UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
Tuesday 21 February
Peacekeeping Operations
Statement by Group Captain Ian Gore, RNZAF
Permanent Mission of New Zealand to the United Nations on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Madame Chair / Mr. Vice-Chair
I am honoured to deliver this statement on behalf of the CANZ group of countries: Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
We look forward to engaging with Special Committee members again this year to produce a meaningful report, including clear guidance to the Secretariat on measures to further strengthen peacekeeping operations and better equip them to meet contemporary challenges.
We welcome the Report of the Secretary-General on Implementation of the Special Committee’s recommendations from last year’s session. The report underscores the importance of the Special Committee’s work, and the need to clearly articulate its conclusions.
CANZ congratulates the C34 membership, Bureau and Chair on the successful first steps towards improving this Committee's working methods. Special mention should be made of the efforts by Morocco and Canada in championing this effort. CANZ looks forward to further developments to enhance our working methods in the year ahead.
The UN system faces a unique opportunity in 2012 to strengthen its support for states emerging from conflict. Several parallel policy processes have generated complementary recommendations on how to better target and deliver international assistance, with significant implications for the peacekeepers’ role as early peacebuilders. CANZ believes particular attention is required over the coming year in the following four areas.
First, significant gaps remain in the area of rule of law. Inadequate support for the justice sector, uneven implementation, and ineffective coordination between actors is hampering efforts to deliver basic justice to local populations.
Second, national capacity building is crucial. The international community must better align international assistance with national priorities, focus more directly on developing national capacity, and mitigate transaction cost for nascent Government institutions.
Third, there is a clear need to draw on wider civilian expertise for peacebuilding tasks. The UN should focus on developing stronger partnerships with external actors and enhancing its own ability to deploy targeted expertise. It will be particularly important to draw on latent capacity within the Global South and from countries with experience of post-conflict peacebuilding or democratic transition.
Fourth, the UN must continue to improve its ability to identify early peacebuilding priorities, employ common conflict analysis, implement on the basis of comparative advantage within the UN system, and develop suitable benchmarks to track progress and guide transition processes.
Last year’s DPKO evaluation of progress in implementing the women, peace and security agenda across UN peace operations painted a mixed picture. However, CANZ has been encouraged by a number of innovative developments to strengthen implementation, including finalisation of guidance and training modules for preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence, and the holding of ‘Open Days’ during which UN peacekeeping personnel can engage with local women on their concerns. CANZ also looks forward to the upcoming piloting of early warning indicators on sexual violence in UNMISS, MONUSCO and UNOCI.
Yet it is clear that, despite recent progress and nearly 12 years of concerted efforts, significant work remains. CANZ is therefore pleased that DPKO’s forward-looking strategy on women, peace and security is being finalized. We urge the further development of guidance and training modules, as well as measures to increase women’s participation in peace operations and to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence, including rape as a weapon of war.
CANZ welcomes the implementation plan for DPKO’s Child Protection Policy, and the strong partnership that exists at headquarters and in the field between various UN departments and personnel. CANZ strongly emphasizes the importance of Child Protection Advisors in peace operations and the need to maintain their direct reporting lines to senior mission leadership. CANZ encourages DPKO to document the impact, lessons learned, and challenges in implementing its Child Protection Policy, and looks forward to its upcoming review, as well as the results of the current review of child protection training needs and resources.
CANZ once again pays tribute to the courage, professionalism and discipline that characterises the work ethic of the vast majority of our peacekeepers, being the standard-bearers for the UN’s mission and values. Sadly, however, some of our number commit crimes of sexual abuse and violation from a position of power against the vulnerable. There can be no tolerance for such criminal behaviour and any allegations must be dealt with swiftly and transparently.
CANZ recognises that the partnership between the UN and Member States is central to ensuring the highest standards of conduct and discipline among peacekeeping personnel; and fully supports the UN’s three-pronged strategy for addressing misconduct through prevention, enforcement of UN standards, and remedial action, including victim assistance and support. We encourage all Member States to assist DPKO and DFS in operationalizing this strategy.
As a longer term solution, CANZ supports the principle that requires Member States to exercise criminal jurisdiction over their nationals in UN operations.
CANZ is encouraged by the development of an Integrated Conduct and Discipline Framework and looks forward to its finalization and development of guidance materials to assist missions prevent and respond to all forms of misconduct.
UN peacekeeping missions continue to be judged against their success in protecting civilians. Substantial progress has been made in the past year in developing training materials, finalising and updating frameworks for mission-specific POC strategies, and articulating the resources and capabilities required for a range of different POC tasks.
CANZ welcomes work to develop further baseline guidance for military and police components and to explore coordination mechanisms. Attention must now be focussed on effectively utilising these tools and evaluating their impact in the field. We also need to learn from field experiences: innovative protection practices developed by specific missions should be shared more broadly, and we must ensure these lessons also inform our discussions here in the Special Committee.
The protection of civilians is a host-nation responsibility, and long term it is only by building the capacity of host authorities to protect their civilian populations that the goals of missions can be sustainably achieved. Local communities are best placed to determine their protection needs, and engagement with them, including through the use of community liaison assistants and civil affairs officers, is essential. In this regard, CANZ welcomes work to develop a handbook and training materials to support civil affairs officers’ work in the field.
Peacekeepers are frequently deployed in challenging environments, in which armed groups threaten the security of civilian populations and of peacekeeping personnel. It is critical that personnel are prepared to deter such threats and to apply force when necessary. CANZ supports the ongoing dialogue on the measured use of force, deterrence and operational readiness. CANZ encourages the Secretariat to develop guidance on the measured use of force and deterrence, to assist Member States in ensuring their military contingents are operationally prepared for the tasks they face once deployed.
Effective peacekeeping, amongst other things, requires mobility, timely information, and logistical support. The current shortage of helicopters is hampering the implementation of mandates, limiting the responsiveness and effectiveness of peacekeeping efforts and posing potential risks to the security of civilians and peacekeepers.
CANZ encourages the Secretariat to continue examining ways to overcome current capability deficits in this area. In particular, we request the Secretariat to commission an external technical review of all aspects of UN helicopter operations. CANZ also encourages a broader examination of cost-effective alternatives to helicopter use, including new technologies and light fixed wing airlift options, where appropriate.
Training is an essential element in ensuring peacekeepers are prepared for the challenges they face in the field. Peacekeeping training within the UN system relies on partnerships between Member States, DKPO, DFS UN organisations and other institutions. With such an array of actors delivering training to our peacekeepers, duplication and divergence in training programs and standards is a real risk. CANZ welcomes the planned training needs assessment to be conducted by DPKO’s Integrated Training Service in 2012. It will be important to ensure that it examines how the UN can draw on comparative advantages across all training providers to ensure a comprehensive and coherent approach.
CANZ recognises the benefits in moving towards a capability driven approach in order to overcome current resource and capability gaps being experienced in the field. CANZ welcomes the development of baseline capability standards as part of the pilot projects targeted at infantry battalions, staff officers and military medical support. We look forward to their rollout and dissemination, and encourage the Secretariat to explore whether a similar approach could be applied to the development of standards for other peacekeeping components.
CANZ is encouraged by progress in the further development of the Global Field Support Strategy, and supports its aims of improving the quality and timeliness of service delivery, enhancing accountability and transparency, and achieving efficiency gains.
CANZ is pleased to see a range of specific proposals in connection with the Global Field Support Strategy being developed. Mechanisms which will improve service delivery and reduce the administrative burden on missions are to be encouraged. The proposal for two new Regional Service Centres in the Middle East and West Africa does, however, require careful consideration, including of their business case against likely future mission requirements in these regions.
Efficiency gains can also be achieved through inter-mission cooperation. CANZ supports the sharing of mission resources where a mission’s geography, political situation and operational requirements make this appropriate. Experience with the sharing of air assets over the past year has demonstrated the potential for effective regionalisation of appropriate functions and activities. This issue should be considered early in operational planning, to ensure missions are resourced as efficiently as possible.
Policing forms an increasingly important component within UN missions. Post-conflict policing is a complex task, requiring expertise from a wide range of policing disciplines. Over the coming year we need to consider further how Police Division can best be equipped to meet the increasingly complex demands being placed on it. There is scope to consider how the Standing Police Capacity and Formed Police Units might provide additional support to Police Division and in missions, as well as the extent to which the complementary activities of Police Division and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime might offer opportunities and enable efficiencies within missions.
CANZ welcomes the development of the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping, which provide a solid foundation for the activities and role of UN Police, and encourages its early implementation. CANZ also fully supports the development of community policing information collection and analysis strategies within missions, in order to provide police with the information and tools necessary to undertake their roles.
In concluding, we note the importance of the Special Committee’s work in improving the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping. And, once again, CANZ pays special tribute to those peacekeepers that have made the ultimate sacrifice in advancing the cause of global peace and security.