Delivered by: Lt. Colonel Dana Humaid Al Marzouqi, Director General of the International Affairs Office, Ministry of Interior

Thank you Mr. President, your excellencies, for your officers.

I would like to thank Under-Secretary-General Lacroix, Police Advisor Shahkar, Commissioners Fossen and Bizimungu, as well as Ms. Landgren for their briefings today.

Around the world, we are seeing an increase in the number of conflicts, a deterioration of the rule of law, and eroding trust in UN peace operations. Despite these challenges, UN policing capacities remain an important contributor to protecting civilians, ensuring the safety and security of communities, and bolstering fragile national institutions. I would like to acknowledge all fellow officers serving in their stations around the world. The UAE supports the Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace and the UN 2.0 quintet initiatives that aim to modernize the UN peace and security architecture, including policing, to be better equipped to handle current and emerging challenges.

In this context, I would like to make four key points.

First, the application of UN police performance standards remains critical to ensure that they are not only fulfilling their mission, but that they are perceived as doing so by their host communities.

Increased transparency in incident reporting and the utilization of data can be a critical enabler of policing work within the framework of the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System and the Integrated Peacekeeping Performance and Accountability Framework. The early declaration of caveats, trainings, and other pre-deployment elements can decisively contribute to operational readiness and boost the performance of UN policing.

That’s why last September, in support of the Police Division’s efforts, the UAE hosted for the second time a UN Police performance workshop in Abu Dhabi. We brought together the leadership of police components in peace operations and special political missions to exchange views on performance and accountability questions.

Second, UN policing can benefit from regional partnerships.

The UAE believes that collaborative mechanisms with regional policing organizations, such as AFRIPOL for example, can be critical to ensure context-informed policing.  The work of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Policing is an important opportunity to assess the effectiveness of UN policing assistance efforts, identify gaps in support, and the kind of synergies between UN, regional, and subregional policing mechanisms.

Third, UN peacekeepers must be good stewards of the environment in which they serve.

In addition to the long-standing drivers of conflicts, climate change is increasingly becoming a contributing factor to instability, as noted by Commissioner Fossen in her briefing. The changing climate affects agricultural patterns, fueling confrontations between communities, and provoking competition over scarce natural resources. The UN must lead the way in walking the talk and ensuring that its peacekeeping missions do no harm to the environment. The UAE has been spearheading efforts to support the UN Secretariat transition towards more renewable energy use in its peacekeeping operations including through the “Energy Compact on Renewable Energy in UN Peacekeeping”.

As a patron of the International Initiative of Law Enforcement in Climate, I2LEC, and in support of the environmental strategy of the UN Secretariat, the UAE is working closely with the UN Police Division and other stakeholders. Our partners include UNODC, INTERPOL, ESRI, AMERIPOL, AFRIPOL, ASEANAPOL, GCCPOL, ACCP, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and UNEP / OCHA Joint Environmental Unit. The UAE is pleased to collaborate with these organizations in order to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment and climate change.

Further, the UAE, through I2LEC, facilitated the launch of five initiatives to combat environmental crimes across the world: Interpol-led climate operations unit, global preparedness assessment, research on environmental crimes by UNODC, eco-readiness initiative, and a global training center emerging from Abu Dhabi.

This year, the UAE will host a climate resilience ministerial forum on “Empowering Law Enforcement for a Greener Future” for the first time on the margins of COP28 in Dubai at the end of the month.

Finally, increasing the participation of women in UN policing and police forces across the world is vital to achieve less violent, more peaceful, and more inclusive societies.

The UAE commends the Police Division on achieving its gender participation target in such a short time frame, but we must also recognize that the current target of 13% is far from representing parity. Increasing this ambition and raising the target beyond the current 13% goal for uniformed gender parity is critical to ensure the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in peace efforts, including in the field.

Before concluding, I would like to reiterate our gratitude to Commissioner Fossen for the warm welcome during the recent Military and Police Advisors Community visit to South Sudan. We commend UNMISS’ engagement in support of South Sudan and the critical role that UN policing capacities continue to play within the mission.

As sponsor of the 2024 UN Chiefs of Police Summit, I would like to express the UAE’s renewed commitment to working closely with the UN Police Division and the Department of Peace Operations in the roll out of the New Agenda for Peace.

Thank you, Mr. President.