Security Council

18 August 2015

Remarks to Security Council on Regional Organizations and Contemporary Global Security Challenges

Ban Ki-moon

I welcome this opportunity to discuss regional organizations and contemporary global security challenges. I thank Her Excellency Ambassador Ogwu for Nigeria’s initiative to organize this very important meeting.

I have always valued cooperation with regional and sub-regional organizations, which have gained greater influence in recent years.

Today I will focus on how to strengthen partnerships so that we can improve our collective response to evolving threats.

My message is simple: the United Nations increasingly shares responsibility for peace and security with regional organizations. We should do everything possible to help them resolve regional problems – and to include the States concerned in solutions.

At the same time, regional organizations should continue contributing to United Nations peace and security efforts. We count on them for political leverage as well as civilian and military capacities.

Members of this Council are all too aware of the changing nature of conflict.

Terrorism and the spread of violent extremism are destabilizing volatile regions.

There are high stakes in any response.

Urbanization, unemployment and population movements, including massive displacement, are increasing dramatically.

Technological advances in warfare, including cyber threats, pose grave dangers to civilians.

Against this shifting security landscape, the United Nations is deploying into fragile and remote environments with little peace to keep.

The Security Council has rightly given our blue helmets ambitious mandates to protect civilians – but too often we lack the proper equipment, resources and training for this life-saving mission.

To close the gap, last year I called for a fresh review of peace operations.

I am now analyzing the report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations. We are identifying the recommendations we can carry out immediately – and those that will require action by legislative bodies, Member States and partners.

The Panel called for a stronger global-regional partnership to ensure that this Council can call draw on a more resilient and capable network of actors.

In recent years, we have seen how practical cooperation among the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union has enhanced progress in Africa.

Now we need to build on this trilateral cooperation and boost our collective ability to manage, plan and execute peace operations.

We should also be open to different forms of engagement with other organizations, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, the League of Arab States (LSA), NATO and the OSCE.

The Panel recommend that we deepen the strategic UN-AU partnership. I fully agree. Almost two thirds of our peace operations and nearly 90 per cent of our uniformed peacekeepers are deployed in Africa.

I applaud the AU and the regional economic communities and regional mechanisms for significantly strengthening their capacities, and for responding rapidly to emerging crises.

In Mali, the Central African Republic and Somalia, the African Union has deployed robust operations in complex settings.

This dangerous work carries a high price. I honour the courage of those AU troops who have lost their lives in the cause of peace. The best tribute is to establish lasting security where they served.

The report calls for greater support to Security Council-authorized AU peace operations. The experts recommend that the United Nations enable regional organizations to share the burden in accordance with the UN Charter. Toward that end, I draw attention to the Panel’s call for more predictable financing, including through the use of UN-assessed contributions.

There are other important forms of support. We are helping with planning processes, logistical packages, UN-managed trust funds and access to all UN expertise, systems, materiel and services.

The UN’s broad support for the AU and ECOWAS also includes political cooperation – which is difficult to quantify but still highly valuable.

Strengthening conflict prevention and mediation saves lives. Our joint efforts have made a meaningful difference in defusing tensions and supporting the transition in Burkina Faso, encouraging political dialogue ahead of elections in Guinea, resolving the electoral crisis in Kenya and ending a political deadlock in Madagascar through a SADC Roadmap, among other engagements.

Investing in prevention will spare the much higher human and financial costs of a crisis.

Leaders must recognize that peace will spare humanitarian tragedies and spur economic development. We should place high expectations on the countries concerned – and help them realize lasting stability.

Our partnerships have brought valuable lessons. We have learned to manage transitions from regional operations to United Nations peacekeeping missions. We have provided a logistics support package to AMISOM – the AU’s largest peace operation.

The United Nations Office to the AU is strengthening our impact.

Now we must optimize our collaboration even more.

We must continue working together to harmonize standards. This would improve the transition from AU operations to UN peacekeeping missions.

More systematic coordination and consultation on policies, guidance and training standards would ensure coherence at all phases, from planning to drawdown.

Human rights must always be at the forefront.

The Panel rightly underscored the primacy of the United Nations Charter and other international human rights and humanitarian law instruments.

United Nations support to regional partners is contingent on compliance with UN norms and standards – including the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, the highest standards of conduct and discipline, the UN’s financial rules and regulations as well as other legislated procedures.

We are all accountable for what we do and how we do it. Our ultimate responsibility is to the peoples we serve.

We have succeeded in dramatically enhancing our partnerships. We have come to rely on each other in critical times. We will continue to advance progress.

The United Nations and regional organizations strive for a common approach to today’s challenges.

Our views may diverge at times, but as long as we are committed to peace, security and human rights, we will stay on course to a more secure future.

Thank you.