Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to participate in the debate on this important motion. I want to congratulate the hon. member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca for proposing this motion to the House.
I welcome the general note that he has struck in his comments in speaking to the motion. I might say, as my colleague from the Bloc Quebecois indicated, that it represents somewhat of a shift from the position that appeared to have been taken by the Reform Party last fall. In October the Reform Party tabled a foreign policy document that in fact would take us in many respects back to the dark ages, a document that in fact in many respects was highly critical of the role of the United Nations, a document that was isolationist and profoundly reactionary in many respects.
I am not sure if the new critic—and I congratulate him on his appointment to that position—is now putting some distance between himself and the policies of the Reform Party as enunciated in that earlier document. I can only say that I certainly hope that is the case.
I was somewhat troubled by the comments that the critic made with respect to an important issue last week. That was with respect to the policy of the Government of Canada to join with the European Union and many other countries in voicing our deep concern as Canadians about the profoundly racist and anti-Semitic policies of Joerg Haider in Austria. It is my understanding that the position of that member was that Canada should not have joined with the European Union in expressing our strong condemnation of those policies and, in particular, joining in the diplomatic isolation of Haider. That signal was again an unfortunate one.
The motion before the House today calls on parliament to urge the government to show leadership with respect to identifying the precursors of conflict and establishing conflict prevention initiatives. It speaks of a number of multilateral organizations: the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations. To that I would add the World Trade Organization, a very important organization. More and more we see in these international organizations that they are being driven not by human values or respect for human rights, but by global corporate values, the global pursuit of profit. We saw that in the context of the WTO meetings in Seattle.
I was proud that a broad cross-section of people from around the world stood to vigorously reject that agenda. They said that as part of any fair global trade regime we must put human rights, the rights of working men and women and the environment at the forefront. As long as we cannot, for example, take action on the exploitation of child labour within the WTO there is something terribly misguided, wrong and twisted about those priorities.
I stand here as a New Democrat, as member of a party that has since its founding been committed to strengthening multilateral organizations which work on behalf of the interests of people. Forefront among those is the United Nations. So much of what the UN has done is tremendously important in advancing those global objectives of human and social justice. I think of the work of UNICEF, the World Food Council and many others.
At the same time we have to recognize that the time has come to make significant changes, to reform those organizations. That is why I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. I congratulate the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca for his leadership in bringing this issue before the House of Commons.
We have to look at the structure of the United Nations itself. We must strengthen that body. We must certainly look at the composition of the security council of the United Nations, which does not reflect present global realities, and we must look at how we can more effectively strengthen the general assembly of the United Nations.
However, we have a more fundamental challenge today, and that is how we can restore confidence and respect in the process of the United Nations itself, because too often the countries of the world and, in particular, the most powerful country of the world, the United States, show contempt for those resolutions.
I will give a few examples and share some of the concerns that we New Democrats feel about that.
The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs is, as my colleague for Mercier has said, in the process of addressing the Kosovo situation. The United Nations has passed a very important resolution, resolution 1244, which is aimed at restoring an environment in Kosovo in which there is respect for all the inhabitants of Kosovo, including the Serb minority.
There have already been some very powerful, very significant reports as to how this resolution is not being respected in Kosovo at all. As well, there are insufficient resources to promote human rights, rebuild the country's infrastructures and establish a fair judiciary sytem. The cost of one or two days of bombing would be sufficient now to create a fair and just country.
The United Nations has failed in Kosovo, not only to protect fundamental human rights, particularly the rights of the Serb minority and other minorities, but at the same time to put in place the resources that are necessary to establish respect for that resolution.
We see that in too many other areas. We see it with respect to the resolutions that have been adopted overwhelmingly by the United Nations on Cuba, condemning the United States embargo or blockade of Cuba, and yet the United States shows total contempt for those resolutions. We see it with respect to the Middle East. Recently many of us voiced deep concern about the Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon. It is in total violation of many United Nations resolutions, not the least of which is resolution 425 which calls on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, which would help lead to a peaceful solution in that very troubled part of the world. Once again it is selective enforcement of United Nations resolutions.
I want to recognize as well the concern that many have voiced about the failure of the United Nations to respond to a continent that is undergoing profound agony. I know the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca has spoken to this and indeed has travelled that continent, Africa. Too often the United Nations has turned a blind eye to the terrible tragedy, the grinding poverty, the debt burden and the terrible violations of human rights in Africa. I hope, as part of this debate, that we will have an opportunity to address that issue as well.
The last issue I want to touch on is the question of Iraq. The hon. member talked about United Nations policies on sanctions. I had the privilege of participating in a delegation which travelled last month to Iraq, sponsored by a group from Quebec, Objection de conscience. What we have seen in that country are humanitarian, environmental and social disasters as a result of the implementation of United Nations sanctions. Our government has talked about human security as being the cornerstone of our foreign policy, but how can we speak of human security in Iraq when over 500,000 innocent children have died as a direct result of this cruel and inhumane sanctions policy?
We must recognize that the policy must be changed. Indeed, the last two UN humanitarian co-ordinators for Iraq have resigned. Denis Halliday resigned.
As the co-ordinator put it, “We are destroying an entire society. It is as simple and as terrifying as that”.
We learned last week that the current UN humanitarian co-ordinator, Hans Von Sponeck, is also resigning in despair over the failure of this sanctions policy in Iraq. The head of the World Food Programme has also announced her resignation.
I take this opportunity to plead with the Government of Canada to show leadership and to call for the lifting of these inhumane sanctions on the people of Iraq.
I close by once again welcoming this debate. In the remaining hours of the debate I look forward to continuing to discuss how we can strengthen and reform the United Nations.
