OTTAWA, Ontario March 2, 1999 (12:45 p.m. EST) I am pleased to welcome you to the third annual NGO [non-governmental organization] peacebuilding consultations. I am happy to see familiar faces, along with some new ones, and especially pleased to welcome the winners of the Peacebuilding Youth Competition. More of that later. At the outset I would like to welcome the participation of Paul Van Tongeren, Executive Director of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention. His participation is an excellent example of how the non-governmental community in Canada reaches out to colleagues in other countries. I would also like to welcome my colleague the Minister for International Co-operation and Minister responsible for La Francophonie, Diane Marleau. I am pleased to have her here today at the Peacebuilding Consultations, given our joint responsibility for the Canadian Peacebuilding Initiative. A Brief Review The government's peacebuilding initiative has now reached a certain level of maturity since the former Minister for International Co-operation and Minister responsible for La Francophonie, Don Boudria, and I unveiled it in October 1996. At that time, we were seeking ways to come to grips with the reality that the end of the Cold War had brought with it not global peace but a new intensification of internal conflict with a profound impact on the lives of civilians. Indeed, this was part of a changing global landscape with new challenges such as international crime, drugs, and terrorism that put more and more individuals at risk. This led us to put in place our human security agenda, which takes the security of the individual as a starting point for global action. With regard to conflict and post-conflict situations, we realized then that there clearly was a need to address the challenge of building sustainable peace in countries prone to recurring cycles of violence. The statistics were and remain depressing. Whereas during the First World War 5 percent of the casualties from armed conflict were civilian, that figure is now closer to 80 percent. And the number of casualties from armed conflict keeps rising -- almost doubling since the 1980s to about one million victims per year. The need to cast a lifeline to foundering societies struggling to end the cycle of violence, restore civility and get back on their feet remains as pressing as ever. We also recognized that Canada has some real strengths that could be put to use in the service of peacebuilding: • the wealth of skills and institutions that Canadians have developed in the nurturing our own democracy; • our highly developed expertise in the area of information technology; • our practical and long-standing experience in supporting peace through peacekeeping operations; • our extensive global experience in international development, which has given Canadians in government, business and NGOs a wealth of knowledge and skills to help developing countries advance their economies and societies; • the multicultural roots of many Canadians, which provide direct knowledge of the culture and history of many countries; • the fact -- by now a cliché -- that Canadians by and large are seen as not being encumbered by colonial or imperial baggage; as a result, we do not face an initial wall of suspicion when we work with another country or culture. As I explained when I announced the Peacebuilding Initiative in 1996 at York University, this initiative should enable us to mobilize Canadian ideas, actions and funds, and enable Canadians to use the wealth of skills and institutions that they have developed in nurturing our own democracy. And, indeed, the initiative has enabled us to harness these skills and expertise. To that end, we have made particular use of three key tools: the Peacebuilding Fund, the Peacebuilding Program, and the development of genuine partnerships between the government and the non-governmental community, along with an intensified process of consultations with other governments and key international organizations. Making a Difference Since we last met, we have registered some success and some progress in advancing a number of key components of our human security agenda, including: the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines; the adoption of the Statute of the International Criminal Court; and integrating human security into the work of the Security Council. For example, last month at the Security Council we organized a successful discussion on the protection of civilians in armed conflict; leadership on small arms proliferation; and a proactive agenda on war-affected children. I am pleased that you will be covering the latter two issues in your workshops. Both the Peacebuilding Fund and Peacebuilding Program have played, and are playing, an important part in moving the human security agenda ahead in these and other areas. The main focus areas of our efforts relate to war-affected children, gender issues, small arms proliferation, strengthening multilateral mechanisms and co-ordinating peace support operations. To cite but a few examples: • The Peacebuilding Initiative has allowed us to support, in collaboration with Norway, a project aimed at strengthening local capacity to counsel children traumatized by massacres in Algeria. • Furthermore, I have recently announced that we will be providing $400 000 to the Trust Fund of the UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, in order to enable him to fulfil his mandate. • In peace support operations, Canada has enabled CARE Canada to respond to the need to include civilian experts in the OSCE's [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Kosovo Verification Mission. • And finally we have provided electoral support to Nigeria for the first democratic elections that the country has held in several years. Our support was channelled through the UN in order to co-ordinate international observers, and through Nigerian national NGOs in order to secure their own involvement in the monitoring of the electoral process to ensure its free and fair unfolding. A full account of the many areas, activities and projects of the Peacebuilding Initiative can be found in our publication Peace in Progress. Making Peacebuilding More Relevant to Canadians This year's consultations are geared toward making peacebuilding more relevant to Canadians. With two years of activity behind us, we have built a good foundation in connecting Canadians with the importance of peacebuilding. We have made a special effort to draw on Canadians' skills and capacities and build them up. • The Youth International Internship Program has developed skills in technology and the Internet, with roughly 50 percent of all interns going overseas obtaining an internship in Internet-related fields; we have also placed a number of young Canadians into projects that have a direct impact on peacebuilding; • CANADEM [The Canadian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights], which is funded from the Peacebuilding Program, has developed a substantial roster of Canadians with expertise in peacebuilding-related fields; one result is that Canada was able to respond quickly to the need for a range of civilian skills in the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission; • The Peacebuilding Youth Competition, an essay contest that we arranged this year and whose winners are being honoured today, is another means of drawing young people into the circle of peacebuilding. I was quite impressed by the thoughtfulness and commitment of those who competed; • Our Cultural Initiatives for War-Affected Children program, which has its own funding, has attracted the interest and imagination of a range of artistic Canadians and international counterparts; The Peacebuilding Youth Competition, the wide interest in Canada's membership in the UN Security Council, and other input from Canadians through our National Forum demonstrates to me that Canadians do see peacebuilding as relevant to fulfilling our national vocation in promoting international peace and security. We need to continue our efforts to reach out and educate. It is all too easy for people to be overtaken by domestic agendas and forget the real impact of international conflict on their lives in Canada. For that reason, I would welcome your views on how we can make peacebuilding more relevant to Canadians -- on how can we better bring the skills of Canadians into the peacebuilding work that we are undertaking. A case in point is the very real challenge of improving our capacity for civilian deployments to support multidisciplinary peace support operations, an issue I know you are exploring in one of your workshops this afternoon. We have good mechanisms in place for military and civilian police deployments, and we have some machinery to attract people with other expertise, for example, through CANADEM. But I think we need to do more to develop our methods. Making Canadians More Relevant to Peacebuilding At the same time as we endeavour to make peacebuilding more relevant to Canadians, it is also crucial that we successfully manage to make Canadians more relevant to peacebuilding. One method is to use our memberships in international organizations to promote a Canadian vision of peacebuilding. I have already spoken of our work in the UN Security Council concerning the impact of conflict on civilians. Through our very active membership in the International Institute for Democratic and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), we are also bringing our expertise to bear on issues of representative institution-building. We have developed special partnerships with other countries to promote Canada's peacebuilding and human security agenda. Our human security partnership with Norway is the clearest example, one where we combine our talents with those of another country that has similar priorities to improve the security of individuals affected by conflict. We connect with other countries of both the North and South on similar issues, for example, the Netherlands and Britain (our colleagues on the Security Council), South Africa and Japan. We have also worked very closely with the European Commission on anti-personnel mines and small arms proliferation. Finally, we are in the business of promoting new and innovative international thinking on issues of peacebuilding. Some examples are the seminar we sponsored in March 1998 on Strengthening Co-operative Approaches to Conflict Prevention -- The Role of Regional Organizations and the UN; our support for the seminar held in New York in July 1998 on Strengthening the Role of Special Representatives of the Secretary-General; and the Canada-Japan Symposium on Peace and Security held in Vancouver in September 1998. I should also mention the Canadian Centre for Foreign Policy Development, which plays such a vital role in stimulating discussion and exchanges of research and opinion between the government and Canadians. We are seeking out opportunities to engage in cutting-edge policy research in this area, and I know officials are eager to participate in the workshop tomorrow on academic research and research interests. Conclusion Our peacebuilding initiative is well and truly launched. It has become a part of our foreign policy, as well as being at the centre of a set of partnerships with Canadian civil society. As we continue to deal with a world of conflict and tension, there will continue to be a need for peacebuilding. Peacebuilding tools will need to be flexible and adaptable as we learn more about what works and as the challenges themselves change. As we work in this area, we must continue to reach out to Canadians both to ensure support for these efforts and to bring to bear the enormous skills in this country to help build sustainable international peace. My officials look forward to their discussions with you over the next two days. May I take this opportunity to wish you successful and productive discussions. I look forward to hearing the results of your work. Thank you. </body> </html>

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