Responsibility to Protect
There we go again. Another crisis facing the United Nations Security Council, and yet again they remain frozen in a posture of incapability. They have long since risen to the level of their combined ineptitude. Now a senior officer with Burma's government-in-exile has called upon the Security Council to spring into action under that high-minded principle introduced by Canada, named "responsibility to protect".This same Burmese exile is appealing directly to the government of Canada for its help in organizing an inter-governmental lobby to scream, shout and hand-wring (diplomatically, needless to say) for the Security Council to remember its endorsation of that principle which calls for international intervention when civilians require protection which their own government cannot or will not provide.
There are some in the international community that look to what is beginning to occur now in Burma as having a special resonance, a reminder of Rwanda and Darfur. Where loss of life was and remains catastrophic and uninterrupted by the international community which simply sat looking from the outside in with true dismay but futile inaction.
A debate certainly is taking place within the sacred precincts of the United Nations. As debates tend to do, there is a certain amount of consensus toward action. Held back, invariably, by a powerful bloc that continues to caution for patience. Inevitably, those who hold back, who advise against intervention and hold for a waiting attitude are those same countries whose own human rights record leaves much to be desired.
U.S. and European determination to condemn Burma's military dictatorship for its violent response to public demonstrations has been forestalled by China and Russia. Those same good-hearted and patient countries whose opposition to international censure and intervention in pariah-countries like Iran, North Korea, Sudan and now Burma have a weary ring of hopelessness to world order and human rights guarantees.
Canadians, however, should take heart: our new minister of foreign affairs stands staunchly at the podium to declare that this country demands an end, instanter, to the Burmese junta's attacks. "Burma", he intones righteously "has an obligation to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its people, including the freedom of association and of expression, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
That, and $3.50 will get you a coffee at Tim Horton's.
(Not all is lost, however; Canada has imposed trade restrictions with Burma - kind of. Canadian exporters can get around that troublesome little nuisance by applying for special permission.)
Labels: Justice, Political Realities, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, September 27, 2007
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