Canada Becomes the Only Country to Withdraw from UN Drought Convention

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Harper government has made an abrupt decision to withdraw from the United Nations convention, which is aimed to fights droughts in Africa and elsewhere, making it the only country in the world outside the agreement. The unannounced withdrawal was ordered last week by the federal cabinet at the recommendation of Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, ahead of a major scientific meeting on the convention next month in Germany.

The sudden nature of the decision caught the UN secretariat that administers the convention off-guard, who were informed after the decision was announced, through a telephone call from The Canadian Press. The cabinet order stated that it “authorizes the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take the actions necessary to withdraw, on behalf of Canada, from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, in those Countries Experiencing Severe Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa.” Canada agreed to the convention in 1994, while it was ratified in 1995, whereas every member nation of the UN, i.e. 194 countries and the European Union, are currently a party of it

Recently a team of scientists, governments and civil society organizations have scheduled to headed visit Bonn, Germany, next month “to carry out the first ever comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of desertification, land degradation and drought.” A notice from the United Nations Environment Program mentioned that “also, for the very first time, governments will provide concrete data on the status of poverty and of land cover in the areas affected by desertification in their countries.”