Security Council

8218th Security Council Meeting: Collective Action to Improve Peacekeeping Part 3

Quantum leap in collective engagement needed to Meet Serious Peacekeeping Challenges, Secretary-General Tells Security Council Open Debate at 8128th meeting.
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A “quantum leap in collective engagement” was needed to meet the serious challenges facing United Nations peacekeeping operations, particularly in its largest deployments, the Secretary-General told the Security Council today in an open debate on improving the Organization’s flagship enterprise.

Indeed, in countries such as Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan, peacekeepers operated in increasingly dangerous, complex environments, he said, under the threat of armed groups, criminals and terrorists, who often had access to powerful modern weapons.

Last year alone, the United Nations lost 59 peacekeepers through malicious acts — a sharp increase from 2016, when that figure was 34.

Outlining a series of steps being taken by the Secretariat to address the most pressing issues, he called on all partners and stakeholders to mobilize under its new “Action for Peacekeeping” initiative, as no one could meet the current challenges alone.

Cautioning against overpromising and under delivering, he noted that peacekeeping — and indeed multilateralism itself — was being damaged by unrealistic expectations. Urging the Council to streamline peacekeeping mandates and end those that “look like Christmas trees”, he said that by attempting too much, “we dilute our efforts and weaken our impact”.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said multilateralism was the only way to ensure a lasting response to peace and security challenges. Noting that about half of all peacekeeping operations were in Africa, he said many were deployed in volatile environments amid the absence of an effective political process, testifying to the challenges at hand.

Highlighting funding constraints, he called for peacekeeping missions to be endowed with resources needed to properly and fully deliver on their mandates, adding that, while Member States were overly focused on budgets and financing, that should not distract them from the overarching goal of peace.

In the ensuing open debate, more than 70 speakers offered their views on improving United Nations peacekeeping, with several underscoring the notion of shared responsibility. The representative of the United States stressed that her country was the largest financial contributor to peacekeeping. Such endeavours were a shared responsibility and the United States was no longer willing to pay more than 25 per cent of the share.

Taking stock of counterproductive efforts, Ethiopia’s delegate said it was crucial to “avoid getting bogged down in the same old discussions”. Shared responsibility should be front and centre, and the tendency to look at reform from a narrow perspective must be avoided. An incremental approach to reform would have a better chance of delivering results, he said, adding that the Secretariat should be much more field-focused.

Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of State for Defence, noting that he and his compatriots had benefitted from the United Nations operation in his country, said conflict prevention must be addressed as a genuine priority, together with clear mandates that included better protection of civilians. Effective relations between the United Nations and host Governments were also vital.

The Secretary of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France said improved performance hinged on training, including language training that would enable peacekeepers to interact better with local populations. Improved force generation should include enhanced mobility, force projection, more women peacekeepers and sufficient resources for missions to deliver on their mandates.

A number of speakers, including Canada’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends of Women, Peace and Security, called for redoubled efforts and more creative thinking to increase the number of women in peacekeeping. Condemning sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping operations, he encouraged the Secretary-General to ensure common standards across all United Nations entities, with Member States playing their part.

Bolivia’s representative said threats posed by terrorism and transnational organized crime made it imperative to carry out “root-and-branch” reform of peacekeeping operations. He advocated for political strategies to drive the future of peacekeeping missions, adding that a preventive approach — informed by an in-depth study of each situation — was essential.

Questioning the changing nature of peacekeeping and introduction of robust mandates with authority to use force, the representative of the Russian Federation said it was highly dubious that they could reduce the risk of death when such force only led to an increase in casualties. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it had not been proven that such mandates were justified, he said.

On that point, Pakistan’s delegate said the “protection by projection” pilot in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) had shown it was challenging to protect civilians only by projecting power. Welcoming investments in mediation, he said the Secretary-General’s initiative to reform reporting lines could provide logistical support to missions. Reforms must include a rethink of the Secretariat’s performance.

Reinforcing that call, Japan’s Director-General, International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office, pressed the Secretariat to “grasp mission-specific needs for effective training and capacity-building, encouraging it to strategically assess mission performance.

The representative of the Philippines underscored the need for more investment in local political solutions to conflicts, which the United Nations must reinforce and not supplant. “If the politics of peacekeeping are not national, then it is foreign interference,” he said.

Also briefing the Council today was the Director of the Groupe de Recherche d’Etude de Formation Femme Action.

Ministers, other senior officials and representatives of the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Kazakhstan, France, United Kingdom, Peru, Kuwait, China, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia (also on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Germany, Estonia, Canada, Venezuela, Lebanon, Brazil, Thailand, Norway (on behalf of the Nordic countries), Republic of Korea, Ireland, Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Spain, India, Italy (also on behalf of the Group of Friends on the Responsibility to Protect), Israel, Lithuania, Slovakia, Portugal, El Salvador, Nepal, Djibouti, Jordan, Turkey, Slovenia, Uruguay, Belgium, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Morocco, United Republic of Tanzania, Georgia, Colombia, South Africa, Switzerland, Cuba, Maldives, Mali, Egypt, Cyprus, Viet Nam, Latvia, Malaysia, Rwanda, Serbia, Fiji and Sudan.

Representatives of the European Union and Holy See also spoke.

The meeting began at 10:09 a.m. and ended at 6:20 p.m.

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