Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / PEACEKEEPING REFORM
STORY: UN / PEACEKEEPING REFORM
TRT: 03:12
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 20 SEPTEMBER 2017, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
2. Various shots, Security Council vote
3. Med shot, Secretary-General António Guterres at the dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We must recognize the primacy of politics so that peace operations are deployed in support of active diplomatic efforts, not as a substitute. My proposals for the Secretariat peace and security architecture seek to strengthen the link between political strategies and operations – and between peace and security and the development and human rights pillars of our work. If we can do better on prevention, mediation and peacebuilding, we can reduce the unrealistic and dangerous demands on our colleagues in uniform.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Theresa May, Prime Minister, United Kingdom:
“We want to see better planning of peacekeeping missions, more pledges of the personnel and the equipment that the UN needs, and stronger performance by peacekeepers on the ground. And I am delighted to see those points reflected on this resolution.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Pence, Vice President, United States:
“When a mission succeeds, we should not prolong it. When a mission underperforms, we should restructure it. And when a mission consistently fails to fulfil the mandates of this Council, we should end it. We urge the United Nations to analyse all peacekeeping operations in light of these principles so that these missions most effectively advance peace across the wider world.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Petro Poroshenko, President, Ukraine:
“People's rights to life, liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, continue to be violated on a daily basis. They can be killed for going to a wrong church, speaking a wrong language - or just disagreeing. If tragedy on this scale doesn't warrant UN peace presence, then, what does? In this regard, I would like to reaffirm my request to this Council to deploy peacekeepers in Donbas. We need to move forward on this track, the sooner the better.”
11. Med shot, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Russia:
“The primary principles of UN peacekeeping fully remain relevant, namely, blue helmets can be deployed only with the consent of the parts to a conflict. The second pillar of the United Nations peacekeeping operations is impartiality. It would be inadmissible for peacekeepers under any pretence whatsoever to join the side of any participant or party to a conflict.”
13. Med shot, African Union representative
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President, Egypt:
“It should be undoubtedly clear that the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security falls upon the Security Council. However, we must also recognize the vital role of regional organizations, as stipulated in Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter.”
15. Wide shot, Council
The Security Council today (20 Sep) adopted a resolution stressing that the primacy of politics should be the hallmark of the UN’s approach to the resolution of conflict and reaffirming the Council’s determination to pursue more prioritisation when evaluating, mandating and reviewing peacekeeping operations.
Secretary-General António Guterres told the Council that peace operations must be deployed “in support of active diplomatic efforts, not as a substitute.”
Guterres said “if we can do better on prevention, mediation and peacebuilding, we can reduce the unrealistic and dangerous demands on our colleagues in uniform.”
The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, said “we want to see better planning of peacekeeping missions, more pledges of the personnel and the equipment that the UN needs, and stronger performance by peacekeepers on the ground” and said she was “delighted to see those points reflected on this resolution.”
The Vice President of the United States, Michael Pence, said “when a mission succeeds, we should not prolong it. When a mission underperforms, we should restructure it. And when a mission consistently fails to fulfil the mandates of this Council, we should end it.
He urged the United Nations “to analyse all peacekeeping operations in light of these principles so that these missions most effectively advance peace across the wider world.”
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, told the Council that “people's rights to life, liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, continue to be violated on a daily basis” in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
He said people “can be killed for going to a wrong church, speaking a wrong language - or just disagreeing.”
Poroshenko said “if tragedy on this scale doesn't warrant UN peace presence, then, what does? In this regard, I would like to reaffirm my request to this Council to deploy peacekeepers in Donbas. We need to move forward on this track, the sooner the better.”
For his part, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, said “the primary principles of UN peacekeeping fully remain relevant, namely, blue helmets can be deployed only with the consent of the parts to a conflict.”
The second pillar of the United Nations peacekeeping operations, he said, is “impartiality” and stressed that “it would be inadmissible for peacekeepers under any pretence whatsoever to join the side of any participant or party to a conflict.”
Also addressing the Council, the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, said “it should be undoubtedly clear that the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security falls upon the Security Council. However, we must also recognize the vital role of regional organizations, as stipulated in Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter.
The resolution adopted today also underscores the need to enhance the overall effectiveness and efficiency of UN peacekeeping by improving mission planning, increasing the number of relevant capabilities, and reinforcing peacekeeping performance through training and the fulfilment of outstanding pledges.
Download
There is no media available to download.
