The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has set out the future of UN peace operations in response to the recommendations of a High-level Independent Review Panel.
In his report, the Secretary-General firmly endorses the Panel's main recommendations, with a particular focus on political settlements, prevention and mediation, the protection of civilians and the accountability of peacekeeping missions to their host communities.
Ban Ki-moon also stresses the importance of strengthening and formalising partnerships between the UN and regional organisations like the African Union, as well as outlining new institutional arrangements for improving the speed with which peacekeeping personnel can deploy.
In cases of sexual exploitation and abuse, the Secretary-General agreed that a stronger response was required from the United Nations. He stated that he will "repatriate contigents where there is a demonstrated pattern of abuse or non-response to allegations of misconduct and... consider terminating the deployment of uniformed personnel" where they fail to meet UN standards of conduct. He urged Troop-Contributing Countries to undertake national investigations and to hold courts-martial in host countries as a measure of accountability.
UNA-UK welcomes the report and supports its agenda for action. We echo the Secretary-General in urging member states to commit to implementing the reforms and to capitalise on their collective political leverage in order to improve the efficiency of UN peace operations.
UNA-UK also looks forward to hearing further ideas for strengthening peace operations from member states - including the UK - at the upcoming US-hosted summit on peacekeeping at the UN in late September. In line with our current work on increasing the UK's engagement with peacekeeping, UNA-UK hopes that the Britain will take the opportunity to set out its ambitions for its future role in peace operations and welcomes any increase in troop contributions.
Photo credit: Marco Dormino/UN Photo
