UN pays tribute to Mandela

FOLLOW MANDELA’S LEAD, TRUDEAU URGES UN

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined a chorus of tributes to the late Nelson Mandela on Monday as he urged world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly to follow the example of the man known as Madiba and champion democracy, human rights and the rule of law around the world.

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, the legacy of Mandela was front and centre throughout the assembly’s opening day, whether at the unveiling of a statue in his grinning likeness or during a peace summit in his name, where a parade of leaders and dignitaries defended the values he came to represent.

Some, like his widow, Graca Machel, urged heads of state and UN officials to take on “ego-driven” decision-makers, political dogma and greed. Others, like Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, made decidedly unsubtle references to U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Great statesmen,” Rouhani said, “tend to build bridges instead of walls.”

Trudeau’s brief remarks — the speech clocked in at only three minutes — were unflinchingly diplomatic, even as they hinted at the global perils chipping away at the post-war global world order, of which the UN’s monolithic building at the edge of the East River remains a towering symbol.

“That is not to say that our solidarity is unquestioned and unshaken,” Trudeau said.

While global threats like climate change, armed conflict and other “emerging threats” continue to test the world’s commitment to Mandela’s values, he said, the man himself would only see such challenges as evidence of work still to be done.

“All have tested the strength of our commitment and the bounds of our compassion,” he said. “At times like these, we must remember the example of Nelson Mandela, who believed that we should not despair, for our troubles only bear witness to a job unfinished.”

Imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years, Mandela became the international face of the struggle to end the country’s apartheid system of white minority rule over the majority black population.

Four years after he walked out of jail, he became the country’s first black president in its first multi-racial elections. Over the ensuing decades, he became a Nobel peace laureate and global statesman.

Trudeau also used the occasion of Monday’s summit to reaffirm his federal Liberal government’s dedication to issues like ethnic rights, gender equality and the treatment of Indigenous Peoples.