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Mr Chairman,
New Zealand has a longstanding commitment to the role and work of United Nations and associated personnel. We pay tribute to these individuals for their courage and commitment to this organisation’s work of strengthening and maintaining peace and delivering assistance to those in need.
We have seen too many violent, and sometimes fatal, attacks carried out against individuals participating in UN missions in the field. There is no doubt that the threat against individuals carrying out the UN’s work is real, and the reward for their selfless efforts is an increasing danger of personal harm. Member States have a particular responsibility to ensure that we do everything in our power to address these threats. An attack on the personnel of this Organisation is an attack on the effectiveness and the very purposes of the Organisation itself.
Mr Chairman,
Obviously, an adequate response to this situation requires action on a range of fronts.
We acknowledge and support the work of our colleagues in the Fifth Committee, who are focusing during this 59th session of the General Assembly on the urgent need for strengthened security arrangements for UN field operations, including substantial organizational reform.
In addition to this important work, legal measures play an important role in ensuring that personnel are adequately protected and that those who commit crimes against them are brought to justice. We are intent on ensuring that the international legal regime offers the highest possible standard of protection to UN and associated personnel, whose work, representing the international community in environments of socio-economic, political and infrastructural stress, by its nature, renders them vulnerable to attack.
As a critical step in ensuring adequate protection, New Zealand joins the Secretary-General’s call for all states to become party to the 1994 Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel (“the 1994 Convention“).
In addition, New Zealand reiterates its commitment to working with all states to conclude a new Optional Protocol to the 1994 Convention that will improve and extend the scope of legal protection for UN and associated personnel.
Mr Chairman,
New Zealand is encouraged by discussions held during the recent meeting of the Working Group of the Sixth Committee. We welcome the Working Group’s recommendation to use the Chairman’s text as the basis of future work. We see this recommendation as a demonstration of renewed commitment to our shared objective - improving the regime of protection for personnel engaged in UN operations.
It is clear from the draft text we are working on that there remain areas of difference in relation to certain issues. New Zealand is ready to focus on those areas of difference in the coming months. We will work with others to look for satisfactory solutions that will ensure adequate protection of an expanded range of UN and associated personnel. With the draft text now before us, and the positive momentum of our recent Working Group discussions behind us, we look forward to this next stage of our work. We are ready and willing to engage in discussions with any interested states to face the challenge of developing a new, widely supported Optional Protocol to expand the scope of application of the 1994 Convention.
