Canada withdraws from UN convention combating
African drought
Keith Herting Thursday, March 28, 2013
Keith Herting Thursday, March 28, 2013
[JURIST]
The Canadian government announced Wednesday that it is withdrawing
from a UN convention intended to fight droughts in Africa. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper[official
website] claimed [CTV report] the move was
necessarily as the convention was "too
bureaucratic" and that only one fifth
of the CAN $350,000 contributed to the convention actually
was used for programming. Canada becomes the only UN member state that
is not a member of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
[official website]. The move to drop out of the UNCCD had actually occurred
last week without any public acknowledgement until Wednesday. The UNCCD has
been in effect since 1996 and is working to "forge a global partnership to
reverse and prevent desertification/land degradation and to mitigate the
effects of drought in affected areas in order to support poverty reduction and
environmental sustainability."
The
decision to drop out of the UNCCD has cast additional attention on Canada's
environmental record. In 2011 Canada was the first
nation to withdraw [JURST report] from the Kyoto Protocol [text; JURIST news archive] on
climate change. The decision to drop out of Kyoto was five years after they
were subject to a series of lawsuits [JURIST
report] for their failure to comply with the standards imposed by Kyoto.
