Canada's Actions Against Landmines

The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy Minister of Foreign Affairs CANADA'S ACTIONS AGAINST LANDMINES Chairman: Robert J. Dechert President, The Empire Club of Canada

Head Table Guests

Catherine Steele, Vice-President (Ontario) and Partner, Gervais Gagnon Covington & Associates and Third Vice-President, The Empire Club of Canada; Reverend Dr. John Niles, Victoria Park United Church; Duncan N.R. Jackman, Managing Director, Fulcrum Investment Company and a Director, The Empire Club of Canada; Dr. Janice Stein, Harrowston Professor of Conflict and Negotiation, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto; The Hon. David Peterson, Former Premier of Ontario and Chairman, Cassels Brock & Blackwell; Dr. Lorna Marsden, President and ViceChancellor, York University; Frank O'Dea, Chairman, The Canadian Landmine Foundation and Chairman, Madison & Grant Bancorp Limited; Gareth Seltzer, Vice-President, Private Wealth Management, Guardian Capital Advisors and a Past President, The Empire Club of Canada; Ed Mirvish, President and CEO, Honest Ed's Limited and Honorary Director, The Canadian Landmine Foundation; Hugh Segal, President, Institute for Research on Public Policy; The Hon. Frank McKenna, Former Premier of New Brunswick and Counsel, McInnes Cooper & Robertson; Mary McLaughlin, President and CEO, The Canadian Landmine Foundation; and Vivian Bercovici, Vice-

President, Legal and Public Affairs, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company.

Introduction by Robert J. Dechert

As Canada's foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy is the man responsible for managing and maintaining our nation's commitment to promoting and defending basic human rights around the world.

It is easy to say that you support basic human rights for all people but it takes real courage to put your words into action when that means putting your own people at risk to enforce those basic rights against a devious tyrant with a modern war machine. Lloyd Axworthy was not afraid to take a controversial stand and recommend to the Prime Minister that Canada must do its part along with its NATO allies to stop the atrocities in Kosovo and restore peace and fundamental rights to all of the people of Kosovo.

Milosevich's troops may have retreated from Kosovo but now the most difficult.phase of the operation begins; that is the peacekeeping mission for which Canadian troops are justifiably famous.

But before the refugees may return to what is left of their homes, they must deal with the remaining threat of anti-personnel landmines left behind by Milosevic's retreating army. As you know, Lloyd Axworthy has been a leader in the international struggle to eliminate the threat of these devices which are responsible for maiming and killing so many innocent people. It is in this context that Mr. Axworthy has agreed to address us today.

Mr. Axworthy's recent cool performance under pressure is the result of many years of relevant experience.

Mr. Axworthy is a graduate of Princeton University, where he obtained an M.A. in Political Science in 1963 and a Ph.D. in 1972. He was a professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg from 1965 to 1967 and from 1969 to 1979.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1979. Mr. Axworthy has served as Minister of Employment and Immigration, Minister of Transport, Minster responsible for the Status of Women, Minister of Human Resources Development and Minister of Western Economic Diversification prior to being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in January of 1996.

Ladies and gentlemen it is my honour and privilege to introduce to you, The Honourable Lloyd Axworthy.

Lloyd Axworthy

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 de-mining 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. Canada showed some leadership in setting an international norm against these weapons; now we are also trying to show some leadership in how we address the landmine problems that still exist. We hope we have learned some lessons, and in Kosovo deal with the enormous challenge of landmines 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 and 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 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 refugees can return safely. To that end, as a first step, my department will send two experienced Canadian organisations that are here today-Wolf's Flat, and the Canadian International Demining Centre-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 amongst refugees of the mine problem and to talk to the military, 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 programmes in 25 countries.

From the outset, the campaign to ban landmines was a new kind of partnership among governments, international organisations, 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 de-mining 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 globalisation 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 upon. 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 galvanised 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 the human security norm 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 programmes 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 globalisation 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 realising their economic potential. This affects not only local populations but Canadians too. They pay a price for the insecurity through reduced opportunities and lost markets for their 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 per cent believe we have more influence today than 30 years ago; 64 per cent feel more proud of Canada's international role today than five years ago; 68 per cent rate our international relations a top priority for the Canadian government.

I attribute this to the fact that the human security agenda reflects both 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 that 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.

The appreciation of the meeting was expressed by Gareth Seltzer, Vice-President, Private Wealth Management, Guardian Capital Oidvisors and a Past President, The Empire Club of Canada.