Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird has warned that the UN’s significance is endangered when it fails to act on its founding principles, stating Sri Lanka’s war crimes as one such issue.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Baird said,
“The U.N.’s relevance and effectiveness are imperilled when the Founding Principles are observed in word but not in deed... when objection is taken, on petty, procedural or process-based grounds, to reporting that speaks about credible allegations of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka.”
The Foreign Minister also mentioned Iran’s refusal to allow entry to UN observers for human rights into the country, as another such example.
He went on to say,
“The greatest enemies of the United Nations are not those who publicly repudiate its actions.
The greatest enemies of the United Nations are those who quietly undermine its principles and, even worse, by those who sit idly, watching its slow decline”.
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called for other nations to join him on boycotting the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Sri Lanka.
See our earlier post: 'Canada calls to boycott Sri Lanka CHOGM' (Sep 2011)
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