Christopher Waters is a professor at the faculty of law, University of Windsor. He has monitored elections in Ukraine and is a member of the International Law Association’s study group on the role of cities in international law.
For decades, the twinning of cities has been seen as a safe, if quirky, mainstay of local government diplomacy. Some twinning or “sister city” relationships lead to meaningful cultural and business exchanges. Many more relationships peter out after the gift exchanges and inaugural ceremonies are over.
But cities’ international relations are under a spotlight following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Even small Canadian municipalities, such as Steinbach, Man., and Vegreville, Alta., have rushed to make statements of support or raise funds for their twin cities in Ukraine. Others are moving to provide material assistance for twin cities in countries bordering Ukraine that have received refugees as a result of the conflict, including Poland.
Windsor, Ont.’s city council, for example, was set to discuss assistance for its Polish twin, Lublin, on Monday. Lublin has seen an influx of thousands of refugees since the full-scale invasion began, adding to the thousands of Ukrainians who had already found refuge in that city following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier incursions in Crimea and the Donbas region.
Some cities twinned with Russian counterparts – including Victoria – have suspended their formal relationships in response to the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s embassy in Canada has actively encouraged these suspensions – not through Global Affairs Canada, but directly with Canadian municipal leaders. (Sister Cities International has urged caution in severing city ties, saying doing so can close a “vital, and ofttimes, last channel of communication with vulnerable or isolated populations.”)
The engagement of cities in the fight against Mr. Putin’s aggression and breaches of international humanitarian law is not exclusively a Canadian phenomenon. Thousands, for instance, poured into Florence’s Piazza Santa Croce on March 12 to show support for the city’s twin, Kyiv.
Cities in Canada and around the world are reacting to the Russian invasion through their associations, as well as individually. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has expressed its solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainian-Canadians on behalf of nearly 2,000 Canadian municipalities. The World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments, the largest organization of local and regional governments in the world, said in a statement: “We speak with one united voice when we say that nothing can justify war, the targeting of cities and the loss of innocent civilian lives.”
It would be wrong to think city leadership on questions of international law is new, or that it sprung up organically in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The local turn in international law has seen cities gradually ramp up engagement with issues such as migration, human security and sustainable development in recent years.
For instance, many cities have declared climate emergencies and, through associations such as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, demanded a voice at the table in international forums, including COP26 last year.
Canadians are often not aware of their cities’ international relations. This is partly because, as in many countries, Canada’s cities lack a constitutional mandate to engage in diplomacy.
Constitutionally speaking, cities were the losers at Confederation. The Supreme Court of Canada recently highlighted the lack of constitutional status for municipalities in its decision regarding provincial cuts to the size of Toronto’s city council during the 2018 election campaign. The majority noted that “municipalities are mere creatures of statute who exercise whatever powers, through officers appointed by whatever process, that provincial legislatures consider fit.”
Whatever one’s views of the appropriate relationship between cities and higher orders of government, there can be little doubt that, as a matter of practice, cities have engaged with a wide variety of areas unforeseen by the drafters of constitutions or other legislation, in Canada and abroad.
Generally speaking, cities have been left with scope for free action in their international relations, and some are rising to the occasion. This is certainly true of “global cities,” but it is also true of many small and mid-sized cities. This is a positive development, allowing citizens to engage with international law through the level of government to which they are closest, affirming that the rule of law in international affairs matters beyond foreign ministries, and offering moral and material assistance to cities in crisis.
While cities are not working on the same track as states, it is legitimate to ask: what is your city doing about Ukraine?
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