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FOREIGN AFFAIRS CANADA - NEW DIRECTION NEEDED
As an NGO (non-government Organization) with
special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council
of the United Nations, REAL Women is invited every year by
Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC) to a consultation, which is held
in Ottawa previous to the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights annual session in Geneva, Switzerland. This year's
18th annual consultation on February 7 and 8 was filled with
uncertainty as the UN is now undergoing needed reform. We
were told by Foreign Affairs representatives that Canada regards
the Commission on Human Rights as "dysfunctional and
politicized," and that the human rights situation around
the world has not improved, "nothing much is working
all that well at the UN." "Management reform is
difficult in an organization perceived by most participants
as a huge patronage system" one speaker told the assembled
NGO's.
"Resources have been squandered." Yet it was announced
that Canada has increased its contribution to the UN High
Commission on Human Rights, headed by former Supreme Court
Justice Louise Arbour, to $5 million from $2 million annually,
through the Canadian International Development Agency CIDA.
It was pointed out that having "greater resources doesn't
lead to better human rights." A peace building fund will
be created but "that doesn't mean anything practical
will happen" one presenter noted.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton has
stated, "The current situation is untenable and …
membership of the UN Human Rights Commission by some of the
world's most notorious human rights abusers mocks the legitimacy
of the … United Nations itself." (National Post,
January 12, 2006).
As the Ottawa Citizen wrote, "The chaos
is so bad that the Human Rights Commission, beginning its
annual six weeks of meetings in Geneva this week, voted to
suspend itself for fear it couldn't get anything done."
(Ottawa Citizen, March 15, 2006).
A New Council on Human Rights
As a result of its numerous failures, the
UN General Assembly decided to establish a new Council on
Human Rights to replace the former "discredited"
Commission. The Unites States voted against the plan because
it believed that the new council would only continue on its
former course unless more profound changes were made. For
example, reducing the council from 53 members to 47 member
nations was hardly a significant change.
The basic problem with the Human Rights Commission
was that it had no standards for membership when they were
selected by the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
So, bloodthirsty tyrannies sat on it together with liberal
democracies. Given the let's-all-get-along camaraderie of
the United Nations, they all operated on a vaporous consensus
that stripped the Commission of any purpose. China, Cuba,
Eritrea, Liberia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Zimbabwe were all
members, ensuring ample representation from governments interested
only in preserving their ability to jail their dissidents
or despoil their countrysides.
Human rights abusers were particularly drawn
to the Commission so they could eliminate any diplomatic or
moral threat it might pose to their misrule. They voted as
a bloc to oppose any strenuous language directed at themselves
or fellow abusers. On the inside, they subtly influenced the
process in their favour.
Under the new rules to establish the U.N.
Human Rights Council, however, the General Assembly, by a
majority vote, now selects the members. Unfortunately, this
allows the worst human rights abusers to still sit on the
Council, since again, no criteria for membership was established.
Also, there are fewer western seats allowed on the new Council,
which allows the Asian and African regional delegates to dominate
the Council. Under these circumstances, the US decided not
to seek election to this Human Rights Council, but did promise
to work cooperatively with the member states on the new Council.
Unfortunately, Canada seems to regard the
"new" Human Rights Council as an open opportunity
to continue to promote its current agenda for radical feminism,
abortion and homosexual policies, apparently unchanged from
what it was under the previous Liberal government
Jeanette Sautner, gender equality section,
FAC, repeated Canada's objectives to eliminate violence against
women, trafficking of women and girls, and help for migrant
women. Injecting gender into every area possible is persistent,
- into the "right to health", into education, HIV/AIDS,
housing, and "peace building." The criminalization
of marital rape is an ongoing effort. The usual UN Conventions
were listed as supportive of the feminist agenda: Beijing
Conference on Women (1995), the Cairo Conference on Population
and Development (1994), and Convention for the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women, (CEDAW) (1979). Due diligence
is promoted, meaning, failure to exercise due diligence to
"prevent, investigate and punish acts of violence against
women" constitutes a human rights violation. Once inserted,
this could apply to other "human rights." The objectives
are so ambitious that the work of these Canadian bureaucrats
at Foreign Affairs is guaranteed to go on forever. Very little
is reported about concrete results, yet there are always new
demands for expansion.
Gender Activism is Relentless
Resolutions to advance "women's equality"
are presented every year. We were told that new elements are
added or removed, focus changed, language changed, but the
thrust is to further entrench gender (feminism) globally and
nationally.
The ACPD (Action Canada for Population and
Development), an organization established in 1997 by Planned
Parenthood Federation of Canada, which has received grants
from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Citizenship and CIDA,
and other left wing NGO's and U.S. anti-population organizations,
such as the Rockefeller Foundation, wants Foreign Affairs
Canada to "affirm" and "push" positions
on sexual orientation and sexual health (abortion, etc.).
ACPD's lesbian Executive Director Katherine MacDonald (see
REALity, "Canada's Betrayal of Third World Women",
July/Aug 2005) encouraged FAC to be imaginative in trying
to insert the term "sexual orientation" in UN documents
to set a precedent. She suggested looking for opportunities
to include it in various resolutions - violence against women,
Committee on the Rights of the Child, the rights of adolescents,
gender identity. "Keep doing it over and over and over
again and eventually it will pass."
Andree Cote, Director of Legislation and Law,
Association Nationale de la Femme et du Droit, stated at this
FAC consultation that abortion is vital to assure the security
and autonomy of women.
In the Religious Rights workshop, Catherine
Laidlaw-Sly, policy advisor and past president of the National
Council of Women of Canada, affirmed that "everybody
has the right to their own faith, not the injection of that
faith in law. The track record of most major faiths is one
of discrimination against women." She recommended the
"separation of faith and the state" because in the
"history of the world for the last several thousand years",
she warned, the "major faiths have not practiced gender
equality."
Foreign Affairs Continues to Push Former
Liberal Agenda
The homosexual organization Arc (Allied Rainbow
Communities) International emphasized that how the new Council
deals with controversial issues, such as sexual orientation
and gender identity, will be the litmus test for its effectiveness
as a new body. UN rapporteurs (human rights monitors) are
"getting a lot of heat for defending particular cases"
and they should be defended by the UN says ARC International.
The Ottawa based homosexual lobby group, EGALE
(Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) representative
Ron Chaplin was concerned about legislation in Nigeria which
criminalizes same-sex marriage with 5 years incarceration
for someone who performs the ceremony, 19 years in prison
for same-sex activity itself, while advocates of same-sex
marriage may be subject to a criminal term of 5 years. He
feared that efforts to criminalize gay and lesbian activism
in Nigeria could lead other African Commonwealth countries
to adopt this type of "human rights abuse."
In response to ACPD's push for sexual orientation
language in UN resolutions, Chantal Walker, FAC's Women's
Equality Division, agreed, "perhaps we need to stir things
up a little bit and have new strategies." She noted that
non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation "has
been a tradition in Canadian culture" and referred to
the civil marriage Act C-38 and that "Canada's international
position is based on our position domestically." She
added that Foreign Affairs has had meetings with ARC International
on the Gender Identity issues (transsexual and transgender
- (See REALity, "Homosexuals' new Agenda: Transexualism",
July/Aug 2004) and that "our strategy on this is still
developing." Efforts will be made to continue raising
it, "a lot of education still needs to happen on this
issue as well as on sexual orientation ... Any ideas you have
are more than welcome and we can discuss them." Chantal
affirmed that "Canada is working constantly to include
sexual orientation in human rights documents." Director
Henri-Paul Normandin assured NGO's that they "can count
on us to look for opportunities to keep the issue alive, it's
definitely our intention to keep the issue alive."
Henri-Paul Normandin added that it's a steep
learning curve as they break new ground, "we have to
be creative as to how we try to advocate and promote these
issues ... The position we are presenting today, Canada developed
over the years." He also added that "It is the responsibility
and duty of the government to provide direction to Foreign
Affairs, that's their role, we will have to see."
However, many Canadians believe that years
of training to defend "sexual orientation" (homosexual
behaviour) and "sexual health" (abortion) by FAC
should be re-directed by the new Conservative government.
Foreign Affairs must change direction and defend neglected
life and family issues, instead of promoting a left wing anti
life/family agenda internationally.
Please write to Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter McKay, and your M.P. Insist
that Foreign Affairs change its policies immediately to support
traditional conservative values of family and life. The bureaucrats
at Foreign Affairs must be advised that a new government has
taken over and that the former policies of the Liberal government
to push radical feminism, abortion and homosexuality internationally
are no longer acceptable.
The Right Hon. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Langevin Building
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2
The Hon. Peter MacKay, P.C. M.P.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lester B. Pearson Building, Tower "A," 10th Floor
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
Your MP at:
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
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