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Human Rights in Foreign Policy

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Universal
United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights

| Copyright Dominique Clément / Clément Consulting

1.
Human
2. rights, as many historians have argued, “played virtually no role as a protest language in the
decades
3. after the Second World War.” Not until the 1970s did human rights become an integral
component
4. of international politics. Amnesty International symbolized this new era. Membership in AI
expanded dramatically, from 20,000 in 1969 to 570,000 in 1983. Also, the organization shed its earlier
focus on prisoners of conscience to become a truly human rights association addressing a range of
violations.

Among the most visible human rights campaigns were those in Eastern Europe and South America. One
:
of AI’s first and most successful campaigns was against Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship in Chile
(1973– 89). After overthrowing Salvador Allende, the military junta imposed a state of terror that
included eliminating political opponents, engaging in torture and indiscriminate killings, banning political
parties and trade unions, and censoring the media. Chile, much like Argentina, adopted a practice of
“disappearances”: the intelligence services would kidnap people, deny that they were incarcerated, and
dispose of the victim’s bodies (sometimes by throwing them out of planes into the ocean) to conceal the
evidence. One of the more gruesome practices of the Argentinian regime involved imprisoning pregnant
women until they gave birth; then, after killing the mother and disposing of her body, the state would give
the baby to a couple seeking adoption. The prison guards were, in essence, feeding a pregnant woman to
keep her alive until they could harvest her offspring. Although AI and its network of transnational human
rights organizations failed to undermine the regime in Chile, it did much to foster international
condemnation of it. Later, in the 1980s, AI would play a critical role in undermining Argentina’s junta.

There had been international human rights movements before this— most notably, the antislavery and
suffragette movements. But the 1970s saw the birth of a truly transnational human rights movement. By
gathering information and leveraging countries against one another, newly emerging transnational
networks brought pressure to bear against apartheid in South Africa, disappearances in Chile and
Argentina, Indonesia’s oppression of the East Timorese, and the suppression of political dissent in the
Soviet Union and the Philippines. By drawing attention to horrific narratives of torture, killings, and
imprisonments, AI and various transnational advocacy networks inaugurated a new era of global human
rights politics.

It was also during this period that the modern international human rights regime was born. Many of
today’s “core” human rights treaties came into force during this period: the International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racism (1969); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(1976); the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (1976); the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1981); and the Convention Against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1987). Ratification of these
treaties had increased exponentially by the 1980s. In 1948, most states had questioned the legitimacy of
the UDHR; by the 1980s, it had become almost compulsory for any liberal state to ratify a human rights
treaty.

It was almost inevitable, given such developments, that Canadian foreign policy would begin to
incorporate human rights. In 1975, the federal government established a Federal/Provincial/Territorial
Continuing Committee of Officials on Human Rights to consult over international treaties. After securing
provincial consent, Canada in 1976 acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
as well as the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights. Canada later supported
declarations or conventions relating to racism, children, and women’s rights. This meant that officials had
to prepare speeches for ministers commemorating anniversaries or special human rights initiatives, and
officials from the Department of External Affairs had to meet with human rights SMOs regularly to
prepare for UN Commission on Human Rights meetings. Canada demonstrated its commitment to
promoting human rights abroad through interventions in sessions of the Commission on Human Rights
and similar international forums. Canadians also played a key role in drafting the Declaration on the
Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religious Belief (1981). These
:
initiatives indicated a profound shift in foreign policy, which in the past had rejected human rights as a
legitimate component of international politics.

Canada participated in the negotiations that led to the Helsinki Accords in 1975 with the Soviet Union.
Among other things, those accords committed each country to a set of human rights principles. These
international commitments provided a unique opportunity for parliamentarians to involve themselves in
foreign affairs. Before this, MPs had responded to human rights violations in Eastern Europe with vague
calls for self-determination or minority rights. Now, MPs were able to draw on the language contained in
the Helsinki Accords to introduce resolutions in Parliament dealing with family reunification, free
movement of people, religious freedom, and other equally precise reforms that demonstrated an evolving
understanding of the issues. MPs also participated in increasing numbers in international human rights
conferences as part of Canadian delegations to the UN and as members of various monitoring groups
abroad. Over time, many MPs gained valuable experience and expertise on human rights issues, and they
brought this knowledge to Parliament, where they continued to pressure the federal government to
integrate human rights into foreign policy. A private member’s bill was introduced in 1978 to prohibit
foreign aid to countries with poor human rights records. Although the federal government immediately
rejected the idea, the bill remained on Parliament’s agenda, where it drew attention to the human rights
component of Canadian foreign policy. As a result, the government was forced to defend and elaborate its
aid policies in public.

There were also many instances when international developments had an impact on domestic policy.
Among other things, policy-makers could appeal to international human rights law when implementing
controversial domestic legislation. The International Year for Human Rights, besides facilitating the
emergence of numerous human rights organizations, was the impetus for human rights legislation in
British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland. Political leaders often cited international
human rights treaties when justifying the introduction of human rights laws, including the federal Bill of
Rights (1960), the Ontario Human Rights Code (1962), the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and
Freedoms (1975), and the Yukon Human Rights Act (1987). British Columbia would use the
International Year of the Disabled as an incentive to ban discrimination on the basis of physical and
mental disability. And most of the provinces introduced legislative reforms in response to Canada’s
acceding to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Continue Reading the Human Rights in Foreign Policy

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History

Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Gouzenko Affair
Human Rights Activism
Human Rights in Foreign Policy
:
 Human Rights Law
October Crisis

Citing Website

Any use of material or referencing content from HistoryOfRights.ca should be acknowledged

by the User and cited as follows:

Clément, Dominique. “page title or document title.” Canada’s Human Rights History.
www.HistoryOfRights.ca (date accessed).

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