YouSaid · the spoken record

Stephen Harper

lines on the record: 45
first: 2006-09-24
most recent: 2014-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Therefore, I am enough of an optimist to think that because we can create a more prosperous, fairer and hopeful world, not only should we, but indeed, I believe we will find the will to do so.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The world that Canada strives for is the world that the founders of the United Nations wanted from the beginning, as boldly articulated in their Declaration of 1 January 1942 — a world where “life, liberty, independence and religious freedom” are defended, where “human rights and justice” are preserved, and where all join “in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world”. In such a world, there can be prosperity for the impoverished, justice for the weak and, for the desperate, that most precious of all things, hope. It is easy to look at the many problems of the world today and become despondent. Yet for all our failings, there has been, for most of humankind, tremendous progress in my lifetime.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We have it in our power to create a better kind of world for our children’s children than the one we have today. And we should, for it was never the intention of the founders of the United Nations — Canada being one of them — that ours would be a world where terrorists could get the resources necessary to sow death and destruction but where workers and families could not get jobs and opportunities, or where mothers and children could not obtain the necessities required to live and thrive.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“That Facility will help developing countries access the financing required to improve their health systems. I was pleased to announce that Canada would financially support the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility for Every Woman Every Child. (spoke in French) We urge other countries to do likewise because to provide viable solutions to prevent the tragic death of women and children, we need to increase budget allocations on the part of both donors and the developing countries. (spoke in English) In closing, let me just say this. There are many individual countries and many specific causes that will rightly occupy our deliberations here this week. Let us also not forget to look beyond those crises at the long- term opportunities and efforts that can truly transform the world.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“To get it done, two things are needed now: political focus and renewed financial commitment. I therefore urge the Assembly, in the strongest terms, to ensure that, maternal, newborn and child health remains a clear and top priority in the evolving post-2015 development agenda — and one of a limited number of priorities. That is the political focus we need. Then there is the financial commitment. I know we all have many competing priorities. But we have come so far that to stop now would be a tragedy. I must say I was very encouraged this afternoon at the Secretary-General’s “Every woman, every child” event, when President Kim of the World Bank and other leaders announced new financing for the Bank’s Global Financing Facility for Every Woman Every Child.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We heard about the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and how during the three-year period between 2010 and 2013, immunizations saved the lives of 2 million children. We have partnerships to deliver better nutrition and partnerships to deliver better measurement, because vital statistics are critical. One cannot manage what one cannot measure. And in that mission, we measure progress in precious lives saved. So every child needs a birth certificate. (spoke in French) We also heard that in the world today is a greater obligation with regard to accountability, not only with regard to the vast sums of money pledged, but also the way in which that money is spent. (spoke in English) So our consensus was clear. We have seen success, and we have momentum. Saving the lives of children and mothers is a fight we can win.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We also know who we need to be working with — new partnerships that bring together Governments and agencies of the United Nations, including the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and UNICEF, with the private sector, partnerships that are producing real results and taking us to new heights of excellence. Here I am thinking of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Network in Canada, a group that represents a broad base of Canadian civil society and is a key implementing partner on the ground. As many representatives know, in May in Toronto, Canada hosted the world’s leading actors on that subject. We heard the success stories — for example, the Micronutrient Initiative through which 180 million children received vitamin A, pills that cost pennies but drop child mortality by 25 per cent.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“With His Excellency President Kikwete of Tanzania, whom we have just heard, it was my honour to co-chair the World Health Organization’s Information and Accountability Commission linked to that initiative. On this, we have a clear vision, and that vision is achievable. We know how to help a great many of those vulnerable people. We have seen what can be done. We want simply to rally the passion and the will to make it happen. We are preventing deaths, and we can prevent more — deaths of thousands of children every day from easily preventable causes. We can stop the thousands of mothers dying in childbirth who would survive with relatively little intervention.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Thanks to simple, low-cost, easily accessible techniques, literally millions of mothers and children who a mere 14 years ago might have died not only survive today, but thrive. (spoke in English) I think especially of the 2010 meeting of world leaders at Muskoka, which raised about $7.5 billion dollars, $2 billion of it from private donors. Based on that, the United Nations launched what the Secretary- General called the “Every woman, every child” initiative, with the goal of saving 16 million lives by 2016. An important aspect of that work has been monitoring both the receipt of monies pledged and how they are used. The assurance of full accountability has allowed recipients to plan with greater certainty and donors to give with confidence.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Easily the most important example, and the one closest to my heart, is the worldwide struggle upon which so many of you have been engaged, in the maternal, newborn and child health initiative. Saving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable mothers, infants and children must remain a top global priority. That is, the world must honour the commitments made in this very Hall to mothers and children in the year 2000. And there has been remarkable progress. (spoke in French) Thanks to inexpensive vaccines and the combined efforts of multiple partners, more children are being vaccinated today than ever before. And as the importance of nutrition becomes better understood, more and more children are surviving.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Canada has now established such links with countries that today possess more than a quarter of the world’s people and nearly half the world’s business. And our free-trade network will grow larger yet. It is not, by the way, an exclusive club for wealthy nations. (spoke in French) Canada has already liberalized its trade with countries better known for their determination to succeed than for the size of their economies, thereby opening the way for them to access Canadian and other markets. We have no reason to stop now. As indicated by my colleague from Senegal, President Macky Sall, “Aid is needed for development, but what is needed even more is investment”. He is quite right. (spoke in English) Yet no matter how freely we trade, millions of people will need a helping hand for some time to come.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“For that reason, the growth of trade among nations and the delivery of effective development assistance to ordinary people — simple, practical aid — are the things that have become the signatures of our Government’s outreach in the world. Trade means jobs, growth and opportunities. It has made great nations out of small ones. The story of my own country, Canada, is a case in point. Historically, trade has built our country, just as today it is reshaping our world. Trade means ordinary people can support their families and even dare to dream of something much more. (spoke in French) Our Government has worked hard to establish a vast network of modern trade agreements. (spoke in English) The trade agreements we have concluded tear down the barriers of tariff and excise and enlarge markets and opportunities for buyers and sellers alike.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“(spoke in French) And we feel strongly that no effort is ever in vain if it offers peoples an alternative to conflict and the possibility of a better life for them and their families. (spoke in English) Canadians therefore seek a world where freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law are respected. We hold those things to be intrinsically right and good. We also believe that they are the necessary foundation for a better world for more people and are necessary for prosperity. With prosperity comes hope, and with hope, the greater inclination of free peoples everywhere to find peaceful solutions to the things that divide them. Indeed, we believe that freedom, prosperity and peace form a virtuous circle.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“That is why Canada has always been ready and willing to join with other civilized peoples and to challenge affronts to the international order, affronts to human dignity itself, such as those that are today present in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, in the Middle East — Iraq, Syria and elsewhere — and of course many parts of Africa. Canada’s positions on those issues are well known, and we will continue to contribute to the extent to which we are able in assisting our friends and allies in the international community to deal with those grave challenges. But while those extreme situations are being confronted, other problems — pandemics, climate change and, of course, the problems of underdevelopment — remain.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Where human misery abounds, where grinding poverty is the rule, where justice is systematically denied, there is no real peace — only the seeds of future conflict. (spoke in French) Of course, misery and injustice are not the only roots of war. We need only look at the world today to appreciate that. (spoke in English) Then we understand how the worst of human nature — perverse ideologies, religious extremism and the lust for power and plunder — can rob people in so many places of property, hope and life itself.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“It is both an honour and a pleasure for me to once again address the Assembly. (spoke in English) For more than 70 years, Canada has supported the United Nations and its institutions in the pursuit of world peace. On many occasions Canadians have put their lives on the line to deter active conflict between peoples. It is a duty we accept and it is a record of which we are proud. Today, there are many embattled parts of the world where the suffering of the local populations and the threats to global security deserve our urgent attention, and I could easily use my entire time here on any one of them. There are, however, other areas of service to humankind. It is to some of those that I wish to speak tonight, for there is more to peace than the absence of war.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We will listen to their concerns, we will speak the truth, and we will act with vigour. We will do all these things ever mindful that peace and opportunity for all remain, always, our ultimate purpose. I know it has been a long meeting this morning, and I thank members for their attention.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“But we should never forget that appeasement and expediency also allowed fascism to gather such strength that it required the whole and undivided effort of the world’s free peoples to subdue it. The United Nations mission has grown over time, but its core job remains the same: through peace and development, to build a better world, to prevent war and conflict, yet at the same time, to uphold what is right and to protect the weak and the poor from those who prey upon them. The Government of Canada has always been deeply committed to these objectives and to the Organization that nurtures them. It remains so today. As we attend to our own affairs, in, for example, the protection of Canada’s Arctic or the promotion of our trade or the pursuit of our values, Canada will be guided by the same advice we prescribe for others.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In international affairs, it is good for development and for justice, and it is in the spirit of the United Nations Charter. It is therefore of the highest importance, in a passionate world of competing interests and principles, where every person left to himself does what is right in his own sight. In such a world, the need for an enlightened, expansive view of sovereignty is as great now as it ever was. At the outset of these remarks, I referred to the origins of the United Nations. It was founded at the end of the greatest and most destructive war that had ever disturbed the ocean of humanity. That war was certainly attributable in part to an extreme and pernicious nationalism.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We have been forcefully reminded that, in this shrinking world, we all travel together in a single boat, not as solo voyagers, and that how we travel together matters. This is because our interests are all interconnected: from climate change to health and pandemic threats and to, of course, the economy. For example, nations that do not consider the effects of their economic choices on others may hurt not only their trading partners, but themselves as well. Those who succumb to the lure of protectionism soon find that trading partners denied a market also lack the means to be a customer. To recognize that is to understand the need for enlightened sovereignty, the idea that what is good for others may well be the best way to pursue one’s own interests. In business, it is called win-win, and it is good for business.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Our words must be translated into action and we must make a real difference to those who need our help. And to that end, as many of you also know, Canadian taxpayers have forgiven debts 10-54827 46 totalling $1 billion owed by the world’s poorest countries. However, let us not limit our horizons by looking just at the least we can do. Much higher goals are within our capacity if we will but reach for them. In the short time that I have here today, there is one thought above all others that I wish to share. It is the pressing need in the twenty-first century for all the States of the world to adopt an enlightened view of sovereignty. As I said earlier, respect for sovereignty is a fundamental principle of the United Nations. However, the global recession of the past two years has taught us, we hope, a painful lesson.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Likewise, we announced here two day ago that Canadian taxpayers would make an enhanced replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We did these things for one simple reason: to alleviate the suffering and, indeed, save the lives of people all over the world who are among the millions afflicted with these grave and debilitating diseases. Actions such as these are a moral imperative. It is essential that we strive to make a significant, actual difference in the lives of the world’s most disadvantaged people. Who, seeing his neighbour distressed, will pass by on the other side of the road? That is why we have also used our chairmanship of the G-8 to further the essential ethic of accountability. We published the first accountability report to ensure that, as donor countries, we fulfil the pledges that we make.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In preparation for the G-20, we conducted wide-ranging outreach sessions, including with the Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth, la Francophonie and, of course, this Organization. We used our chairmanship of the G-8 to reach out to leaders from Africa and the Americas and to secure an agreement to enact the Muskoka Initiative for maternal, newborn and child health. Such progress is literally vital in meeting the most achievable of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals — to reduce the appalling mortality among mothers and children in developing countries. We are mobilizing support from donor nations and private foundations. Together, we should be able to mobilize more than $10 billion over five years. This will contribute in a major way to the Secretary- General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Most recently, Pakistan has faced devastating floods, and Canada has again responded swiftly. All these actions are born from Canadian ideals. So allow me to say one thing. This Assembly should know that Canada is eligible to serve on the Security Council. And if we are elected, we will be ready to serve. And if called upon to serve on the Security Council, we shall be informed by these ideals and strive to further them, just as we have striven to implement Security Council resolutions. I should also mention Canada’s role this year as Chair of the G-8 and host of the most recent meeting of the G-20. We have tried to ensure that these gatherings serve the broader interests of the entire global community.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In particular, we have made a significant contribution to peace and security in Africa, including to peace initiatives, humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in the Sudan, since taking office in January 2006. We have also provided leadership in peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. Canada welcomes the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. We sincerely hope that the discussions will be successful, and we will continue to assist the Palestinian Authority in building its institutions. As members know, we have also engaged very extensively in Haiti, both before and since the terrible earthquake earlier this year. Canada was among the first nations to provide tangible relief in various forms, and it has made a long-term commitment to assist the people of Haiti in rebuilding their severely damaged country.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We pledge to 45 10-54827 double our aid to Africa,thereby making Canada a leader in the Group of Eight (G-8). And we are on track to double our overall development assistance by March of next year. Furthermore, we have untied food aid, and all Canadian aid will be untied by 2013. Such measures significantly extend the purchasing power of Canadian aid funds. Canada was also among the first last year at the G-8 Summit at L’Aquila to double support for agricultural development. During the economic crisis as well, we acted, in concert with our Group of Twenty (G-20) partners, to increase the lending capacity of development organizations like the Inter-American Development Bank and the African Development Bank.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“We pay it with the resources of Canadian taxpayers, but more profoundly in sorrow for the priceless lives of our young men and women who serve there in the Canadian forces, as well as, sadly, civilians who have also given their sweat and their lives in the service of both our country and the people of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, our military efforts have gone hand in hand with our reconstruction and development programmes. In particular, Canada supports those such as the Dahla Dam, which will have enduring economic benefit. We have also invested heavily in other programmes which will improve the lives of that country’s most vulnerable citizens, and we will continue to do so. Our international engagement is by no means restricted to Afghanistan. In fact, elsewhere in the world, we have also expanded our efforts.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“As a founding member of the United Nations and the seventh-largest contributor to its finances, Canada has been a consistently reliable and responsible participant in United Nations initiatives around the world. This was so in the earliest days of the United Nations. It was so during the difficult days of the cold war, decolonization and the struggle against apartheid, and it remains so today. Canada continues to pay, for instance, a heavy price to fulfil our United Nations obligation to support the lawful Government of Afghanistan.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Those ideals, as well as an acute awareness of the broad concerns of the international community, especially those of the developing countries, continue to animate the Government of Canada, the Government that I lead today. Those ideals have the enthusiastic support of the Canadian people, and I do not foresee any day or motivation that would lead us to cease in our endeavours in this regard. The question, as always, is how this is to be done. Our preference is to take meaningful action, action that produces real results, action that helps people in their struggle with oppression, disaster and poverty. Let me just run through some of those actions.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“Those foundational beliefs recognize the sovereign equality of countries. They remind us of the obligation to settle disputes peacefully, and they demand we seek justice and uphold the human rights of all people. Those are values that Canadians hold dear, and, as the universal membership of this body implies, so do peoples the world over. That widespread consensus continues to convince the idealist in all of us that so much more is possible in this world of ours. At the same time, it makes the gap between aspiration and achievement so disappointing. It calls us onward to do more, as successive Canadian Governments have worked diligently to do for almost a lifetime.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“It has now been more than 65 years since the nations of the world, exhausted, and in some cases devastated, by years of war, established the United Nations. Canada was one of those nations — one of the many, in fact, whose fresh experience of conflict had persuaded their peoples that the possibility of a better world, one in which nations resolved their differences peacefully, was an objective worthy of their every effort. Today, the Canadian people continue to believe in that purpose and will continue to strive to live by the principles that would make it possible. Such principles are enshrined in the Charter of this Organization; that same United Nations Charter endorsed with happiness and hope by a former Canadian Government on that auspicious June day in San Francisco in 1945.”
2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)
“In this endeavour, as with the others I have outlined, Canada will be there with the Organization at every step along the way.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“When these goals have been achieved, Canada has always been with the Organization — through the war against fascism, the cold war, dozens of United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping missions, and more recent multinational military engagements in the Balkans and the Persian Gulf. Today Afghanistan leads the list of challenges that we face collectively — peacebuilding in a nation where there is not yet peace, where progress requires a wide range of capabilities undertaken by a wide array of our Member States. My earnest hope is that we will say with pride to future generations of leaders: We, the United Nations, took up that responsibility in Afghanistan, rose to the challenge and met it firmly, collectively, successfully.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“(spoke in French) I have just described the tests by which this Organization will be judged. Canada wants this to be a positive judgment. We were there when the United Nations was founded. Like the other countries, we were motivated by a pressing need to establish a new international consensus in a world devastated by war. And, like the others, we were motivated by our own pragmatic interests and noble aspirations for all of humanity. More than 60 years later the formula remains the same. (spoke in English) The challenge has always been the same: to bring nations together to build a better world by forging consensus on common purposes and by finding the political will to translate these into action.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“(spoke in French) Earlier this year Canada’s new Government was given a mandate to make our national Government more accountable and more responsible, to ensure that taxpayers get full value for their money and to pursue a clear, focused agenda that produces tangible results. The United Nations should accept nothing less. (spoke in English) This Organization must become more accountable and more effective. Management reform must continue, and at an accelerated pace. The taxpayers of Member nations, Canadians among them, make significant financial contributions to this Organization. They have the right to expect stronger, 23 06-52988 more independent oversight mechanisms, more robust accountability for how funds are spent, and human resources practices that are based on merit.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Nuclear proliferation threatens us all. Are we prepared to ensure that Security Council decisions will be implemented fully? Will we act to halt activities that have no reasonable purpose other than the acquisition of nuclear weapons? These are some of the tests the whole world must face. And there are other challenges internal to this Organization. Will the new Human Rights Council become a forum where human rights are genuinely put above political maneuvering? Or will it emulate the fate of its failed predecessor organization? I must say that the early signals suggest that too little has changed and that the page has not yet been turned. And what will be done to make progress on United Nations management reform?”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“However, we must act together to ensure that our multinational force paves the way for stability and progress, and empowers the Government of Haiti to help its citizens, the poorest in the western hemisphere. (spoke in English) Darfur, too, is a significant challenge, as multinational security efforts are transferred from the African Union to the United Nations. It is also a test of the principle that this body endorsed last year — the responsibility to protect. The United Nations has authorized a mission there, with a robust mandate. But will the Government of Sudan accept it? In the Middle East, Canada has joined the international community in the reconstruction of Lebanon. But will the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ensure security on Israel’s northern border and lead to progress in the Middle East peace process?”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“But lack of common purpose and will in this body would. After all, if we fail the Afghan people, we will be failing ourselves. For this is the United Nations strongest Mission and therefore our greatest test. Our collective will and credibility are being judged. We cannot afford to fail. We will succeed. (spoke in French) The United Nations is also facing other challenges — in Haiti, for example. Canada has played an important role there, dispatching troops, police and development officers to support United Nations activities aimed at restoring stability and establishing democracy. And we are offering the country $100 million in economic development assistance.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“(spoke in French) Let us recall that the democratically elected Government of Afghanistan, led by President Karzai, requested the assistance of the United Nations and its Member States in the struggle against terror, intimidation, violence and oppression. (spoke in English) We have responded. But we have not made Afghanistan’s progress irreversible — not yet. Canadian defence personnel, diplomats and development officers are on the front lines of the fight for the future of Afghanistan. Canadians feel tremendous pride in the leadership role they have assumed, and we share equal grief for the casualties they have taken. We are therefore acutely aware that the United Nations job in Afghanistan is not yet done. We have no illusions about the difficulties that still lie before us. Difficulties do not daunt us.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“(spoke in English) These two actions — rebuilding a shattered society and providing a stable security environment — go hand in glove. And we are making progress — of that there is no doubt: 5 million refugees repatriated; over 5 million children enrolled in primary schools; 06-52988 22 10 million Afghans registered to vote in successive democratic elections. More than one quarter of the seats in Afghanistan’s legislature are now held by women — remarkable in a nation where a few short years ago girls could not attend school and women had no human rights of any kind. The success of this Mission, in providing both security and development, is vital to the safety, livelihood and very future of the Afghan people, but it is also vital to the health and future of this Organization.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In Afghanistan the United Nations mission is Canada’s mission. (spoke in English) Let us be realistic. The challenges facing Afghanistan are enormous. There will be no quick fixes. Moreover, success cannot be assured by military means alone. This we all recognize. For success also requires a strong and unwavering civilian contribution: educators, engineers, elections advisers, direct and technical aid. The list is lengthy, but the contributions are essential. That is why Canada is engaged in work like the rebuilding of girls’ schools, ripped down and destroyed by the Taliban in their frenzy of hate. (spoke in French) That is why last spring we increased our development assistance, raising Canada’s total contribution to nearly $1 billion over 10 years, to assist the people of Afghanistan.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“No fewer than 19 United Nations agencies are in Afghanistan. They are working tirelessly to help the Afghan people and their national Government shake off the perpetrators of terrorism and build a democratic and secure society. At the same time, approximately 20,000 troops from 37 countries — roughly 2,500 Canadians included — are contributing to military efforts to help stabilize Afghanistan and eliminate the remnants of the Taliban regime. And we want to do that once and for all. (spoke in French) All our actions in Afghanistan — civilian and military — are being taken in accordance with the mandate of the Security Council. In short, we all stand together with the democratically elected Government of Afghanistan under the banner of the Organization that represents our collective will.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Terrorism, he said: “is a direct attack on the core values the United Nations stands for: the rule of law; the protection of civilians; mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures; and peaceful resolution of conflicts.” (spoke in English) That is why we in the United Nations have the responsibility to defeat terrorism. That is why, with unity and determination, the United Nations undertook its responsibility and its role in Afghanistan. And that is why Canada, which lost 24 of its own citizens on 9/11, answered the call. And there we are. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan is the United Nations single largest political mission. It is also, by far, Canada’s biggest and most important overseas mission. So the United Nations mission is Canada’s mission.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“So let me turn to one particular and key area where global interests and higher purpose come directly together: the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The United Nations recognized shortly after the attacks of 11 September 2001 that the Taliban regime, by its promotion of terrorism, was a threat to international peace and security. (spoke in French) Kofi Annan, our Secretary-General, whom we thank for his 10 years of loyal service, summed up in a few words the reason why we must combat terrorism.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“It is a great honour for me, as Prime Minister of Canada, to 21 06-52988 speak to the Assembly today about the important issues confronting us as Members of the United Nations. (spoke in English) The United Nations was born from a combination of the essential needs of nations for stability and security and the higher ideals to which we should all aspire — freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. (spoke in French) Our responsibilities in this Organization are as varied as they are important, and I cannot mention them all, nor do each the justice they deserve. (spoke in English) Nor can Canada be effective by diffusing our efforts across all of these matters. We must focus our considerable, but limited, resources where we can make a real difference.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)