UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 56th SESSION
Fourth Committee -Item 189: Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in All Their Aspects
Statement by Mr Bassim Blazey, Counsellor for the Australian Delegation
21 November 2001
Mr Chairman
Let me start by paying tribute to your able and efficient chairmanship of this committee.
Mr Chairman
September 11 and the events following has reminded us again that the struggle for peace and security remains central to the work of the United Nations. In pursuing this objective it is vital for the United Nations to have the ability to mount responsive and well planned and executed peacekeeping operations. For this reason Australia welcomes the continuing focus in many parts of the UN system on ways in which to improve UN peacekeeping operations. We are particularly appreciative of the continuing work of the UN Secretariat to ensure that the recommendations of the Brahimi Report and the report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations are implemented in a timely and effective way. We welcome the briefing provided by Under-Secretary-General Guehenno, which has highlighted the more recent steps undertaken to implement these recommendations. We also welcome his commitment to management change and a culture of continuous improvement.
Mr Chairman
The range of issues which need ongoing attention in order to improve peacekeeping is now familiar and well understood. We know that it is necessary to continue strengthening the planning, management and mission support functions in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. We need to ensure that creation of Integrated Mission Task Forces become a standard response to complex crises. Such task forces need to work in a transparent and open way. We need to continue working to ensure that communication and coordination between the field and headquarters is as good as it can be. Logistical support for UN peacekeeping operations should be subject to continuous improvement. We need to ensure that deployment of peacekeepers can be genuinely rapid and effective, to maximise the benefits that early insertion of forces brings in terms of limiting the depth and scope of conflict. In this regard, development of the strategic reserve at Brindisi is of fundamental importance. And when peacekeepers and other associated personnel are deployed it is vital that everything possible is done to ensure their safety.
As many delegations have pointed out, we also need to continue improving the quality of consultation between the Security Council, Troop Contributing Countries and the Secretariat. Let me say, Mr Chairman, that this is an area that has seen improvements as efforts are made to implement Security Council Resolution 1353. The habits of consultation that have developed in respect of the peacekeeping operation in East Timor has been very welcome and should serve as a model for what can be done more generally. As further improvements are made in this area, it is important to ensure that consultation processes are streamlined: mechanisms that create barriers to quick, effective responses to crises would be a backward step.
Mr Chairman
While work on improving peacekeeping must continue, we recognise that peacekeeping is only one element in the range of responses the international community must draw upon to respond to threats to peace and security. The necessary and justified response in self-defence to the appalling attacks of 11 September reminds us that states need to remain vigilant to such threats and prepared to respond firmly. At the other end of the spectrum of responses, it is also important, as we were reminded in the Secretary General's report on Conflict Prevention, that the international community be more proactive in addressing the roots of conflict and work harder to stop conflicts at the earliest possible stage in the conflict cycle.
Mr Chairman
Peacekeeping can only be fully effective if it is embedded within a comprehensive strategy that also encompasses disarmament, demoblisation and reintegration of combatants (DDR) as well as reconciliation and institutional and economic development. It is for this reason that we have welcomed the thorough and realistic report of the Secretary General on the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, which was endorsed by the Security Council. It reflected the straightforward proposition that no matter how good a peacekeeping operation is, the task is not complete until functioning institutions able to cope with political and developmental challenges are also put on a stable footing.
Mr Chairman
There is one last point I wish to register. It relates to the importance of coherence in implementing the Brahimi recommendations and subsequent recommendations of the report of the Special Committee. In an organisation as large and complex as the UN this is a particular challenge. We do not want to see the good work done in defining goals, priorities and objectives undermined in any way. It is necessary therefore that all delegations work as cooperatively and effectively on the financial and resource aspects of the Brahimi recommendations as they have to date on setting reform goals and priorities. Among these, we would note the need to establish policy support capacities in the peacekeeping best practices unit in relation to disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants, humanitarian affairs and gender and peacekeeping.
Thank you Mr Chairman.