Human rights in Canadian foreign policy /

Matthews and Pratt, two political scientists, have edited a useful collection of 13 chapters by Canadian academics, nongovernmental activists, and practitioners that effectively describes and evaluates their government's human rights policy. Five chapters on international forums provide elementary background on the major intergovernmental human rights agencies and a balanced account of Canadian participation. Five chapters on bilateral relations reveal Canada's closer ties to Western Europe than to Latin America and show Canadian activist's resentment at the critical influence of US policy. Unlike David Newsom's The Diplomacy of Human Rights (1986) the work does not include firsthand accounts by foreign ministry officials, and unlike David Forsythe's Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy (CH, Jan '89) the collection does not focus on legislative initiatives. As in the US, trade and security concerns receive higher priority than human rights, causing inconsistency and allegations of hypocrisy. Several authors employ creative quantitative measures to support their analytical critique, while others tend toward facile generalizations and idealistic prescriptions that slight harsh foreign policy practicalities. A well balanced account that should be of value to non-Canadian readers. -H. Tolley Jr., University of Cincinnati