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Question 6: SecurityShould Canada do more to address conditions giving rise to conflict and
insecurity beyond our borders? If so, where? |
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| Contributor: | CCIC |
| Date: |
2003-05-01 21:14:22 |
| Answer: |
As noted in question 5, Canada should adopt a common security approach.
Canada should work to make the world safer for all people, by promoting common security, providing diplomatic support for peace processes and by collaborating with all sectors of society to foster locally rooted peace-building efforts in war-torn and war-threatened societies. Moreover, global security will elude us all if the vast economic and political disparity which keeps the world in turmoil is left un-repaired.
Canadian foreign policy should also support nuclear and small arms disarmament and military conversion as part of a common security defence policy. That policy should provide a mandate to Canadian military forces that focuses on international peacekeeping, domestic emergencies and Canadian coastal and territorial patrol.
Arms sold to foreign governments are often used against their own citizens. The toll of war on civilians is enormous. Worldwide, since 1960, four out of five casualties of war have been civilian. Although Canada is not one of the worst offenders, Canadian military exports continue to go to human rights violators and to countries involved in armed conflict.
As a minimal starting point, Canadian regulations should be tightened to prohibit the export of military equipment and parts to countries in conflict or with serious human rights violations. The federal government should introduce legislation subjecting all military commodity transfers to a public impact assessment review to ensure a positive impact on the security of people living in the recipient country. These regulatory/legislative changes would address situations such as the one that arose when between September 1998 and February 2000, when 33 Canadian surplus twin Huey military helicopters, originally sold to the U.S., were upgraded and redirected to the Colombian military, a recognised perpetrator of gross human rights violations.
At the international level, the Government of Canada should actively promote a more comprehensive and transparent registry at the UN for the production, trade and stockpiling of small arms.
Those who suffer the direct and indirect consequences of war and the military spending that support it, have been deprived of their ability to sustain themselves. Ultimately, economic security cannot exist without physical security. Money that should be invested in education and health is diverted to military purposes, sometimes under the aegis of programs administered by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) that place limits on social spending but no limits on military spending.
Canada can do more to address conditions giving rise to conflict and insecurity by regularly and critically reviewing its support for multilateral financial and trade policies, particularly those directed at helping the world’s poor. It can do more by moving its resources from IFI programs that fail to support the core values outlined in the response to question 1 to those that do.
The policies of International Financial Institutions, international trade agreements and the unilateral foreign policy of the United States, have significant influence on many of the conditions that can give rise to global conflict and insecurity. For example, Canada has supported a number of structural adjustment (SA) initiatives, undertaken by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, through its development assistance programs. Many of these SA initiatives have been abject failures, leading to further marginalization of some of the world’s poorest people. Canada is in a position to influence the direction that IFIs and international trade bodies choose to take on a number of issues.
Recommendations in response to Question 6
1. Foster locally rooted peace-building efforts through promotion of common security at the UN and through an independent foreign policy for peace.
2. Promote a comprehensive and transparent international registry at the UN for the production, trade and stockpiling of small arms.
3. Tighten Canadian regulations on the export of military equipment and parts to countries in conflict or with serious human rights violations.
4. Subject all military commodity transfers to a public impact assessment review to ensure a positive impact on the security of people living in the recipient country.
5. Address conditions giving rise to conflict and insecurity by regularly and critically reviewing support for multilateral financial and trade policies, particularly those directed at helping the world’s poor.
6. Move Canadian resources from IFI programs that fail to support the core values outlined in the response to question 1, and transfer them to programs which support core policies and values. |
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