Never Again is Again: Stand Up Against Genocide in Africa

In Sudan, Canada’s efforts are mainly channeled into providing financial support for humanitarian projects in Southern Sudan as well as supporting AMIS as it attempts to bring stability to Darfur.

We can surely be proud that our government has taken Sudan as a priority and has provided them with a total of $300 million to help stabilize the country. It is even admirable that “Canada supports the transition from an African Union mission in Darfur to a United Nations mission consistent with the United Nations Security Council resolution 1706, including a stronger mandate for protection of civilian populations and personnel from the United Nations and other humanitarian aid organizations.” Yet many believe that not enough is being done. Canadian Senator and (retired) Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire – the Force Commander for the UN mission in Rwanda in 1994 – has been incredibly outspoken about the lack of concrete international action on Darfur. In an op-ed in The Globe and Mail on September 14th, 2006 entitled ‘History will judge Canada, not Sudan on the fate of Darfur’ Dallaire claims that the responsibility to intervene in Darfur to stop human rights abuses lies on the Canadian government. He argues that the Security Council has done their job in authorizing force through Resolution 1706 – a legally binding document that does not actually require the consent of the government of Sudan – and that since major powers like Britain and the US are tied-up in Iraq, the “responsibility to protect” (R2P), a Canadian initiated doctrine, lies on the middle powers of the world like Canada, Germany, India, and Japan. He goes on to argue that we have 1,200 soldiers to offer as an initial combat force, but what we don’t have, just like the rest of the world, is political will.

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Big thanks to Dave for putting together this information. The complete backgrounder (with citations) can be found here.

- sara