Join us. I N P U R S U I T O F P E A C E AWA R D D I N N E R THE PIERRE HOTEL, NE W YORK CIT Y
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 35th President of Brazil
22 April 2013
H O N O R I N G
President U Thein Sein of Myanmar
Details online at www. crisisgroup. org / awarddinner those responsible for atrocities. And this has to be done in an environment in which State parties to the Rome statute will not provide infinite resources. The Prosecutor will have to be very strategic to obtain maximum impact now, as a basis for increased support in the future.
We are seeing the increasing role of corporations contributing to human rights violations and conflict situations; how can we hold national and international organisations to account for this and are the current Global Compact and / or Draft Norms working?
Voluntary compliance, peer pressure, shareholder expectations, all these things help improve the performance of corporate actors. But on the other hand, competition from those who may not be sensitive to such pressure-- Chinese companies for example-- may call for more robust forms of compulsion. That can be done nationally, with obviously limited impact. I don’ t think we’ re anywhere near an international compulsory framework that would be enforceable.
The same is true for those who argue for using human rights frameworks to make individuals and organisations take responsibility for their contribution to environmental damage and climate change. The most we can expect is national legislation to ground responsibility, and mechanisms of enforcement. Internationally, economic considerations continue to trump human rights and other public interest considerations.
From your experience in the Canadian Judiciary, particularly in the Supreme Court, how has the role of the courts evolved in Canada, particularly in terms of human rights?
Since the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, Canada took a different, and much more progressive path, than many other common law countries, when courts began discharging their mandate of ensuring compliance of legislation and law enforcement with constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms.
Some denounced“ judicial activism” and the“ legalisation of politics”, usually when they disagreed with the outcome of a particular case. But for many Canadians, courts acquired an unprecedented relevance in public affairs, and provided for many a forum of choice for intelligent, respectful and dispassionate debate about fundamental issues that the electoral part of democratic life was unwilling or unable to address adequately.
“ The use of unmanned aircrafts( drones) may also contribute to shifting the burden of war from combatants to civilians.”
Not surprisingly, courts became the preferred venue for marginalised communities who were not heard or accommodated in party politics. And ultimately, regardless of whether they agreed with any particular decision, I believe the Canadian public developed an increased respect for their courts, and view them today as an indispensable component of democratic life.
Moving to your current role as head of the International Crisis Group, is the perception of NGOs sometimes worrying? David Kennedy, for example, is highly critical of international NGOs, accusing them of suffering western bias and a lack of accountability. How do you respond to these criticisms? Are the perceptions and reality improving?
In terms of Crisis Group, our Board of Trustees is very diverse, and so too is our staff, with some 50 nationalities represented, and diverse views and perspectives incorporated in our analysis. Many of our analysts are from the countries or regions they report on. We often take positions that are in no way“ western” – for years on Myanmar, for instance, during the Libya crisis or now on Syria, for example, or on the Middle East Peace Process. We don’ t hesitate to criticise Western governments if that’ s required.
That said, civil society actors are often supported by philanthropy, large and small, and, not surprisingly, funds do tend to come from western countries-- often the US-- that have the capacity to support them, and a tradition of doing so. NGOs often adhere to values that are universal-- humanitarian and human rights work, for example-- but may be portrayed, especially by those who violate those universal ideals, as Western.
To the extent that development assistance flows from the global North to the global South, I don’ t think it should be restricted to government-to-government assistance. I think the support provided by international NGOs to national ones is part of a healthy network of people engaged in their own governance, and who believe that there is more to democracy than management by elected officials.
What did you find were the biggest differences between working within the UN and now working for an NGO? Was it a difficult transition?
Substantively, NGOs have a heavier burden of persuasion. Operationally, speaking for International Crisis Group, we are considerably more nimble than our UN counterparts, free from some security constraints, but also more exposed. We can be freer in our thinking and usually, but not always, in our expression( we have no immunity from legal action). Maybe the most striking contrasts are the absence of heavy bureaucracy and artificial hierarchy, the expectations of democratic management, and the real“ can do” mentality, the dedication and the ability that are unevenly distributed in the UN.
From your experience in all the relevant-areas, which do you think is the most effective at securing peace in areas of conflict and justice: national and international courts; UN bodies; NGOs; or a mix of them all? How can we get them to work together better?
The Human Security Report, which has done very good work in this area, attributes the reduction in the number and intensity of armed conflict in recent decades to the multiplicity of actors, including civil society actors, present in the field. Humanitarians believe in protection by presence. Crisis Group invests in independent analysis and puts forward credible, principled, and practical prescriptions for preventing, mitigating and resolving armed conflict in a contextual, not theoretical fashion. Combined with UN and other international and regional bodies, increased accountability mechanisms, and a flurry of mediation actors, these efforts are producing results, difficult as it is to believe when confronted daily with the vivid images of unfolding wars.
Interview by Laura Mckoy T: @ LauraMckoy
Crisis Group Fact file
Cover Story
Crisis Group was founded in 1995 as an international non-governmental organisation on the initiative of a group of well-known public officials and diplomats who despaired at the international community’ s failure to anticipate and respond effectively to the tragedies in the early 1990s of Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia. The idea was to create a new organisation – unlike any other – with a highly professional staff acting as the world’ s eyes and ears for impending conflicts, and with a highly influential board that could mobilise effective action from the world’ s policy makers.
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