Globe and Mail reporter Kim Mackrael.Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
Canada's Conservative government may not be known for its fondness of working with the United Nations, but that hasn't stopped it from engaging with the multilateral body in a few areas Ottawa considers priorities.
Last week, the UN approved a landmark resolution on ending child marriage that was backed by the Canadian and Zambian governments. The resolution, which calls on governments to bring in laws banning the practice, was co-sponsored by more than 100 nations, raising hopes that it could help shift public opinion in countries where child marriage is commonplace.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement last week that the level of support is a clear sign that there's a global movement under way to address what he called one of the world's most pressing development challenges.
An estimated 15 million girls are married before the age of 18 every year, a practice that often leads to a higher risk of death during childbirth and plays a major role in keeping girls' education rates low.
Dutch princess Mabel van Oranje, chair of the international organization Girls not Brides, told The Globe and Mail in an interview last week that while the UN resolution won't end child marriage on its own, it should help increase pressure on the governments of those countries where the practice is most common. "If you have resolutions and international meetings, if you have more international pressure, more international attention, it creates that kind of encouragement for governments of high-prevalence countries to no longer ignore the issue," she said.
Canada's support for the global campaign against child marriage comes despite a widely-held view that the Conservative government is in a period of disengagement from multilateral organizations in recent years.
After Canada lost its bid for a seat on the powerful UN Security Council in 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper skipped three opportunities to address the multilateral body at the annual opening of its General Assembly (he returned to the podium earlier this fall). Ottawa also withdrew from a UN convention on desertification last year, and the government made a point of staying home during last year's Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka, citing that country's poor human rights record.
Yet the federal government continues to play a role at the UN on a select number of issues, including through resolutions targeting Iran's human rights record and initiatives to improve the health of mothers and children in low-income countries.
In 2010, Ottawa announced a major, multi-year commitment to maternal and child health, drawing the world's attention to two UN Millennium Development Goals on which little progress had been made.
While Canada's ongoing maternal and child health efforts have been criticized for not putting more funding into reproductive health, the overall initiative has garnered widespread praise.
The selective nature of Canada's engagement with the UN has troubled some experts, who say it's important for Canadian diplomats to remain engaged on all fronts to establish good relations with other countries and help make sure they'll be in Canada's corner when their support is needed.
Clearly, that has not been the view of the Conservative government. During an interview about international development with The Globe earlier this year, Mr. Harper said his government had made an effort to examine all multilateral organizations and activities "on their own merit," adding, "To be blunt, some international organizations, particularly some United Nations bodies, are much more effective than others."
Kim Mackrael is a parliamentary reporter in Ottawa.