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UN / PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
STORY: UN / PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
TRT: 02:56
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 28 MARCH 2018, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, UN headquarters
28 MARCH 2018, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Peace operations cannot succeed if they are deployed instead of a political solution, rather than in support of one.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“UN peacekeepers are often under-equipped, under-prepared and unready for the dangerous environments in which they now operate. There are gaps in command and control, in culture, in equipment and in training. Our peacekeepers are vulnerable, and they are targeted for attack. Last year, we lost 59 peacekeepers through malicious acts – a sharp increase since 2016, when the figure was 34.”
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I urge Security Council members to sharpen and streamline mandates. Please put an end to mandates that look like Christmas trees. Christmas is over, and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan cannot possibly implement 209 mandated tasks. By attempting too much, we dilute our efforts and weaken our impact.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands:
“We must establish clear and focused mandates, and put pressure on parties to conflicts to find a political solution. It applies to the host countries, which must cooperate fully with missions. It applies to the Secretariat, which must support missions efficiently and effectively. And last but not least, it applies to all member states. Because we are the UN. And we must make sure that sufficient funding, political support and well-trained, disciplined, and well-equipped troops are always available.”
11. Med shot, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The United States has long been the largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping by far. That will not change, but peacekeeping is a shared responsibility. With shared responsibility comes shared burdens and shared costs. One country should not shoulder more than one quarter of the UN peacekeeping budget, and we look forward to a more equitable distribution of the budget among Member States. Moving forward, the United States will not pay more than 25 percent of the peacekeeping budget. This is a cap required by US law.”
13. Wide shot, Council
Secretary-General António Guterres today (28 Mar) told the Security Council that “peace operations cannot succeed if they are deployed instead of a political solution, rather than in support of one.”
Addressing the Council during the High-Level Debate on Collective Action to Improve UN Peacekeeping Operations, Guterres said “UN peacekeepers are often under-equipped, under-prepared and unready for the dangerous environments in which they now operate.”
He said, “our peacekeepers are vulnerable, and they are targeted for attack” and noted that last year, “we lost 59 peacekeepers through malicious acts – a sharp increase since 2016, when the figure was 34.”
The Secretary-General warned that we are damaging the instrument of peacekeeping, and multilateralism itself, in creating unrealistic expectations. He therefore stressed the need to focus our efforts in three areas: refocus peacekeeping with realistic expectations; make missions stronger and safer; and mobilize greater support for political solutions and for well-structured, well-equipped, well-trained forces.
He urged the Security Council to “put an end to mandates that look like Christmas trees,” adding that “by attempting too much, we dilute our efforts and weaken our impact.”
Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, who chaired the debate, said “we must establish clear and focused mandates, and put pressure on parties to conflicts to find a political solution. It applies to the host countries, which must cooperate fully with missions. It applies to the Secretariat, which must support missions efficiently and effectively. And last but not least, it applies to all member states. Because we are the UN. And we must make sure that sufficient funding, political support and well-trained, disciplined, and well-equipped troops are always available.”
United States ambassador Nikki Haley, said “peacekeeping is a shared responsibility” and “with shared responsibility comes shared burdens and shared costs.”
She said “one country should not shoulder more than one quarter of the UN peacekeeping budget, and we look forward to a more equitable distribution of the budget among member states. Moving forward, the United States will not pay more than 25 percent of the peacekeeping budget. This is a cap required by US law.”
The aim of today’s debate was to discuss ways to improve engagement of all actors in support of UN peacekeeping operations.
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