The Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial will collect in Korea, greater than 700 individuals from 155 nations, together with international and protection ministers, heads of worldwide organizations, teachers, and journalists.
The 2-day occasion is the most recent in a sequence of conferences at the head of State, Authorities or ministerial stage since 2014. The final was held in 2019 in New York.
Theme
Talking to journalists, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Underneath-Secretary-Normal for Peacekeeping Operations, mentioned that peacekeepers “are going through more and more daunting challenges.”
“They want assist from the Secretariat they usually want assist from our Member States and that’s actually what we count on from the Seoul assembly”, he defined.
Underneath-Secretary-Normal for Operational Help Atul Khare, added that the complicated environments through which the missions function require inventive and agile options.
“Expertise could make our missions and camps ‘smarter,’ extra built-in, environment friendly, efficient, safer and permit for end-to-end service supply and operational assist whereas minimizing environmental footprint”, he defined.
On this space, the Ministerial will draw on the Technique for the Digital Transformation of UN Peacekeeping.
Expertise may also assist present well timed and high quality medical care to peacekeepers.
“Now we have made necessary progress in addressing the gaps in medical assist in peacekeeping missions, however way more must be performed”, Mr. Khare mentioned.
Through the occasion, he expects Member States to contribute to a number of initiatives, comparable to a brand new Casualty Monitoring System, a Psychological Well being Technique for uniformed personnel, and a Public Well being Surveillance System.
Ladies and surroundings
Ladies, Peace, and Safety, which has been a key focus of earlier Ministerial conferences, can have a devoted aspect occasion.
The Underneath-Secretary-Normal highlighted the “urgency” of accelerating this agenda, saying “gender parity is a non-negotiable precedence, and it’s greater than a numbers difficulty”.
“There may be plentiful proof that reveals how girls’s participation improves peacekeeping efficiency”, he defined.
As lowering the carbon footprint of peacekeeping missions is a key environmental goal, Mr. Khare hopes to see Member States talk about alternatives to curtail its affect.
Sexual abuse
Underneath-Secretary-Normal for Administration Technique, Coverage and Compliance Catherine Pollard pointed to efforts that may strengthen the accountability of peacekeepers.
In opposition to the backdrop that the UN lives with the danger of sexual exploitation and abuse wherever it operates, she described it as “one of the crucial critical problems with accountability” for the Group, including that it’s “a very insidious breach of belief to these we’re mandated to serve and shield”.
Ms. Pollard mentioned that the UN will recall to Member States, methods to handle exploitation dangers, together with by coaching commanders who will be deployed within the discipline.
“We’ll notably use the event of the Ministerial to advance our method to addressing paternity and little one assist claims that come up from allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, that are troublesome claims with very human penalties”, she acknowledged.
Historical past
The occasion is a follow-up convention to the UN Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping in 2015, which was co-hosted by former President of the USA Barack Obama and former UN Secretary-Normal Ban Ki-moon.
UN Peacekeeping helps nations torn aside by battle to create situations for lasting peace.
Its distinctive strengths embrace legitimacy, burden sharing, and a capability to deploy and maintain troops and police from across the globe – integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to advance multidimensional mandates.
Over the previous 70 years, greater than one million women and men have served underneath the UN flag in additional than 70 UN peacekeeping operations.