Canada is abdicating its responsibility to protect civilians in Tigray

The meagre response thus far by the Liberal government, seven months into the civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray, is evidence of a gap between policy and practice.

In March, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, pictured, called his Ethiopian counterpart to express “Canada's deep concern regarding credible reports of human rights violations and abuses” in Tigray, but the Liberal government possesses diplomatic levers that it has been unwilling to use and that needs to change, writes Patrick Wight.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY PATRICK WIGHT

July 1, 2021

Now seven months in, the civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has deteriorated into one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises. In the early 2000s, Canada was instrumental in codifying the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) norm. The meagre response th...

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