United Nations Security Council : Open Debate

Maintenance of international peace and security: Upholding the UN Charter

January 9, 2020

Mr. President, thank you for dedicating this first Open debate of the decade to marking the history of the UN Charter. If you will permit me, I would like to share the story of my grandmother, whose life coincided with that of the Charter.

My grandmother was a remarkable woman: strong, assertive, determined and unflappable. She belonged to the extraordinary generation of men, women and children born between the first and second world wars, many of whom did not survive to see the Charter come into being.

My grandmother was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1921, the 7th of 8 children. Her parents named her Bru’cha, or prayer, in Hebrew.

She was 18 years old when the Second World War broke out and Poland partitioned. With the help of an older brother, she managed to make it to the somewhat safer, Soviet Union.

Authorities there tried to compel her to take on Soviet citizenship. Steel-willed from birth, she refused, was arrested and sent to a forced labour camp.

She and my grandfather, Sam, met at the camp and were secretly married and escaped after 3 years of hard labour.

While the UN Charter was being negotiated, Bru’cha was living in a displaced persons camp in Austria, now with a young son (my father) and a newborn daughter, searching for remaining relatives.

Bru’cha, Sam and their children eventually travelled by boat, as so many refugees and migrants still do, landing in Quebec City on the SS Samaria on 28 September 1948.

My grandfather became a laundry presser. My grandmother worked the night shift at a bakery in the heart of Montreal, where they eventually settled.

In 1956, a few shorts years after becoming a Canadian citizen, Bru’cha would learn how Lester B Pearson developed the idea for the first fully-fledged UN peacekeeping force.

She heard of the leadership of Canadian General Burns who led the force.

Bru’cha may have felt that the international community had turned a corner. States would help when needed, and with force if necessary. A new multilateral path was being forged.

In 1960, my grandmother learned of the biggest membership growth in the UN’s short history, with 17 new states admitted – 16 of them African, and 15 of which had just won their independence.

Alongside others, she reflected on how the international community was getting stronger, richer, more embracing of diversity.

The major UN milestones reached in the 1960s and 70s reinforced the essence of the UN: leveraging cooperation to solve global challenges.

In a relatively short period, the UNDP was established, the NPT came into force, and the first ever World Conferences on the Environment, Food and Women were convened.

The Charter was continuing to drive the international community to work together. At the same time, it was also reinforcing the limits of state behaviour.

In 1977, with Canada serving as an elected member, the Security Council imposed a mandatory arms embargo on South Africa.

A decade later, in 1987, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted in Bru’cha’s hometown. By many accounts the most successful treaty ever, the Protocol gave her a sense, at age 66, that an organization established four decades prior was capable of evolving to address unforeseen issues.

In the year 2000, at age 79, my grandmother witnessed the unanimous adoption of UNSC resolution 1325. Canada was then too an elected member of the Security Council, and her grandson (me) was about to join the Canadian foreign service.

In 2014, prior to her death at 92, Bru’cha would learn that there were more refugees, displaced persons and asylum seekers than at any other point in history. She saw much of her early life replayed on small screens, in real time, from different places.

My grandmother escaped persecution in Poland, survived the holocaust in present-day Russia, was a displaced, stateless person in Austria, arrived penniless in Canada, worked hard, raised a family, saved, prayed, loved, lived and died.

Her story is special to me, but it is not unique, nor is it limited to time and place.

In an era of resurgent authoritarianism, growing Anti-Semitism and hatred of all kinds, it is not difficult to see parallels. But a major difference is the advent of the UN Charter and the global safety net it sought to usher in.

The Charter’s values are timeless and universal. It outlines tenets of decency, of state behaviour, of rights and obligations. The Charter tells us what should happen in Syria, for the Rohingya, and for the world as a whole.

I’d like to think the best homage we can pay to it, and to people like Bru’cha, is to respect it. To see the Charter as it is: a living document that directs and anchors us, but allows the United Nations to evolve to address emerging issues.

This is not necessarily about re-opening the Charter. Rather, it is about revitalizing some of its provisions. There is nothing hindering creative use of Article 99 to support conflict prevention.

More can be undertaken to enhance regional arrangements – which Canada hopes will figure prominently in the briefing Vietnam convened on cooperation with regional and sub-regional organizations, including ASEAN.

It is also worth noting that the measures contemplated in Article 41 are by no means comprehensive. Instead, the form and scope of potential non-military measures are left to the Security Council to determine.

Canada sees this as both a strength and an obligation. To us, upholding the Charter means seeing it as supple enough to respond to the challenges of today.

And, this week in particular, that means heeding the Secretary General’s recent call to “stop escalation, exercise maximum restraint, re-start dialogue and renew international cooperation.” Canada, as always, stands ready to do its part.

Prime Minister Trudeau has been in close contact with his counterparts in the region and around the world, delivering very much the same messages.

Canada has consistently called for safeguarding the rules-based international system. As reflected in the Charter, this Council has a critical role to play. We all do.

As the Secretary-General noted, and my grandmother personally experienced, civilians pay the highest price for conflict. Our duty is to them.

Finally, Mr. President, Canadian hearts are heavy today following the crash of Flight PS752 in Tehran.

We mourn the death of 176 people, including 63 Canadians and many, many Iranians, Ukrainians as well as Swedish, Afghan, German and British nationals. While we are many nations united in our loss, the connecting flight from Kyiv arrived in Toronto yesterday with 138 empty seats. This represents the depth of the loss for Canada: citizens, residents, extended family members and international students.

We joined the statement made in the Council yesterday by Ukraine on this tragedy.

We are committed to diplomacy with Iran. We have requested Iranian cooperation to allow Canadian experts to assist with the identification and recovery of victims. Prime Minister Trudeau has also requested a credible, complete investigation into flight PS752, including with the participation of Canadian experts.

This is an international tragedy affecting numerous Member States. Together, and guided by the Charter and with the assistance of the UN System, we can act to investigate, provide answers to victims’ families, and prevent another.

Thank you.