New York: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Security Council’s work ranges from early warning to preventive diplomacy, from peacemaking to verifying peace agreements to protecting civilians, from negotiating ceasefires to helping parties implement them on the ground, to electoral support and observer missions.
In his remarks to the Security Council’s open debate titled “Advancing Adaptability in UN Peace Operations — Responding to New Realities”, Guterres said United Nations peace operations safeguard people and communities in some of the most desperate places on earth.
“These operations comprise both peacekeeping operations and special political missions,” he said adding that collectively, these operations represent a critical tool at the Council’s disposal to maintain international peace and security in a variety of contexts.
Thanking the Government of Denmark for convening this high-level discussion, he said since the first special political mission and peacekeeping operation were deployed in 1948, “our peace operations have grown, adapted and evolved.”
The UN Secretary General said time and again, they allow us to mount tailored responses that have saved lives, reduced violence, prevented the expansion and spillover of deadly conflicts and stopped atrocities.
“Peace operations are designed not only to be an effective example of multilateralism in action — but a cost-effective one,” Guterres said.
At their best, they show how when the UN comes together to address challenges; the burden is diminished on individual countries alone, he said.
“We all know, peace operations face serious barriers that demand new approaches. Wars are becoming more complex and more deadly. They last longer and are more enmeshed in global and regional dynamics. Negotiated settlements have been harder to achieve. Meanwhile, our peace operations are confronted with a complex interplay of threats — many of which do not respect national borders,” he said.
He said terror and extremist groups, organised crime, the weaponisation of new technologies, and the effects of climate change are all testing our capacities to respond.
He regretted that geopolitical divisions are undermining peace.
“The bilateral and multilateral arrangements that — for decades — have managed tensions and maintained stability are eroding,” Guterres said.
Violations of international law, human rights and the UN Charter are rampant — seemingly without consequence, he said adding that trust is in short supply among — and within — countries and regions.
“All of these challenges and more throw fuel on the fires of conflict,” he said.
“Meanwhile, our peace responses are struggling. We see a persistent mismatch between mandates and available resources. And we see increasing differences of views — including in this Council itself — around how peace operations should work, under what circumstances, with what mandates they should be deployed, and for how long,” he said.
“This is a grim diagnosis, but we must face facts.”
