Flashquote: MSF on Canada’s missed opportunity to stand up for humanity at the G7 Summit
Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is profoundly disappointed that Canada and other G7 countries failed to use their power at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit to defend international humanitarian law (IHL) and the lives of civilians caught in conflict.
At a time when medical care and aid workers are being deliberately targeted, humanitarian access blocked, and IHL violated with impunity at unprecedented levels, the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, offered a critical moment for global leaders to stand up for humanity. Instead, it came to a close on June 17 with no meaningful commitments to protect humanitarian spaces or hold violators accountable.
Canada, as host and G7 president, could have ensured that protecting civilians and defending humanitarian priorities were front and center at the summit. Instead, there was inaction. Neither the Chair’s Summary nor any of the joint statements even acknowledged that the very foundations of today’s rule-based humanitarian system are under threat. No G7 leaders or their guests expressed a clear commitment to basic humanitarian principles or promised action against those who continue to attack civilians and care providers in crisis settings.
While the Chair’s Summary mentioned the ‘importance of unhindered humanitarian aid’ in the Gaza conflict as a point of discussion, no mention was made that this is an obligation under IHL, and that violators should face consequences. While leaders also apparently discussed ‘other instances of crisis and conflict, including Africa and Haiti’, they did not elaborate with any specific calls to action. Some of the world’s most devastating humanitarian emergencies, such as the horrendous conflict in Sudan, were not even mentioned by name.
As a medical humanitarian organization that provides care to people affected by conflicts and crises in over 70 countries, MSF witnesses firsthand how complacency fuels suffering for the world’s most vulnerable people. The Kananaskis summit was an opportunity for global leaders to show moral courage and defend humanitarian principles, and yet they did not.
In a world where the humanitarian system is under threat, inaction is not neutral. It is a failure of leadership, and it has deadly consequences.
