Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka next month shows that he won’t hesitate to criticize international organizations – or the human rights records of countries that are members.
Harper opposes the 2011 decision by state leaders in the 54-member Commonwealth to award the meeting to Sri Lanka this year. Sri Lanka has been accused of failing to properly investigate allegations of war crimes committed by government forces in the closing days of the country’s decades-long civil conflict.
But Harper seems to have far less trouble engaging with other nations whose human rights records are far from perfect – but who are nevertheless willing to provide Canada with access to their growing markets.
Harper is right in saying these issues should be of major concern to the international community.
But if he was truly interested in the promotion of universal human rights, he would be more consistent in deciding which countries he chooses to denounce.
The Conservative government’s 2008 free-trade agreement with Colombia comes to mind. Tensions between the Colombian government and paramilitary groups have eased recently, but according to the 2013 Human Rights Watch World Report, a “chronic lack of accountability for human rights abuses continued to be a serious problem” in the country.
Harper was also once critical of China’s dubious human rights record, but he’s recently taken a more conciliatory approach to the country as the government looks for access to Asian economies.
Governor General David Johnston headed for China shortly after delivering the Throne Speech to promote Chinese investment in Canada, following (or overlapping with) visits from a number of Harper’s senior cabinet ministers including Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and Trade Minister Ed Fast.
But the worst part of Harper’s Sri Lankan snub is that the Commonwealth has been a positive agent for change in the past when it comes to enforcing universal human rights standards.
South Africa’s membership in the Commonwealth was suspended in 1961 after resistance to apartheid from a number of member countries, including Canada. It took the presidential election of Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela for the country to be reinstated 33 years later.
Although Harper claimed in a recent statement that Canada will continue to work with its “partners” and the United Nations to draw attention to the situation in Sri Lanka, his decision to boycott the Commonwealth meeting avoids a prime opportunity to do just that.
Likely to be the only state leader not attending, he’ll be on the sidelines as individuals holding enormous influence over the lives of more than a billion people gather to discuss collective policies and initiatives. Harper will instead send the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the meeting in his place.
This is a problem given Canada’s historically strong position within the Commonwealth. As Canada also provides a quarter of the organization’s budget, Harper’s claim that the government will “examine our engagement and our financing with the Commonwealth” may be an indication of funding cuts to come.
Harper’s decision to boycott the meeting will only reduce Canada’s diminishing clout on the world stage, while doing nothing to address human rights abuses he claims he is so concerned with.