Les auteurs analysent le caractère ambigu de la position canadienne entourant les enjeux des droits humains au sein du secteur extractif en Colombie au cours des deux dernières décennies. Selon les auteurs, une partie de l’ambiguïté de la position canadienne s’explique par une conception simpliste de l’État colombien comme un « État faible » ayant besoin d’être « renforcé ». En outre, le texte démontre que la position canadienne tend à ignorer les contradictions entre la promotion des droits humains et les objectifs commerciaux, malgré l’appui à d’importantes initiatives de renforcement des droits humains en Colombie. Lire l’article
ABSTRACT. During the 2021 mass protests in Colombia, and while international calls for the Colombian government to respect human rights were intensifying, Canada’s position remained somewhat ambiguous. Part of Canada’s ambiguity can be explained by a simplistic characterization of Colombia as a “weak state.” This article assesses Canada’s bilateral relationship by historizing the development of Colombia’s governance in the key overlapping sectors of security, human rights, and natural resources. From extensive fieldwork, we distinguish two competing rationalities based on the articulation of the notions of “conflict” and “dissent” with the notion of the “rule of law.” We believe that Canada’s bilateral relation with Colombia in the last decades has overlooked the contradictions that exist between democratizing rationalities and antipolitical rationalities. As a result, Canada’s foreign policy has been based on an overly simplistic conception of the relationship between development, security, and the rule of law. Read the article
