Mr. President,

Thank you for the opportunity to address publicly the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping and the progress achieved to date to tackle it.

As I begin, I must express a few words of admiration for the efforts of H.R.H. Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, the Secretary-General's Adviser on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. He has given us unflinching diplomatic and practical support on this issue. His involvement has been invaluable and we are grateful for it.

I also must highlight the exceptional leadership ASG Jane Holl Lute has demonstrated this past year in galvanizing the department and the UN system to deal with this problem more seriously than we ever have in the past.

Most of all, I express deep appreciation for the amount of time, energy and political attention Member States have invested recently in seeking solutions to the problem. The troop-contributing countries especially deserve praise for engaging with the Secretariat and the membership at large on issues of extreme sensitivity and of great importance to their national honor. I stress the word honor, because it has been earned at the cost of the lives of some of their finest uniformed personnel.

Security Council members well know that just some weeks ago, three Jordanian soldiers died fighting gang members while helping to strengthen a central checkpoint o n Haiti 's most dangerous road. Not long before that a Canadian Royal Mounted Police officer was killed in an ambush while patrolling in Port-au-Prince . In the jungles of the eastern DRC, eight Guatemalan special forces soldiers lost their lives in a firefight with a hateful militia group. A year ago this week nine of their comrades from Bangladesh also fell in the line of duty in clashes with armed thugs. Unfortunately, they are not alone. This is a dangerous business, claiming and threatening the lives of men and women from Peru to Pakistan , Ireland to India , and Bolivia to Brazil . But despite the risks, day in and day out, UN personnel --civilians, military and police alike-from 120 countries get on with doing their jobs in tough conditions and at great personal sacrifice.

We dishonor these brave men and women when we fail to prevent or punish those from within their ranks who victimize the very people peacekeepers are meant to protect and serve. I'm not so sure this was fully understood a few years ago as clearly as it is today.

Two years ago, prior to the revelation that a shockingly large number of UN peacekeepers had committed sexual exploitation and abuse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , neither we, in DPKO, nor you, the Member States, openly discussed or fully appreciated the magnitude of the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping.

Today, not only is the severity of the problem openly recognized, but the General Assembly has adopted a comprehensive strategy to tackle it, building on the collective efforts of Prince Zeid, DPKO and the UN system at large. This strategy focuses on prevention, enforcement and it will – upon approval by the General Assembly of a policy on victim's assistance – incorporate remediation as well.

We have already made concrete and meaningful progress to implement that strategy. Before discussing this, though, I want to be clear upfront that we still have a considerable way to go. It must be said that not all troop contingents or staff on the ground fully support -- even after all the negative publicity and attention -- aspects of the zero tolerance policy, particularly as it pertains to prostitution. We will need to work together to address that point. We also need to markedly strengthen the peacekeeping operations' and OIOS's capacity to investigate violations while respecting due process. Once we have overcome these hurdles, we expect to significantly narrow the continuing gap between zero tolerance and full compliance. Until then, as we even more aggressively seek out non-compliance measured against a higher standard than ever before, the progress being made will not seem obvious, nor will it be enough.

Prevention

Let me now start with the progress we've achieved. We are making headway in laying the foundations for the prevention of the problem in the longer-term.

Two years ago, we did not even have a uniform standard governing what is, and what is not, considered sexual exploitation and abuse. You can hardly prevent the problem if you can't define it clearly and consistently. Today we can. Thanks to the efforts of the General Assembly last year, all UN civilian staff members, military personnel, contingents, UNVs, and contractors are bound by the same very strict standards outlined in the Secretary-General's prohibitions on sexual exploitation and abuse.

In the past, we did not do enough to promulgate, publicize and train personnel on whatever standards were on the books. Today, we most certainly do. Between 75 and 90% of civilian, police and military personnel receive mandatory training on sexual exploitation and abuse. Our aim is 100%.

We have also developed tools to reinforce that training and its underlying message of the duty of care every peacekeeper has to the people they are meant to help. DPKO has worked with an outside professional company to produce a film on the code of conduct for peacekeepers. It has been widely distributed in the field and translated into a dozen languages. And, I'm pleased to report, it has been well received.

We've developed and are making use of other innovative tools and training materials to educate and inform personnel. These include an online e-learning Standards of Conduct module, pocket cards, mission readiness booklets distributed to staff prior to deployment, security briefings, and sexual exploitation and abuse and anti-trafficking posters and brochures (prepared, I might add, in six languages) as well as other public information tools.

Our personnel are not the only ones we target with this material. We're sharing them with host populations as well. They have a right to know the standards we expect of our people. They are also often in a better position to know when our personnel are violating those high standards. We are now actively encouraging and making it easier for them to bring breaches of conduct to our attention.

But, prevention cannot be achieved through training, information and public outreach alone. Welfare is another important part of the equation, as armed forces throughout the world know all too well. This is especially true when you deploy uniformed personnel, as well as civilians, into quasi war-zones in the remotest parts of the world. Missions are now addressing this issue as a high priority. Most are now creating constructive recreational outlets, and several have even established, from existing resources, multi-purpose sporting, socializing and dining facilities. These are the types of initiatives included in our welfare strategy and standard operating procedures on welfare promulgated and sent to all Heads of Mission last month. In our discussions in the General Assembly, we will encourage Troop Contributing Countries to make use in the mission area of the welfare stipend paid by the Organization for every military peacekeeper. It is important that the issue of welfare and recreation be a priority to keep these soldiers busy when they are not on duty.

Enforcement

On enforcement, we have also made some strides. During 2005, investigations have been completed into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving 296 peacekeeping personnel (the breakdown by category of which is 84 civilians, 21 police and 191 military). So far, 17 civilians, 16 police and 137 military personnel have been dismissed or repatriated. These numbers include six commanders. For the past year, we had been making managers and commanders aware that they would be held accountable for those under their chain of command, and we meant it. We are in the process of making this accountability part of their performance evaluation. We have also sought and received the cooperation from two member states in repatriating entire units for misconduct – in part, related to sexual exploitation and abuse, and in part related to other misconduct.

The Conduct and Discipline Teams

One of the big reasons why we have made significant headway in the areas of enforcement and prevention is because Member States have recently given us the means to dedicate professional experts to the task, full time. As recommended by the Zeid Report and endorsed by the General Assembly, we have designed, recruited for and staffed a multi-disciplinary Conduct and Discipline Team at DPKO Headquarters, in addition to eight Conduct and Discipline teams established in peacekeeping operations in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Timor Leste.

These Conduct and Discipline Teams develop policy, provide oversight of disciplinary issues and ensure the coherent application of UN standards of conduct. In missions, the teams provide policy advice to Heads of Mission on discipline, receive allegations from complainants, collaborate with the Integrated Mission Training Centres and help the mission leadership maintain a watchful eye on all issues related to conduct and discipline. The field has largely welcomed this important tool in the arsenal to combat sexual exploitation and abuse as well as other forms of indiscipline.

In addition, these Conduct and Discipline teams are crucial drivers of the outreach to host populations I mentioned earlier. They have been active in making communities aware of the various methods through which complaints – by telephone, email or in person – can be made in a confidential setting. We will formally launch a new comprehensive database to track and monitor all allegations in the middle of this year. In the interim, we have implemented a file-sharing mechanism to report and store allegations securely and confidentially. And we have developed a public information strategy and implementing procedure to guide missions in responding actively and transparently to local media and host populations on sexual exploitation and abuse issues.

Strengthening partnerships with OIOS and the UN system

DPKO's Conduct and Discipline Teams rely heavily on an ever growing collaboration in this area with OIOS – the investigating authority for sexual exploitation and abuse offenses. OIOS is an essential partner and a central element of our comprehensive strategy to these important issues, which is why DPKO requested OIOS to undertake a global audit on discipline, among many numerous other audits, to help us identify and fix the most difficult problems in the field. We need their help and expertise; we cannot possibly be aware of all potential wrongdoing occurring across the globe, in 18 missions, comprising over 85,000 people drawn from over 100 countries.

The specialized capacity of the OIOS helps ensure thoroughness in the handling and investigation of complaints, and they have established an investigative presence in six missions. But their hand must be strengthened; they currently do not have all the resources to do the job they are asked to do.

Investigations in the field pose certain problems. While Troop Contributing Countries have been requested to coordinate with OIOS in a manner that satisfies the requirements of their national jurisdictions, not all member states are comfortable with the investigative role given to OIOS by the General Assembly, and have reserved their rights with respect to their uniformed personnel on the ground. We must sort through this issue to ensure rapid, reliable means of determining the facts, preserving the rights of the victim and the accused, and discharging justice fairly.

These measures, Mr President, are what we have put in place together with our partners in the UN system, and we continue to develop these and other initiatives the areas of prevention and enforcement.

Under the heading of what might be termed ‘remediation,' we have made progress with our UN partners in developing a policy regarding support to victims. A UN-wide task task force, led by OCHA and DPKO, has overseen the preparation of this policy, which has been widely consulted over the past year (including several meetings with members states). It is being transmitted to the Secretary General this week for final discussions and forwarding to member states as requested in the Summit Outcome Document.

Where Member States must help

The measures I have described to you are the beginning of a program of systemic and sustained change. We have made significant progress. However, there is a great deal yet to be done and for this, as we will make clear in our discussions in the General Assembly, we need the greater support from Member States.

We will urge Member States to adopt a revised MOU to incorporate the standards of conduct contained in the Secretary-General's prohibitions. We will urge Member States to firmly endorse the creation of fully fledged Conduct and Discipline Units at Headquarters and in the field, and to establish such units in missions that are not currently served by them. These units are an essential tool for preventing misconduct and monitoring compliance with UN standards.

We will urge Member States, including all TCCs, to send an uncompromising message against prostitution in peacekeeping missions. Indeed, today, the single measure that would do the most to reduce the level of allegations and strengthen the policy of zero tolerance against sexual exploitation and abuse – is if all troop contingents had an active and effective policy against all prostitution in mission areas.

We will appeal to Member States not to conflate the issues of procurement procedures being stretched by honest peacekeepers trying to get a job done, with financial fraud, and with sexual exploitation and abuse. It is one thing for auditors – I am an auditor by training -- to disagree about whether financial loss to the Organization has occurred because a field manager chose to use mission aircraft to fly rations to troops, when fuel supplies in a country were unexpectedly cut-off and left a contractor unable to deliver them. It is another matter altogether when procurement officials deliberately defraud the Organisation. But let me stress that regardless of any divergence of views on methodology and accounting for loss, DPKO takes all OIOS findings and recommendations seriously and is addressing the weaknesses identified in peacekeeping procurement in the same comprehensive, professional and sustained manner with which we have addressed the sexual exploitation and abuse issue over the past 18 months.

On this point, the ASG for Mission Support, the Chef de Cabinet, the Head of OIOS and the USG for Management and I are all fully on board with the Secretary-General's position that we need to be proactive and aggressive in detecting and dealing swiftly with this critical issue. If proven, following due process, dishonest people should be fired and face justice. This is as important here as it is in the case of sex crimes, which constitute a different and most egregious category of offense and demand the highest degree of vigilance.

And finally, we will be seeking formal support from Member States on a longer-term reform agenda for peacekeeping, in general, as outlined in the Secretary-General's Report now before the General Assembly's Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. The implementation of those reforms should also help to address some underlying structural weaknesses that give rise to the acts of misconduct we have been discussing the past few days.

Mr. President,
Excellencies,

In conclusion,

We have tens of thousands of extremely competent, honest and courageous personnel in the field. These are your nationals--uniformed and civilian personnel alike. We cannot allow acts of serious misconduct by some to betray their good work and tarnish the reputation of UN peacekeeping. It is an indispensable instrument, it is effective, and it is helping maintain peace for tens of millions of people around the world.

Thank you.