UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 56th SESSION

Fifth Committee - Item 122: Comprehensive Review of Peacekeeping Operations, Programme Budget for 2000-2001

Item 133: Administrative and Budgetary Aspects of the Financing of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations - Support Account

Statement by H.E. Mr John Dauth LVO Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations on behalf of New Zealand, Canada and Australia

22 October 2001

Mr. Chairman, I have the honour to speak on behalf of the delegations of Canada, New Zealand and my own delegation, Australia.

Our delegations would like to thank Under-Secretary-General, Mr Joseph Connor, for introducing the Secretary-General's statement on the programme budget implications (A/C.5/55/46 and Add.1) of the draft resolution on the comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects (A/C.4/55/L.23). We would also like to thank the Chairman of the ACABQ, Ambassador Mselle, for introducing his Committee's report (A/56/478), on the Secretary-General's PBI. With these reports, the Fifth Committee is now ready to consider this next phase of the peacekeeping reform process.

The steps taken to date in reforming peacekeeping through the Brahimi Panel on Peace Operations and the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations have been historic ones. For the first time in its history, the UN took a frank look at the way it conducts peacekeeping and made specific, concrete and practical recommendations for improving this capacity. Member States widely supported these recommendations, by approving emergency resources for those areas in DPKO most urgently in need of additional posts.

The UN then underwent an unprecedented comprehensive managerial review of the way in which it plans, deploys, conducts and supports peacekeeping operations. This review identified a number of core capabilities that needed strengthening, including management practices, planning and policy-making, internal coordination, rapid deployment, and mission support.

In its July report, the Special Committee endorsed a strategic plan for acting on these conclusions and those of the Brahimi Panel. This plan laid out in clear terms how Member States wanted to implement this next phase of reform. In response to this direction, the Secretary-General promptly tabled his implementation plan, which the ACABQ has considered and on which this Committee will deliberate over the next several weeks.

We thus find ourselves at another critical juncture in the peacekeeping reform process. We have our policy on what changes need to be implemented, as expressed by the Special Committee. We have the Secretary-General's implementation plan. We now need to ensure that the plan receives the resources it needs to succeed.

Mr. Chairman, 216 posts were requested by the Secretary-General. The ACABQ recommends approval of 129. We welcome the ACABQ's rigour and discipline but we believe a somewhat higher level than 129 is warranted. Whatever final level of posts is agreed, we expect the Secretariat to fill them expeditiously.

Our delegations were heartened by the ACABQ's emphasis on the need to improve the presentation of support account resource requests. This is consistent with long held CANZ views that the UN must become more focused on performance and results - and this applies as much to peacekeeping as it does to the regular budget.

Mr Chairman there are six issues I would like to raise that are of particular concern to our three delegations.

First, for several years now our delegations have sought to address the need for integrating a number of issues into the more complex type of peacekeeping operations we have seen the UN undertake in the past ten years such as humanitarian affairs, gender issues, human rights, and demobilization, disarmament and reintegration. In doing so, it is also essential to derive best practices to ensure lessons learned from these missions are recycled into future operations. We are therefore particularly eager to see the resources requested by the Secretary-General and recommended by the Special Committee in these fields for the Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit be approved.

Second, we recognize the challenges the UN has faced in the management of transitional administrations and look forward to the completion of UN guidelines in sectors such as the judiciary, corrections and interim criminal procedures.

Third, both the Security Council and the Special Committee have recognized the importance of gender mainstreaming in the planning, development and implementation of peacekeeping operations. This Wednesday will mark the first anniversary of the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325, which expresses the Security Council's willingness to integrate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations. In order for this to happen, the provision of gender expertise in DPKO is crucial for translating the gender mainstreaming mandate into practice. We believe policy development on gender and peacekeeping issues is sufficiently urgent and important to warrant the approval of resources to develop such a capacity in the Peacekeeping Best Practices Unit.

Fourth, we believe there is a need for resources at Headquarters to coordinate and support the work of human rights components of peacekeeping operations. This is essential if this work is not to be reinvented every time a new mission is established. The need to address the weaknesses in this area is not new - the Brahimi Panel appealed for it in their report last year -and the Special Committee called for the provision of sufficient resources to Departments and Offices that playa role in peacekeeping support. We believe we need to find resources to address this need.

Fifth, we have expressed concerns about the need for a strategic framework for information technology under another item. These concerns extend to the significant resources being devoted to information technology in DPKO. Before further resources are committed to information technology, there need to be assurances that these commitments are taking place within a well-thought out strategic framework. The issue of integration between IT developments in DPKO and the Secretariat as a whole also deserves attention.

Finally, we are concerned about the impact of scattering DPKO's staff in a number of different physical locations on its operational effectiveness. This scattering will only increase as more resources are approved. DPKO's personnel currently operate from five different buildings, and on six different floors within the Secretariat building alone. These conditions exacerbate the lack of cohesiveness, poor internal coordination and ineffective management that were highlighted in the comprehensive review. We encourage the Secretariat to pursue options for better colocating its employees.

Mr. Chairman, the reforms we are deliberating on represent but one critical part of the broader peacekeeping reform process. We look forward to receiving the Secretary-General's proposals on rapid deployment, enhancing the UN's strategic reserves and on the pre-mandate commitment authority in the coming months.

This undertaking is an ambitious step for the United Nations. And it is a critical one. Nothing reflects on the UN quite like the successes or failures of this most visible of UN functions.

When peacekeeping operations succeed, the UN is lauded. But when they fail, the world suffers from more than just a tarnished UN reputation. For those people and nations that so desperately need the UN's peacekeeping services, the failure of a peacekeeping mission can spell disaster.

If the process of peacekeeping reform initiated by the Secretary-General fails, we will fail the United Nations. This Committee has an important role in determining the success or failure of this endeavour, and the time is now to support it. There will not be another opportunity to make such a genuine improvement in the way the UN manages peacekeeping operations.

In accepting the Nobel Prize recently awarded to himself and the UN, Secretary-General Annan challenged the Organization to do more, to do better and to not rest on its laurels. Mr. Chairman, today I would like to call the Fifth Committee to a similar challenge - to move the UN forward by providing the necessary resources to see through this most critical endeavour. We all have a stake in its success.