Mr Secretary-General,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
thank you all for being here this morning! It is a pleasure and a privilege to open this meeting.
The Challenges project on peace operations is a joint effort. It has grown steadily since the first seminar in 1997, and now includes partner organisations from 14 countries. It gathers experts from the civilian and military field. It cuts across regional groupings and brings together individuals, institutions and countries devoted to making a real difference.
The report at hand is a result of a series of seminars, but also of informal contacts and new networks. Through the report, we offer our ideas as well as our continued commitment to UN peace operations. I am honoured for this opportunity to hand it over to you, Mr. Secretary General.
Before doing so, let me share a few remarks.
I spent parts of last week in West Africa. In Benin, the Foreign Ministers from the Nordic and several African countries met to address issues of peace and security. It was the fifth in a series of meetings. We discussed how we could “perfect the triangle of development, freedom and peace”. The words are yours, Mr Secretary-General, and I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed them.
In Benin, we agreed that the Peacebuilding Commission is one key step closer to such perfection. Equally important is to achieve real progress in promoting and respect human rights. The Human Rights Council has the potential of helping us achieve this objective.
At the meeting we also discussed the alarming situation in Darfur. The conflict in Darfur is a striking illustration of the interdependence between security, development and human rights.
The need for a political solution to the Darfur crisis is urgent. The serious violations of human rights, including the right to life, and the prevention of humanitarian access by the warring parties must be stopped. Sudan is a country with vast resources, but peace is a prerequisite for ensuring that those resources reach and benefit the whole population. A fair distribution of resources will in turn help prevent future conflicts.
But the absence of armed conflict will not be enough. For sustainable peace to take root, the peace process must respect the rights of all Sudanese citizens to participate in the shaping of the future of their country. Together with a few other donors, Sweden has provided targeted support for increased participation of women in the Darfur Peace talks in Abuja. The full and active participation of women must be ensured in negotiations, reconciliation efforts and peacebuilding. It is a clear example where the perfected triangle is needed.
There is a growing demand for peace operations. In one sense this is unfortunate. From another perspective it is encouraging as it shows that countries in conflict more often turn to the UN for assistance in settling disputes and consolidating peace.
As more people and countries put their trust and future in the hands of the UN, the stakes and demands increase. The Challenges project has addressed a number of key issues related to these growing, and also more complex, tasks.
The project rests on the notion that the commitment of Member States is fundamental to UN peace operations. This is obvious when it comes to providing personnel: the troops, the police officers and the observers. Today, Challenges partner countries contribute with almost 20 000 people to UN-led operations worldwide.
But Member States also have a responsibility to contribute with ideas and proposals. In line with this, the Challenges project report offers concrete recommendations and a commitment to implement them. In some areas, the implementation is already under way. The report is also a response to the invitation from the UN secretariat to Member States to share best practices, policies and guidelines. As such, it could hopefully offer new perspectives to the commendable work undertaken, including within the UN system.
Dear colleagues,
The project and the report will be presented in more detail by the Director General of the Folke Bernadotte Academy, Ambassador Michael Sahlin, and General Satish Nambiar, President of the United Services Institutions of India. Before their presentations, I would like to give some examples on how the Swedish government intends to take recommendations resulting from this project forward.
Firstly, the realization of an interlocking system of peacekeeping capacities is a challenge.
- There is continued need for support to the training of staff and to the creation of regional standby arrangements. - Sweden will continue to sponsor courses for peace operation staff from African and other developing countries.
- And as an EU member, we will intensify our efforts to strengthen the UN-EU relationship and extend it to strategic partnerships with other regions.
Secondly, I would like to mention an area that we know is of paramount importance for the success of multifunctional peace-operations: the establishment of the rule of law in the countries concerned. Rule of law-issues must be integrated at the outset of the planning process. Fact-finding missions must have a specific task to assess what rule of law components are needed and the need for expertise should be reflected in the staffing of missions. Sweden recently included a new personnel category in our contribution to peace operations when we sent correction officers to serve in the Ivory Coast. We are actively exploring other ways of contributing with civilian personnel that can contribute to the establishment of legal institutions and the rule of law. Thirdly, I would like to turn to the issue of education and training of peace mission staff.
- The establishment of the Folke Bernadotte Academy is one element of an intensified Swedish commitment to multifunctional training for peace operations. The Academy and other Swedish agencies and institutions are presenting an increasing number of training opportunities. It includes education on crosscutting issues as disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, and the rule of law. Several of these activities are run by the other Swedish Challenges partners present here today: the Armed Forces, the National Police Board, and the National Defence College. NGO:s provide input and perspectives to the process also.
The report addresses all of these challenges, and countless more. I would like to thank all of you – and through you all those who are not present today – for your commitment and for your generosity with your time and your ideas. A particular thanks goes to the partners that have organised seminars during this second phase of the project: - The Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law in Australia, - The Centre for Strategic Research of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Turkey,- The Nigerian War College, - The Ministry of National Defence of China, and- The Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom.
on behalf of the partner organisations, I would like to hand over the final report of the Challenges project. It is a joint product and therefore also a joint compromise. Rather than excluding ideas, we have included them all. In some parts, it might not necessarily reflect agreed government positions in partner countries. At the same time, partners have been involved in the development of the findings, and the recommendations of the report include perspectives from across regional groups. As such, they could contribute to finding common ground among key actors, and to moving the peacekeeping agenda forward.
We have identified recommendations that we believe will make us better equipped to contribute to UN peace operations.
I trust this is true for the other partner organisations and countries. And it is my sincere hope that the report and the network built around it will be of value also to you and your organisation, and – ultimately - to the people in conflict-stricken areas.