'Peacekeepers must reinvent themselves to face new challenges'

With the UN peacekeeping arena facing several challenges from intra-ethnic conflicts to terrorist-related attacks, India has said there is a need for all peacekeepers to "reinvent" themselves with new tools to tackle these issues.
"There has been a need for all peacekeeping missions to adjust to the reality which we face. Peacekeepers have to literally reinvent themselves with new tools to tackle these issues," Indian Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin said in his remarks at the Opening Session of Annual Debate of the United Nations Special Committee for Peacekeeping Operations.
"India has been at the forefront of peacekeeping activities," he said, adding, "As a country which has participated in 48 UN peacekeeping operations, we have contributed our share to the maintenance of international peace and security with high standards of professionalism that our troops are known for."

Acknowledging that the landscape of peacekeeping operations has changed drastically in the last few decades, he said the peacekeepers are deployed in areas where there are challenges that were hitherto unknown.
"These include threats from intra-ethnic conflicts to terrorist related attacks," he added.
"We as one of the most active contributors in UNPKOs (United Nations Peacekeeping Operations) do realise the change that faces us and are more than willing to add new tools in the skill sets of our troops to face these challenges in a more robust fashion," he said.

As many as 163 Indian peacekeepers have died while serving the UN, he said stressing that many a time careful planning and also consultative dialogue of Security Council members and the troop contributing countries, while formulating the mandate of UNPKOs, will go a long way in promoting safety and security of peacekeepers.

"Here we would also like to strongly emphasise that all Member States where PKOs are deployed must ensure that in cases of attacks on the peacekeepers there is an effective process to prosecute, punish and penalise the perpetrators of the attacks," Akbaruddin said.
Appalled by the recent cases of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) which have surfaced in some of the UNPKOs, Akbaruddin said, "We have a zero tolerance policy on SEA cases and would like that there is zero tolerance on such issues across the UN too."
During the special open session of the peacekeeping committee, member countries said that the United Nations peace operations must keep pace with and respond to new and evolving challenges - including asymmetric warfare, cyber threats and pandemics.

Atul Khar, the US Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, said the international community should redouble efforts to support peacekeeping operations, particularly the missions in the most dangerous theatres of operation.
(REOPENS FGN54)
"We should be determined in promoting the process of the reform of the Security Council. It must reflect the situations of the 21st century," Kerim said, adding that the demand for reform by the G4 as well as the African states is "very legitimate and over-due."
Nine candidates for the position of the next United Nations Secretary-General answered a total of some 800 questions from the UN membership and the public on how, if selected, they would lead the world body.

"We have established a new standard of transparency and inclusivity for the appointment process, but it has the potential also to influence the final outcome of the selection of the Secretary-General," UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft told reporters at the conclusion of the unprecedented public dialogues.
Starting on Tuesday, each candidate was given a two-hour televised and webcast timeslot.
Prior to opening up the floor for questions from UN delegates and civil society representatives as well as from the public through social media, candidates gave short oral presentations - their "vision statements" - addressing challenges and opportunities facing the UN and the next Secretary-General.

According to Lykketoft, almost every country was represented in the audience to ask questions during the dialogue.
"My impression is - of course my experience is short - but during the months I've been here, we never had that frank and substantial discussion about the future of the United Nations as the one we got during these informal dialogues," he said at the media stakeout.
"We've talked about the virtues, we've talked about the flaws of the UN, and the candidates have presented a lot of interesting views on how to do things ever better," he added.
Lykketoft said that these past three days are just a part of the "process of transparency" and that he hopes they will help generate wider discussions about the selection of the UN chief.

With more candidates possibly joining the current nine, more informal briefing could be held in the coming week and months.
Lykketoft said that he was inspired by the interest the public has shown in this selection process, with more than 227,000 people from 209 different countries and territories having visited his website.