Statement made on 11 December 2007 by Senator Roméo Dallaire
Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:
Honourable senators, today we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lester B. Pearson's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.
This Nobel prize is the foundation upon which this country's ability to establish and keep peace has been built. The very concept of peacekeeping was developed by Mr. Pearson and General Burns in 1956 in Suez, and it was recognized by the entire world in 1957.
The concept presented was one of a referee wearing a blue beret and assisting countries in conflict that had finally decided to sign a peace agreement. These countries could look to a neutral force that would permit them to apply the mandates of their peace agreement and ensure its continuance. To that end, we created the chapter six peacekeepers to be referees without a penalty box or a red card who would observe, report and bring the two sides together.
Over the last 50 years, conflicts have evolved from nation against nation to one of state versus state. The responsibility to protect has advanced the previous peacekeeping responsibilities, ultimately, into one of intervention and use of force.
Today, we find ourselves with complex conflicts in which nations are horribly abusing the human rights of their citizens. We have the tool that Lester B. Pearson created, which has been amended and modernized through Responsibility to Protect in accordance with Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter to allow peacekeepers to protect and ultimately use force.
Why do we allow the situation in Darfur to exist? Why are we not participating? It is not because the UN has not asked us to. How is it that we are refusing to participate when we founded the very concept of peacekeeping? How is it that we are refusing to participate when we created the concept of protecting human rights? We created the responsibility to protect, we modernized that concept and yet we refuse to participate.