Opening statement by Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, at Fourth Committee Meeting on comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects
30 October 2015
Ambassador Bowler, Mr. Deputy Secretary General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to you all.
It is a pleasure to join you to discuss UN peace operations and the important work of the Fourth Committee. Let me begin by congratulating you, Ambassador Bowler, Permanent Representative of Malawi, on your election to Chair of this Committee. I wish you, your bureau, and all the members of this Committee every success during this 70th session.
Ladies and gentlemen, if I understand correctly, this joint debate is the first of its kind for this Committee. This follows on from the very timely and indeed very necessary initiative from the Secretary-General to launch a review of peace operations. It comes also on the back of the very insightful plenary debate that I chaired on this subject only three weeks ago.
As you are all aware, the report from the high-level independent panel on peace operations and the Secretary General’s implementation report made a number of concrete recommendations.
Following the 12 October plenary debate on those reports and subsequent extensive consultations, I have tabled a short General Assembly Resolution for adoption. This Resolution conveys the commitment of the membership to assess the recommendations emanating from the Secretary General’s initiative in accordance with established procedures.
In this context, today’s meeting is an excellent opportunity to consider the different dimensions of the Peace Operations review in more detail and to assess its practical implications.
Mr Chair, while peace operations have contributed greatly to peace and security in our world these past 70 years, it is crucial that the UN’s approach keeps pace with and responds to evolving challenges and new threats.
The continued escalation of violence in Syria and the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in the region illustrate in the most tragic way the consequences of the lack of international unity and effective action from the UN.
The spread of violent extremism, the proliferation of all sorts of weapons, asymmetric warfare, new threats including cyber space action and epidemics like Ebola demonstrate also that threats to global peace and security are indeed changing all the time.
In this ever more complex and interconnected world, UN peace operations require consistent refinement, using adequate analytical and operational capabilities.
Special attention needs to be given, for example, to effective preventive diplomacy, political settlements, comprehensive approaches and greater flexibility in addressing budgetary and management issues.
It is also important to consider the relations between peace keeping operations and special political missions, their common dimensions and how best to transcend silos and advance a more holistic approach to these complex issues.
Such a comprehensive approach requires that the review under discussion here today, be looked at in tandem with the 10-year review of the peacebuilding architecture as well as the global study on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. Although these reviews and processes are distinct from each other, they are all inspired by the same sense of urgency and by the need to strengthen the UN’s role, capacity and efficiency in this area.
For this reason, I will hold a high-level thematic debate on the 10th and 11th of May to provide member states and others with a platform to identify common themes and synergies from these reviews and to enhance the coherence in the UN system on the issues of peace and security.
To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all successful deliberations today and I urge all members to work together during this Anniversary year to consider how – collectively – we can work to make future UN peace operations more efficient and effective and more capable of responding to threats in today’s complex world.
Thank you.