UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL
Open Debate -Follow-up to the Millennium Summit Declaration
Statement by H.E. Ms Penny Wensley AO,
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations
7 March 2001
Mr President
Speaking at the Millennium Summit last year, the Australian Prime Minister, observed that "for nations, as with individuals, no rights come without responsibility, no prosperity comes without price". Australia has made its contribution to the price of international peace and security. It has participated willingly -and we believe effectively -in over thirty peacekeeping and peace monitoringoperations in the years since the foundation of the United Nations. Our decision to participate in today's debate is a further practical expression of our commitment.
We were heartened to see the same commitment expressed by the leaders of the world's nations in the Security Council and General Assembly Millennium resolutions to encouraging the UN to strengthen and modernise its role in maintaining international peace and security.
We were also pleased to see recognition of the ever-growing complexity of issues that affect international peace and security. These include, as identified in SCR 1318 of 7 September 2000, the issues of HIV/AIDS -to be taken up this year in the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, in which Australia is playing a particular role -the development of international criminal law and trafficking in small arms.
With regard to HIV/AIDS I want to draw members attention to the forthcoming ministerial meeting on HIV/AIDS and development in the Asia Pacific region which is being hosted by Australia in Melbourne in October. This meeting is being organised as a separate but complementary part of the 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, and will seek to strengthen action being taken to address this issue in our region. We see this as a concrete, practical follow-up to the decisions reached at the Millennium Summit.
Mr President
Let me take this opportunity to express Australia's support for the principles and decisions contained in last September's Security Council Summit resolution and to welcome recent activities of the Council in moving them forward, specifically:
- the establishment by the Council of a working group on peacekeeping whose mandate includes enhancing consultation with troop-contributing countries.
- last month's open debate on peace-building and the UNSG's consultations with regional organisations (the theme for which was peace-building).
- action to support the commitment in the council declaration to prevent the flow of small arms into areas of conflict -a problem of particular resonance in our South Pacific region.
Australia is currently the sixth largest contributor of United Nations peacekeeping personnel, and as I indicated at the outset, has a long-standing commitment to UN peacekeeping.
This is reflected in our current contribution to East Timor and participation in UN missions in Africa and the Middle-East. Our contribution to peacekeeping and peaceful resolution of conflict also extends, we believe, to regional efforts, which have to date made a UN operation unnecessary. I refer in particular to the Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville and the International Peace Monitoring Team (IPMT) in the Solomon Islands, both of which are assisting in a very real way in building confidence and providing the conditions on the ground necessary for bringing the various parties in conflict together to resolve their differences.
This demonstrates very concretely our commitment to burden-sharing -and having demonstrated our own willingness to contribute to UN and international peacekeeping operations, often far from our shores, from time to time believe we can reasonably look to others to share the burden of peacekeeping in our own immediate region.
Mr President
The Brahimi Report on UN peace operations provides us all with the opportunity to bring about major and much-needed changes in the way the United Nations carries out its responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. We welcome action taken to date, including the increase in personnel granted to DPKO in late 2000. We express strong support for the current review of DPKO. It is essential that its strategic and planning capacity be strengthened.
However, in our view, work on implementation has only reached a first phase and much remains to be done to give effect to many worthwhile aspects of the report. We urge that all countries despite differences of opinion on the detail of some of the report's recommendations -join together in working to address and resolve the problems it identifies, in particular, issues such as rapid force deployment capacity, regular financing mechanisms, post-conflict management, peace-building programs and training of personnel.
We would argue that the success of the UN's operations in East Timor have underlined the critical importance, in designing and implementing UN operations, of strong support from Member States, an appropriate, clear and decisive mandate as well as a clear exit strategy. In this respect we welcome the useful Council open debate of November 2000 on exit strategies. We would note the major effect on the UN's credibility of how an operation is conducted and concluded, and we would hope that in time the operation in East Timor will be a model in this respect.
Mr President
In its Summit Resolution, the Council stressed the need to bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and other serious violations of humanitarian law.
Australia has always had a strong commitment to the development of international criminal law, in particular through its support for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, as for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. [The decision of the Australian Government to re-nominate Judge David Hunt for a further term on the Tribunal is evidence of Australia's continuing commitment to the Tribunal's work and its belief that Australia has an important contribution to make to the further development of international criminal law].
The establishment of an International Criminal Court with the capacity to deal with the most serious crimes of concern to the international community has been a longstanding goal of Australia, and one which Australia continues to support strongly, particularly through the current work being undertaken in the ICC Preparatory Commission. We see maintaining the momentum of the ICC negotiations as a significant element in following up the Millennium Summit and the decisions of the Council. The ICC will make a significant contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security.
Mr President
This year's UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its aspects provides an opportunity to address the problem of illicit small arms trade through practical, concrete measures.
The extensive work already undertaken in this area by African countries, as well as in other regions and sub-regions, provide important building blocks for more concerted and coordinated international action. In Australia's own region, Pacific Island Forum countries are similarly working actively to address small arms, including through the development of model legislation to facilitate implementation of a common regional approach to weapons control. In the ASEAN Regional Forum, Australia has also encouraged efforts to develop a coordinated approach to the issue, in particular the adoption of a declaration of responsibilities on small arms and light weapons.
Mr President
The Millennium Summit and the Millennium Declaration, together with the extensive work undertaken by the UN on redefining and modernising how the organisation operates, provides an opportunity that should not be missed to review UN operations so that they can better meet the complex and difficult challenges that the global community faces. This debate has presented an early opportunity to review what we are all doing to implement the commitments we made jointly. I have chosen to highlight a few areas where my government places particular importance and where we are focusing our attention. Mr President, you will not find Australia wanting in either commitment or action in contributing to the way forward.
Finally, Mr President, like my Egyptian colleague, I would like to raise one final point. One issue that was not in the Summit Resolution but which we would like see inform and infuse the work of the Council as it takes and implements its decisions is that of gender awareness. It seems particularly appropriate to mention this as the Commission on the Status of Women is currently in session, and this Thursday is International Women's Day. The UN and the international community talks constantly about the need for gender mainstreaming. It is important the UN's paramount body dealing with peace and security set the example for mainstreaming and factor gender conditions into all its work as matter of course.