Human Rights and Foreign Policy: Principles and Canadian Practice

Abstract

This article has two purposes. First, it attempts to establish the bases for legitimate state interference and possibly intervention in the internal affairs of another state to promote basic human rights. Second, it will test the utility of this argument by applying it to a consideration of Canadian policies related to South Africa and to development assistance. We will first define and defend the concept of basic human rights. We will then consider the strength of the argument that the principle of nonintervention should be given primacy in interstate relations. Against this argument we will develop the basic propositions which seem to require human rights components within a foreign policy. On the basis of these propositions we will hazard a series of policy prescriptions. We will then discuss the process which determines the priority to be given to these prescriptions in comparison to the policies required by other foreign policy objectives. All that accomplished, we will consider in turn Canadian policy in two important issues: first, whether Canada should actively interfere or perhaps even intervene in the liberation struggle in South Africa; and secondly, whether Canadian foreign assistance should be used to press Third World recipients to greater respect for basic human rights. We thus hope to contribute to the body of literature that seeks to apply to important issues of foreign policy concepts of basic human rights and morality.'