Mr. Chair,
Let me begin by congratulating Ambassador Tijjani Mohammad Bandi, Permanent Representative of Nigeria on his re-election as Chair of the C34 Bureau, as well as the other members of the Bureau Egypt, Canada, Poland, Japan, and Argentina.
I wish to thank Ambassador Richard Arbeiter of Canada and his team for their excellent work as Chair of the working group of the whole. We also thank the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Csaba KŐRÖSI, and Ms. Martha Pobee for their interventions.
The UAE associates itself with the statement delivered by the distinguished Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Mr. Chair,
Let me emphasize that the UAE is impressed by the courage of all peacekeepers and pays tribute to all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of peace. May our discussion honor their memory and their example.
We are honored to be leading the negotiation on the Performance and Accountability chapter on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement this year. The UAE looks forward to actively participating in the upcoming negotiations of the Committee.
Given the continuous evolution of peacekeeping, and the wide range of challenges, the C34 recommendations are crucial to ensure that peacekeeping remains fit for purpose. Unfortunately, the Committee couldn’t reach consensus last year. We therefore count on everyone’s engagement and flexibility in order to reach a consensual outcome this year.
Mr. Chair,
UN peacekeeping remains an indispensable tool for the maintenance of International Peace and Security. It is multilateralism in action, and it is in constant need of adaptation and evolution in order to be able to address the scope and complexity of contemporary crises.
As we undertake our discussions, the UAE would like to highlight four key areas.
First, The UAE has been at the forefront of including women in national peace and security structures. We are also a strong supporter of the women, peace and security agenda, and the UAE is currently co-chairing the informal expert group of the Security Council on WPS. In this regard, we strongly support the active engagement of the Secretariat and Member States in promoting an increased participation of women in UN peacekeeping operations. It is important that we collectively ensure that appropriate measures are taken to facilitate this increase.
Second, the UAE strongly supports the commitment of 80% renewable energy by 2030 in peacekeeping operations, in line with the Environment Strategy for Peace operations of the Department of Operational Support,. In support of that goal, the UAE has worked with Norway and other partners to launch a compact to help UN peacekeeping missions transition to renewable energy. The implementation of the compact will help reduce operational costs, security risks associated with fuel convoys, and greenhouse gas emissions, while leaving a positive legacy for host countries and local communities.
Third, turning to performance and accountability, the UAE believes that this should be considered as a shared responsibility among all peacekeeping actors, civilians, and uniform personnel alike.
The UAE is also aware that performance can be affected by multiple factors, including non-declared caveats. We call on all troop and police contributing countries to declare all their caveats before deployment and call on the Secretariat to communicate in a transparent manner any declared caveats that could have an impact on other contingents deployed in the same mission. We also call on the Secretariat to take appropriate measures in cases of non-declared caveats that could negatively impact the safety and security of UN personnel.
And finally, the safety and security of UN personnel should be a top priority of all peacekeeping missions. We condemn, in the strongest terms, all attacks against peacekeepers and call for full accountability for perpetrators of such attacks. The UAE is of the belief that safety and security can be strengthened with the use of new technologies, targeted training, and improved defensive mechanisms.
Mr. Chair,
Before concluding, I would like to share with the Committee some of the recent engagements of the UAE in support of peacekeeping.
The UAE pledged to offer training facilities for female officers from around the world at the last UN Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting in Seoul. Additionally, we also pledged an in-kind donation to UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. Both pledges amounted to an estimated value of $10 million.
The UAE is also a critical partner in supporting UN Police. Last year, the UAE organized a Performance Management Workshop for heads of UN Police components in Abu Dhabi and we will sponsor the fourth iteration of the UN Chiefs of Police Summit in 2024. The UAE values the essential role played byolice in peace operations for helping to strengthen international peace and security and we are proud to support next year’s summit.
To conclude, we look forward to constructive discussions this year. The objective should be clear: enabling the Secretariat to implement the Committee’s recommendations which can impact almost 100,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world to deliver on their mandate to protect the most vulnerable in a safe and effective way.
Thank you.