After more than a decade in the doldrums, nuclear arms control could make a comeback this year with a thorough review of the size, structure and mission of US nuclear forces, a new Russia-US strategic treaty, a nuclear summit in Washington in April and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in May. A compelling roadmap for all four has been provided by the international commission on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, chaired by former foreign ministers Gareth…

The international commission on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, chaired by former foreign ministers Gareth Evans of Australia and Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan, faced two hurdles even before its work was completed.

First, both countries are long-standing allies that have sheltered under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Second, between the setting up of the commission in mid-2008 and the publication of its report this week, the nuclear agenda has been dramatically transformed with President…

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed on December 10, 1948, transformed an aspiration into legally binding standards and spawned a raft of institutions to scrutinise government conformity and condemn noncompliance. It remains the central organising principle of global human rights and a source of power and authority on behalf of victims.

A human right, owed to every person simply as a human being, is inherently universal. Human rights are held only by human beings, but equally by…

It is easy to mistake the volubility of the few for the opinion of many. In our consultations around the world in 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty discovered a remarkable openness to the notion of an international responsibility to protect people from mass atrocities by tyrants masquerading as governments. The same conclusion was clear by the end of the UN debate on the Responsibility to Protect, or R2P, in July that helped sideline the small minority of…

The challenge of humanitarian intervention in conflicts, as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan originally framed it, saw a bitter divide split Western from developing countries. When the Canadian-sponsored independent international commission held a regional meeting in New Delhi in June 2001, only the protocol officer from the External Affairs Ministry attended the reception hosted by the Swiss ambassador. India's opposition was that strong.

When the commission reformulated the challenge…

When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited India, he reiterated Australia's opposition to selling uranium to India because it is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

When Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, followed Rudd to India, there were hopes that a bilateral nuclear deal would be signed, sealed and delivered so that Canada could tap into what is expected to be a lucrative nuclear market. The hopes were not met, as Canada still has concerns about some issues.

Not that one would…

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the central organizing principle of global human rights, transformed a noble aspiration into binding standards and a source of power and authority on behalf of victims. Now human rights are under threat on three fronts.

Many civil liberties and privacy rights have been sacrificed on the altar of enhanced security measures. Our government has abandoned some Canadians jailed and abused overseas under the anti-terrorism label. Our military is accused of han…

The challenge of humanitarian intervention in conflicts, as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan originally framed it, saw a bitter divide split Western from developing countries. When the Canadian-sponsored independent international commission held a regional meeting in New Delhi in June 2001, only the protocol officer from the External Affairs Ministry attended the reception hosted by the Swiss ambassador. India's opposition was that strong.

When the commission reformulated the challenge…