because the commander of the first United Nations Peacekeeping mission. General Burns moved to the peacekeeping mission from his role as head of the truce monitoring force in Palestine. The truce monitoring force was somewhat more than an observer mission but less than peacekeeping.
Since the first United Nations peacekeeping mission in 1956, there have been 49 more, and there have been many United Nations observer missions, as well as other activities associated with keeping the peace. While Canada did not participate in all 50 of those peacekeeping missions, it did participate in most of them, and Canada has participated in far more United Nations peacekeeping missions than has any other country.
Canada's Foreign Policy and United Nations Peacekeeping
Canada's decision to be the prime mover in the United Nations' peacekeeping effort is a part of the nation's foreign policy. A major underpinning of the nation's foreign policy is a commitment to human rights. Canada's peacekeeping role is fully consistent with the nation's commitment to human rights.
Canada enjoys a positive international reputation in relation to human rights. The world generally perceives Canada as a country with a human face that protects the human rights of its own citizens while pursuing
international relations through policies designed to promote human rights in all countries. Within Canada, however, political and social factions disagree with respect to both the comprehensiveness and the effectiveness of Canada's accommodation of human rights objectives in its foreign policy.
Matthews and Pratt contended more than a decade ago that, while a concern for international human rights is entrenched in the rhetoric of Canadian foreign policy, the application of its international human rights policy is uneven at best. This criticism, essentially, remains valid in 2003. The Canadian government (led either by Prime Minister Jean Chretien t...