12 October 2015: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged immediate action to strengthen the UN’s peace operations, and called on the 193 Member States of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to coordinate efforts so as to “let our actions speak louder than our words,” at the UNGA’s debate on ‘Strengthening of the United Nations system’ and the Report of the Secretary-General on this topic (A/70/357). The meeting also served as the discussion of the report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, which Ban appointed in 2014. The Panel submitted its report to Ban in June 2015.

The meeting took place on 12 October 2015, in New York, US.

Mogens Lykketoft, UNGA President, said peace operations are among the major innovations since the UN’s inception, and have enabled the UN to better fulfill its mandate and contribute to global peace and security. But, “peace operations, like any tool, are in constant need of refinement,” he noted. He said the UN must make its field operations more effective in light of evolving challenges and threats to international peace and security.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said UN peace operations are tools for negotiating and sustaining political settlements, but this is not a substitute for a clear strategy to end conflict. Peace operations should not be used, he said, to give the appearance of action. Nor should they be given mandates without the necessary means. He added that UN peace operations must protect civilians and defend the rights of people in conflict.

On the report of the peace operations panel, Ban said it “deliberately leaves some of the structural proposals to my successor, but I wholeheartedly support the need for these changes to be given serious consideration.” He said his report sets out an Agenda for Action, containing concrete steps over the next 18 months and expressed his full endorsement of the Panel’s call for a focus on politics, people and partnership. On politics, he stressed the need to: bring prevention and mediation to the centre of international peace and security; move away from ‘template’ approaches toward more targeted efforts, with mandates tailored to specific demands on the ground, in order to become faster and more agile; develop a shared understanding of the tasks involved between the Security Council and troop- and police-contributing countries; and work hand in hand with national actors and local communities.

On people, the Secretary-General underscored the need for: capabilities – uniformed and civilian – that can operate effectively in challenging environments; the UN personnel to uphold the highest standards of conduct; and eliminating “the scourge” of sexual exploitation and abuse, “which tarnishes the reputation of the UN and detracts from the contributions of so many brave men and women.” On partnership, he called for more and stronger regional-global partnerships between UN bodies, troop and police contributors, regional organizations, and host countries.

Noting that large-scale conflicts have tripled since 2008, with more than 60 million people having been forcibly displaced – the most since World War II – while violent extremism is on the rise, Ban called for renewed investment in UN peace operations. Observing that the African Union (AU) is bearing an increasingly heavy burden, Ban said it is time to take the UN-AU ties to a new level through predictable and sustainable financing for AU peace operations, and called for deepening UN ties with the European Union (EU) and other organizations that could contribute.

Lykketoft underlined that the review of UN peace operations is complemented by the ten-year review of the peacebuilding architecture and the global study on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

In the discussion that followed, many member States expressed support for: the need for coherence; linking development and security efforts; placing the protection of civilians upfront; mainstreaming gender aspects throughout; and better and more clearly defined mandates and transition arrangements. Supported by Guatemala, Norway said the Panel’s report and the Secretary-General’s report are complementary, together constituting a whole. He added that their relationship is explained in the Secretary-General’s report, which focuses on reforms that can be enacted over the short term, while other proposals requiring a longer-term perspective are equally important.

The EU said the link between security and development is unquestionable and welcomed the inclusion of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 on peaceful societies in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, further noting that that the 2030 Agenda and the global peace and security agenda cannot be separated. He stressed that the peacebuilding agenda must be fully synchronized with peacekeeping efforts and announced that the EU has agreed to increase its African Peace Facility from 750 to 900 million Euros for the period 2014-2016.

Supported by Australia for Canada, Australia and New Zealand (CANZ), Croatia, France, Japan, the UK and the US, the EU welcomed the UN Secretary-General’s emphasis on increased accountability and his efforts to strengthen the system’s ability to deal with sexual exploitation through the zero-tolerance policy. Supported by the EU, the UK and Croatia, CANZ expressed strong support for ongoing efforts to promote women’s participation in peace and security and, in particular, in brokering ceasefires, peace negotiations, conflict resolution and monitoring of peace. The EU, France, the UK and the US emphasized protection of civilians as a key priority and welcomed the focus on stronger regional-global partnerships. Tanzania stressed that, in certain circumstances, regional and sub-regional institutions might be the best first-responders.

Supported by France, the US stressed the need for empowering the field: administrative and financial policies and procedures must be configured to support dynamic field environments, which will require a change of culture, policies and approaches, including aligning authorities with responsibilities and empowering missions, while ensuring accountability. Noting that the post-2004 peacebuilding architecture focused more on state building and technocratic capacity building in post conflict situations, Tanzania said the focus on holding “democratic” elections without addressing the root causes of conflict remais a weak link to success, and called for better and innovative ways of dealing with these challenges.

Pointing out that over the last decade, the number of deployed peacekeepers has doubled from approximately 65,000 to 123,000, and that the peacekeeping budget increased from $4 billion (2004/2005) to $8.5 billion (2014/2015), Japan said the challenge the UN faces now is how to make Peacekeeping Operations sustainable with limited available financial and human resources. He expressed concern with the possible cost implications of the numerous initiatives proposed by the two reports and, stressing that “every single dollar spent by the UN comes from taxpayers of the Member States,” he urged the Secretariat to absorb add-ons, if any, within existing resources, to the greatest extent possible. The UK noted that some of the recommendations in the report may increase the UN Peacekeeping Budget and announced it is prepared to pay more for better peacekeeping, but called for avoiding duplication, for streamlining processes and for sharpening mandates to make the peacekeeping operations effective.

Turkey called for adequate funding for the Special Political Missions (SPMs) and clear-cut definition of their mandates to increase their performance. Venezuela stressed that the legitimacy of the solutions proposed by the two reports will depend on the decisions of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations.

Switzerland suggested elaborating a roadmap to clearly identify the tasks of the UN bodies, the Secretariat, the UN Security Council, and the Member States in implementing the proposed recommendations. [UN Press Release] [UN Secretary-General Remarks] [UNGA President Remarks] [Letter of UN Secretary-General and Report of High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (A/70/95-S/2015/446] [High-level Panel Information] [IISD RS Story on UNGA Debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security]