Le Roy Discusses UN Efforts to Bolster Peacekeeping Capabilities
Synopsis:
Highlights need to address helicopter shortages
GA/PK/206
General Assembly President Joins Peacekeeping, Field Support Chiefs at Opening of Special Committee's 2011 Session
The United Nations would aim in the coming year to build on 2010 efforts to bolster the ability of the "blue helmets" to protect civilians, defuse conflict and foster sustainable peace in strife-torn areas through a range of policy-development, operational capacity, field support, planning and oversight-improvement measures, the head of the world body's peacekeeping operations told the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations as it opened its 2011 substantive session today.
"I hope 2011 will set us on a path towards providing our personnel with the necessary political and operational support structure, resources and guidance to deliver all of their mandated tasks effectively," saidAlain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. He recalled that in 2010, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support had created a comprehensive strategy to fill critical human-resource and material gaps to ensure that military troops and civilian personnel alike were well-trained and well-equipped to deliver on agreed standards for reasonable performance.
He asked the Special Committee to endorse the Peacekeeping Department's new strategic framework to guide the development of a draft strategy on civilian protection — a particularly challenging area — saying he would present, by the end of March, the new departmental civilian-protection training modules. Troops, police and civilians on the ground continued to develop innovative approaches, he said, citing the early-warning system created by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which had recently enabled peacekeepers to free seven abducted women.
To address the chronic shortage of vital peacekeeping resources, particularly military helicopters and other equipment, he recalled, the Secretariat had begun in December 2009 to distribute lists of gaps in military, police, rule-of-law and other capabilities in order to support Member States in their short- and long-term planning, he said, adding that the Peacekeeping Department had recently launched a pilot programme to develop baseline capability and operational standards among military personnel in infantry battalions and medical support units.
