Statement by H.E. Andrew Goledzinowski, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Security Council on UN Peacekeeping Operations, on 5 August 2009.
Mr President
Thank you for convening this debate today. I congratulate you on your Presidency and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Uganda on its Presidency last month.
At the outset, I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of the United Kingdom in this area, including your work this year with France, on peacekeeping reform.
I would also like to tank Mr Le Roy and Ms Malcorra for their statements today, and their ongoing efforts to keep Member States informed on the progress of initiatives to date.
We congratulate the United States’ important announcement that it will pay its outstanding peacekeeping dues.
Mr President,
We welcome the initiative represented by the ‘New Horizons’ non-paper.
Given the constraints on time, we will highlight just the key points we wish to make in that regard.
Political support through the life cycle of a UN peacekeeping mission is critical to its overall success. There needs to be more sustained consideration by the Council of missions during all their stages of development, and not only when a mission is due to appear on the Security Council’s agenda.
In this regard, and as acknowledged earlier today in the statements by Japan, New Zealand and Canada, there is advantage in the contributions of informal mission-specific coalitions of engaged stakeholders. Such informal support groups can provide valuable assistance in mobilising political support and resources. We think this is a welcome step and provides a constructive opportunity to gather input from a wide range of stakeholders, including troop and police contributing countries, on a particular mission.
Australia’s membership of the Core Group for Timor Leste has enabled us to observe the benefits that wider cooperation on a particular mission can provide, particularly one that is integrated and involves several non-UN components. The Core Group has been pivotal in ensuring that Member States supporting UNMIT have been able to provide input into the development of the mission mandate, thereby ensuring their sustained political support during the different evolutions of the mission cycle. The leadership by South Africa and Japan, as Chairs of the Core Group, has very much assisted the group to function well.
Mr President,
When creating or renewing peacekeeping missions, the Security Council needs to ensure that their mandates are both credible and achievable. This requires a clear understanding within the Council regarding the implications of mandated tasks with regard to resources and possible outcomes. One particular area where this requires significant improvement is the mandating of protection of civilians tasks, as USG Le Roy highlighted earlier today.
The Council has been effective in including protection of civilians in the mandates for peacekeeping operations. However, it is critical that we now ensure these mandates are effectively applied in the field. Some missions have started to develop the means to do this, such as the use of joint protection teams in MONUC or UNAMID’s initiative on protection of civilians. We welcome these developments, but stress that further work must be done to capture the lessons that are being learned in these missions. We need to ensure these lessons are shared and included in the development of training and guidelines to assist all peacekeepers implement these mandates in the field.
Mr President
The successful achievement of peacekeeping mission mandates also requires the timely provision of essential resources. Any lack of responsiveness can put those mandates at risk. We therefore welcome the work of the Department of Field Support in developing a support strategy that has the potential to modernise and globalise UN peacekeeping support structures, thereby improving the protection of Member State personnel and resources.
We also therefore recognise the importance of the related issue of planning. Australia welcomes the progress achieved so far on strengthening integrated mission planning, and hopes to see further progress occur. We also support DPKO’s development of guidelines on civil-military coordination.
Mr President,
Australia believes that it is only through concerted effort and input from all parties who have an interest in UN peacekeeping, that we will truly be able to address the challenges that continue to face it. Australia looks forward to working with the Secretariat, the Security Council, and other Member States on further discussing and progressing some of the recommendations in the ‘New Horizons’ non-paper.
In closing, we would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge once again the service of those men and women deployed to peace operations. Thank you.