Roundtable discussion on the occasion of the
International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers

Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
Dear Colleagues:

It is my privilege to welcome you to our annual roundtable discussion to mark the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. It is a pleasure to continue the tradition of organizing this commemoration with the Soldiers of Peace International Association. We are grateful that so many peacekeepers, from across the world, are with us today. This day is their day. And it is an honour to be able to pay tribute to many of them in person.

This roundtable provides us with a most welcome opportunity not only to salute our peacekeepers and their accomplishments over the past 61 years, but also to reflect on the challenges before us.

As I said earlier, we have witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number and scope of operations. Beyond monitoring cease-fires, today’s multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon to facilitate political processes through the promotion of national dialogue and reconciliation, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants, support the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights, and assist in restoring the rule of law. In short, peacekeeping now represents a common platform for the international community to support post-conflict transition and early peacebuilding.

We must be realistic: despite the intensified focus on conflict prevention, the United Nations will continue to be called upon to assist communities and nations in making the transition from war to peace.

Against this background, I should like to share with you some thoughts from the perspective of the United Nations Secretariat on the scale of these challenges – and, most importantly, how we can work towards addressing them.

I also look forward to hearing the views of my distinguished fellow panellists who represent some of the countries who put their women and men on the frontlines of peace. I am grateful that you are with us today. And, in particular, I look forward to hearing from the Blue Helmets who have joined us today. Your ideas – shaped by your experience on the ground – are particularly valuable.

A decade ago, when the current blueprint for peacekeeping was developed, less than 20,000 civilian, military and police personnel were deployed. That number now exceeds 113,000. Today’s Blue Helmets are stretched, as they are confronted with increasingly complex security and logistical environments across the globe. Often, they find themselves in fluid and fragile situations that are not resolvable by peacekeeping alone.

There is clearly a need to review practices and procedures to ensure that peacekeeping can continue to deliver, and the Secretariat is actively engaged on this.

First, we must recognize both the possibilities and the limitations of peacekeeping:

Peacekeepers cannot succeed in situations where there is no peace to keep, and peacekeeping may therefore not always be the most appropriate instrument to deal with a conflict situation.

As the mandates of peacekeeping operations have become more complex and comprehensive, we must acknowledge that peacekeeping cannot be a substitute for broader efforts to set countries on the path to peace. The root causes of any conflict should be addressed in a coordinated and coherent manner, using all available political, social and developmental instruments. These efforts need to continue after the departure of a peacekeeping operation for a transition to lasting peace and security and development. The international community needs to work with local institutions in support of democratic governance, the rule of law and continued economic development. The efforts of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission are particularly important in this regard.

Such a realistic assessment of what peacekeeping can achieve is critical to managing the expectations that continue to grow with the expansion of mandates and deployments. Sometimes these expectations grow exponentially, but resources and capacity do not. When expectations are not met, the credibility of peacekeeping – and ultimately its legitimacy – suffers.

Second, we must provide clear, achievable mandates and match these with stronger planning:

The success – or indeed the possible failure – of a peacekeeping mission depends, in large part, on the mandate and the planning. We must ensure clear mandates, with realizable objectives.

This also means that attention must be paid to the evolving situation on the ground when extending or reviewing the mandates of operations to ensure that their priorities and resources are adequate, as the situation develops.

The planning phase could also be enhanced through more direct integration of the expertise of national military experts to complement in-house expertise and enhance our conflict analysis capacity.

Third, we must give our peacekeepers the necessary human and financial resources to do the job:

No job can be done without the necessary tools. The United Nations has to be politically, financially and operationally enabled to be truly credible as a force for peace. To be able to deploy and manage large operations with tight timelines across vast and often inhospitable terrain, we need to mobilize additional resources, while increasing impact, sustainability and accountability.

This requires sufficient numbers of capable, rapidly deployable peacekeepers. There is a widening gap between supply and demand both for the numbers and types of personnel needed. The United Nations continues to rely on a small group of countries for the bulk of the troop contribution, which is not sustainable with increasing demands for ever-more robust mandates. Broader participation of Member States is needed.

As the Secretary-General has pointed out in his message for this day, there is also a need for greater involvement of female peacekeepers. As recognized by the landmark Security Council Resolution 1325, sustainable peace cannot be achieved without the full and equal participation of women. An alarming number of women and girls fall victim to sexual violence in conflict. With Resolution 1820, the Security Council demanded the immediate and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians, which marked an important step forward in confronting this widespread and systematic violence against women and girls. Female peacekeepers can be particularly valuable in working with vulnerable groups in this area.

As peacekeeping operations operate in higher threat environments, where ceasefires or peace processes are fragile and, in most cases, state authority is weak or non-existent, supply of proper intelligence and equipment is fundamental to a successful operation.

Unity of command needs to be maintained, while taking into consideration the need to able to react quickly on the ground to rapidly-changing circumstances. A balance has to be struck between delegation of managerial and administrative authority at the field level, while improving training, monitoring and oversight to ensure that goals are achieved.

Fourth, we need to strengthen our regional partnerships.

The international peace and security environment, in which United Nations peacekeeping is situated, constantly evolves. The deepening of partnerships with regional organizations on the ground, including through hybrid operations, has taken on added significance. The situations in Chad and Somalia, for example, are cases of burden-sharing that could inspire further thinking on how to reinforce these partnerships to maximize global capacity. The legitimacy and local knowledge of regional organizations can be of particular value.

In this context, the recommendations of the AU-UN panel on modalities for support to African Union peacekeeping operations merit further consideration with a view to enhancing the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of the financing of United Nations-mandated peace operations undertaken by the African Union.

Dear Friends:

Despite the expansion in the scope of purpose and increase in the number of personnel, peacekeeping remains the most cost-effective instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security. The current budget of 7.6 billion dollars annually equals only one half of one percent of the total global military spending, which has topped 1.3 trillion dollars. These numbers are sobering – and a clear reminder of the need to strengthen efforts for multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation to liberate resources from the ongoing arms race for more cost-effective purposes with a greater impact, including peacekeeping.

Despite the challenges that we face, peacekeeping remains a core function of the United Nations. Our peacekeepers embody the ideals and values of this Organization. For millions of people around the world they represent the first real prospect of a future without fear and want. Today is our opportunity to thank them and to reaffirm our commitment to doing our very best to support them.

Today belongs to them.

Thank you very much.