Mr. Speaker, Canada has a long tradition of active involvement within the UN field of human rights. This tradition started with the late John Humphrey, one of the architects of the international bill of rights and the first director of the UN human rights division.
Canada continues to play a prominent role in promoting universal human rights and in strengthening international human rights mechanisms.
Since the establishment of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 1993, Canada has sought to integrate the activities of the high commissioner and other human rights institutions into the UN's political, security and developmental activities and into the early warning and preventive work of the organization. This is an indication of Canada's overall emphasis on addressing root causes of instability which is consistent with the vision UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali outlined in his "Agenda for Peace".
As we welcome the UN Secretary-General to our nation's capital, let us reaffirm Canada's commitment to promote human rights in the community of nations and to strengthen the United Nations.