UN Security Council seat a platform to advance human rights, Trudeau says
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to play down Canada’s bid for a UN Security Council seat, saying Wednesday that winning would not be not an end in itself.
Securing a temporary seat on one of the world’s most influential groups would be an opportunity for Canada to stand up for human rights on the world stage, Trudeau said before departing New York after two days at the annual gathering of General Assembly leaders.
Trudeau cited numerous meetings in New York that were focused on advancing his agenda to level economic playing fields across the globe, including getting more girls to school in developing countries.
But his explanation for why Canada belongs on the powerful UN body struck some as a deliberate attempt to tamp down expectations because of the country’s low foreign aid spending compared to its competitors.
“I think people need to remember that attaining a seat on the Security Council for Canada is not an end in itself, it’s a means to an end,” Trudeau said.
“It’s a means to ensure that Canadian voices are part of the highest level discussions in advancing democracy, and defending the rule of law, and in defending human rights.”
The remark comes shortly after Canada received a negative assessment of its foreign aid spending by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Spending on foreign aid is widely seen as one way to win the necessary two-thirds of support from the 190-plus countries in the United Nations General Assembly to win one of the rotating two-year terms on the council.
Canada is running for one of two seats against Ireland and Norway in 2020 for a term that would begin the following year.
Both countries have higher per capita spending on international development than Canada.
Trudeau rekindled a different kind of rights debate Wednesday when asked whether Burmese reformer Aung San Suu Kyi should be stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship for failing to speak out against the atrocities being committed against the Rohingya of Myanmar.
“That’s one of the questions that certainly Parliament can reflect on,” Trudeau said. “It was Parliament that granted her honorary citizenship, and that’s a conversation that we certainly could have.”
Last week, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion to recognize the crimes against the Rohingya as genocide.