UN Watch in the News
Steven Edwards
Canwest News Service
December 3, 2008
UNITED NATIONS – Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon goes before a leading Jewish umbrella group in New York on Thursday to pick up an award acclaiming Canada’s support for Israel, just as analysis shows the Conservative government has interrupted annual increases in its backing of Israeli positions at the United Nations.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is giving Prime Minster Stephen Harper and the wider Canadian government its first International Leadership Award, and Cannon will attend a dinner to receive it on behalf of the government.
“We are giving (it) to express appreciation for their courageous stands on the Durban conference, on their support for Israel and their efforts at the UN against incitement and . . . the delegitimization (of Israel), where they have taken a role in the forefront,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the conference.
Canada under Harper’s leadership was the first country to pull out of the UN’s so-called Durban II “anti-racism” conference, which is billed as a review of the 2001 gathering in the South African city that critics say turned into a racist and anti-Semitic debacle.
But this year marks the first since Harper became prime minister that Canada has not incrementally shifted its voting in the UN General Assembly towards Israeli positions on a raft of recurring Middle East-related resolutions.
Islamic and a number of developing countries have long used what’s called their “automatic majority” to push through the texts, which critics say are unfairly weighted against Israel on issues ranging from nuclear proliferation in the Middle East to the plight of Palestinians.
In his address at the award presentation, Cannon is not expected to refer to the resolutions as he stresses Canada’s commitment to Israel’s survival as a state.
“When it comes to the Middle East, and Israel’s right to exist, there is no ambiguity or hesitancy in Canada’s position,” he is expected to say.
“As Prime Minister Harper reminds all of us in his cabinet – ‘Our position is clear: it is fair and principled.'”
Jewish community activists say they are optimistic the annual incremental transfer of support is not ended.
“We would have liked to have seen more (this year), but we have every faith that the shift will continue,” said Karen Lazar, spokeswoman for B’nai Brith Canada, one of the groups that track UN voting patterns closely.
In a related development, the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch has listed Canada top among the 47 member states of the UN Human Rights Council in voting to promote human rights.
“But the bad news is that the Human Rights Council as a whole is in a state of crisis,” says a statement accompanying the report, which the group presented to the Canadian parliament.
“The council is dominated today by an alliance of repressive regimes, including China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia, that has acted systematically to undermine and erode core (human rights) principles and effective mechanisms.”
”Copyright 2008, CanWest News Service
Original URL: http://www.canada.com:80/topics/news/world/story.html?id=1027946
