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Mr Chairman
I have the honour to make this statement on behalf of the CANZ Group of countries - Canada, Australia, and my own country, New Zealand. Let me first welcome you to the Chair and assure you of our full support during this session.
Our delegations would like to begin by paying tribute to the 136 peacekeepers who died in the service of peace since January 2005. We would also like to acknowledge the death of our colleague Glynn Berry, a previous Chair of this committee, who likewise died while supporting peacebuilding efforts in Afghanistan last month.
We wish to welcome the Secretary General's report (A/60/640) on Peacekeeping Operations and Under Secretary General Guéhenno's briefing. We also wish to congratulate USG Guéhenno and his staff for the sterling effort they have made over the last twelve months in ensuring that we the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) are fully briefed and work in partnership. The addendum to the SGs report and the CD ROM with all the briefings has been particularly welcome. We look forward to this close engagement continuing, especially in light of the major challenges ahead.
We continue to recognise the immense progress the Department has made in establishing and managing peace operations and we are greatly encouraged by his proposals for further reform. However, we remain convinced that such reform must be done in partnership with all stakeholders, especially TCCs and that this partnership should begin early on in the process rather than late in the piece as has happened in the past.
Many of the issues we raised in our intervention in the Fourth Committee last year remain extant, but we see two major areas of focus for our comments on today. First is the need for member states to implement the initiatives welcomed by world leaders during the World Leaders Summit and second is the need to implement the zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and bring to fruition the suite of helpful initiatives currently being developed. We also see a need to continue momentum on a number of technical issues including, training matters, gender, staff officers in the field, the quality of personnel provided by TCCs, and the high level of civilian vacancies in the field.
Mr Chairman,
World Leaders agreed upon a number of outcomes, five of which we will focus on today, given their significant impact on peace operations. The first two, the decision to establish a Peacebuilding Commission and the recognition of the Responsibility to Protect, will have significant influence across a large part of the organisation. The third issue, management reform, must be done in partnership and focus on processes and best practice before making any changes to the organisations' structure. We fully support the introduction of the Standing Police Capacity and look forward to being fully engaged with its' implementation later this year. The final outcome is Enhanced Rapidly Deployable Capacities.
The Peacebuilding Commission is designed to fill an institutional gap in the United Nations. As Secretary General Kofi Annan said in April last year, roughly half of all countries that emerge from war lapse back into violence within five years. We welcome the maintenance of momentum following the Summit on this key initiative and urge member states to agree to the modalities for the Peacebuilding Commission. We hope in particular that from the start of a peace operation that the Peacebuilding Commission will be able to effectively coordinate and integrate international resources, within and outside the United Nations, to address critical rule of law issues and capacity building. This will encourage and facilitate a seamless transition from humanitarian assistance and peace operations to early recovery and provide the foundation for long-term sustainable development. At the same time, we encourage DPKO to continue to work with its partners within the UN system to make the current IMPP process more effective, and address how better to integrate work within UNDG, in particular, into the early elements of mission planning.
We have taken note of the Secretary General's decision to issue new guidance on integrated missions, and the impending completion of the inter-agency review of the IMPP in mid-2006. These are critical processes and our delegations would like this committee to be kept informed of their development. We agree on guidelines regarding cooperation with humanitarian and development partners and the sequencing and implementation of priorities.
Mr Chairman,
In September, our leaders underscored collectively a responsibility to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. It is vital that when the need arises we give effect to our resolve to follow the principles agreed upon. While our nations will be encouraging the UN Security Council to act when needed, it is incumbent on the peacekeeping community, represented by this Committee, to begin considering the work necessary to give effect to the concept on the ground. We pledge to work closely with DPKO and other interested nations to quickly address these issues and call upon this Committee to endorse early action on this matter.
We welcome the efforts made by the Secretary General and DPKO to implement measures to address sexual exploitation and abuse problems. We call on all TCCs to ensure that all personnel deployed on UN peace operations be appropriately trained and be held to the highest standards of conduct and discipline. We wish to register our very strong concern that the problem appears not to have diminished in the field during the past year, in spite of the attention given to this issue. We continue our united support to all actions taken by DPKO to alter the apparent continuing cultural acceptance of this appalling behaviour by a small minority.
We need vigilance and determined action by both DPKO and by member states. We consider it essential that the momentum generated by Prince Zeid's report be maintained. Workable and effective initiatives must be pursued with vigour and determination. We wish to reiterate the support of our countries for the National Investigation Officer concept and a methodology for strong, direct and transparent action, ensuring adherence to national judicial processes. In this respect, it is imperative that early advice is given to a member state where an allegation has been made involving any of its' personnel. We also look forward to concluding work on the model MOU, noting that the model MOU should then be used as a guide to enable TCCs and the UN to agree an MOU or other arrangement that enshrines the model MOU principles and also meets national requirements.
Mr Chairman,
We are encouraged by Under Secretary-General Guéhenno's remarks on DPKO reform, especially his intent to engage with member states that have grappled with similar challenges. We anticipate that greater integration here at NY HQ will inevitably lead to enhanced integration in the field, not only through such mechanisms as the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) and Joint Mission Analysis Cell (JMAC), but also in the overall planning and execution of a Mission's mandate and the transition to long term sustainability. We welcome also the Department's intent to define and clearly articulate the principles and procedures for carrying out peace operations, as a logical hierarchical set of documents, that will dramatically improve not just integrated activity, but all activity conducted under UN auspices. The doctrinal bedrock will provide the foundation for further training development, capitalising on the excellent work done during the development of the Standardised Training Modules. We encourage DPKO to also explore the potential, in partnership with UNITAR and Member States, of using e-learning, especially in enhancing African Peacekeeping capabilities. We continue to urge the Department and member states to precede the doctrinal work with a terminology development workshop as quickly as possible to ensure that we establish clarity throughout the UN community on the meaning of a number of words in the UN lexicon that continue to be used ambiguously.
We welcome the initiative which DPKO has taken in developing a constructive relationship with regional organizations on peace and security matters such as with the EU, NATO, and the AU and African sub-regional organizations both in the context of Darfur and broader capacity building efforts. This work is very important to the enhancement of the capacity of the international community to respond to developing conflict and crises.
We welcome the work being undertaken by DPKO to enhance the management of peace operations knowledge and capture and disseminate lessons learned through the work of the Best Practices Unit, and strongly urge that this important work be continued. We also note that a number of other studies into complex peace operations have been completed and would encourage DPKO to utilise this material to ensure best practice is followed, and continue a dialogue with those actors especially those who were involved with the Challenges Project and the Economic Impact of Peacekeeping Operations.
Technical Issues
Mr Chairman, there are five matters of a more technical nature which our three countries wish to note. First, the development of the Standardized Training Modules has been an important contribution to enhancing the readiness of national military personnel for UN peace operations. The dissemination of STM 2 and 3 training material in the past 12 months has been particularly welcome. The wider complementary development of training for police and civilians however, still remains to be done in cooperation with other UN entities. Without all of the components having well developed and complementary training, the vision of a fully integrated Mission will remain unfulfilled. We are aware that translation of this material into the official UN languages has been difficult. We suggest that DPKO enter into a dialogue with member states to explore alternate processes to translate this material expeditiously.
Second, we are pleased to note that the support arrangements for staff officers have been revised as stated by USG Guehenno earlier today.
Third, we welcome DPKO's focus on establishing procedures for gender mainstreaming throughout the Department's operations, including through the impending Seminar, for implementing the elements of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) as this will also assist in our struggle to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse.
Fourth, we look forward to a robust and frank dialogue with DPKO regarding concerns over the quality of personnel provided by member states particularly Military Observers. We are also aware that the potential for civilian observers has been raised. We therefore encourage an examination from first principles of the requirement for observers in today's complex peacekeeping operations, in order to identify the wide range of tasks, determine their appropriateness as an observer task, identify the skill sets required, and then identify who is best suited to undertake the role.
Finally we note that civilian vacancies in the field are relatively high. We would be interested in being briefed on this issue especially with regard to how these vacancies may affect a missions' success?
Mr Chairman,
Let me conclude by reinforcing Canada, Australia and New Zealand's strong commitment to eradicating misconduct including sexual exploitation and abuse amongst UN personnel, and our commitment to capitalise on USG Guehenno's agenda based on the five priority areas of partnerships, doctrine, people, organization and resources. We call on all member states in this committee to remain pragmatic, and assist in ensuring we provide clear and unambiguous guidance to DPKO.
Thank you.
