Peace Partnership International - Douglas Roche's WPF Panel Remarks

saulreadingroche First of all, let me say how sorry I am to not appear in person at this important panel; however, other commitments forced me to withdraw. This does not, in any way, indicate a lack of support for a Canadian Department and Minister of Peace. In fact, I believe that I was the first parliamentarian to strongly support this initiative and the Working group that developed it. In a letter, I said that, “Canada’s international policy has often suffered from incoherence,” and that, “a DoP could play a meaningful role in coordinating Canadian policies to serve the interests of peace.”

Together with the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, I wrote an Open Letter to our national leaders during the last federal election, calling for a Canadian department of peace. In it, we said: “Although many federal departments have peace-related mandates, a DoP would have the authority and resources to coordinate effective policy direction.” Further, we wrote that, “peacebuilding, conflict prevention, and disarmament are central to our political tradition,” and that a DoP would strengthen that tradition by providing “the global leadership needed to successfully navigate the 21st century.”

As Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative, a network of 8 international non-governmental organizations specializing in nuclear disarmament, I believe that it is from civil society that the creative ideas and the pressure for change will come and that the political leadership will follow. At the failed Non-proliferation Treaty review, May 2005, about the only encouraging thing to come out of it was the dogged determination of NGOs to keep the nuclear issue at the forefront of world affairs and the arguments and data that they presented to the delegates. Of course, disarmament is a keystone responsibility of the proposed minister, and is one of the reasons for my support.

At this critical time, when the nuclear danger is increasing, with new nations acquiring nuclear weapons and, on the eve of a new arms race including space-based weapons, most nations are silent or ineffectual in their policies in this area. In particular, the middle powers, like Canada, together with other middle powers, should be, as a block, vigorously opposing these developments in the interest of their citizens and the future of the planet itself. Departments of peace could help to transform our relations with each other and the Earth.

Whereas the architecture of war is highly evolved and can be mobilized very quickly, the architecture of peace is relatively undeveloped. Thus, the culture of peace – the dream of all peoples – languishes. A system of DoPs in all nations meeting on a regular basis, not just in crises, with a mandate to develop a culture of peace and non-violence both domestically and abroad, could have a dramatic effect on achieving such an outcome. Most importantly, it would serve as a vehicle for conflict prevention and the early detection of conflict before escalation occurs.

On Afghanistan, a Minister of Peace in Cabinet would have required a major debate on Canadian policy and would have provided alternative views to Foreign Affairs and Defence in the direction of peacebuilding and reconstruction of that war-torn country, that is, conflict transformation by peaceful means. Civil society would have had a voice in cabinet around whom to rally and express their views. That does not exist today.

So I say to you: stay the course and redouble your efforts for a DoP. You are on the right track, the track of survival and peace. I commend you for your intelligence and perseverance and will continue my efforts on behalf of a departments of peace in all nations. Let me close with a quote from one of my books:

“The very agonies of war and the dark night of suffering that has lasted for centuries are awakening civilization to a new understanding: the peoples of the Earth have a sacred right to peace.”

Thank you.

* Douglas Roche was Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament from 1984 to 1989 and was elected Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Committee in 1988. Mr. Roche served in the Canadian Parliament from 1972 to 1984, and is currently Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative and a member of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.