Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s address to the Munich Security Conference, in Germany, 5 February:
Good morning. Guten Tag. Guten Morgen. It is a great pleasure and honour for me to participate in this very prestigious forum to discuss our security — world security. Your participation in this Munich Security Conference is a measure of its enduring importance. And this year, I think you will agree: your gathering could hardly be better timed. Together in partnership, we are the world’s vanguard for collective security — security in all its aspects: military; political; economic; social and environmental.
We at the United Nations play a central role — in some cases, taking on tasks that Member States cannot or prefer not to undertake themselves in others, bringing all the Member States together through our unique convening power and legitimacy.
Peace and security is our core mission. Where there is security — broad-based security — there is peace and development. Where it is absent, there is often chaos and uncertainty. We see this across a diverse geography of troubled places, most recently in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries of the Middle East.
That is why I am very pleased to sit together with you and discuss all of these common concerns, common challenges, we are facing together. And each and every one of you participating can play a very important role. In fact, we have many presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, defence ministers, [representatives from] academia, and former leaders, and I really count on your support, your involvement and leadership.
Concerning the situation in the Middle East, we do not know how these events will end. But this much we do know. They are driven, at bottom, by human insecurity: poverty; diminished or disappointed expectations; the lack of good governance — corruption, ineffective public institutions, a deficit of democracy.
Insecurity grows with injustice — where human rights and human dignity are not fully respected, and where there are sharp and growing inequalities of wealth. For the last decade, and this is since 2002, the United Nations has been warning, through our successive human development reports on Arab countries about this kind of situation. Yet it is important to remember: the problems and grievances causing unrest in the Arab world represent a microcosm, in too many ways, of the broader world.
Despite progress in many spheres, in many places, insecurity is everywhere on the rise. We continue to absorb the toll of transnational ills such as organized crime, terrorism, and the illegal trafficking of drugs, human trafficking — all empowered by new technologies and the fragility of States. In the months and years ahead, these varied threats and phenomena will test us in ways we may not imagine.
This Conference began, 47 years ago, as a forum for global security. The best guarantee of global security is conflict prevention. When you deploy 10,000 peacekeepers, it costs easily billions of dollars. If you can prevent conflict, if you know where there are potential problems, and address them properly in advance, you save resources, but more importantly, you can save human lives.
Article 34 of the United Nations Charter authorizes the Security Council to investigate any situation that might lead to a dispute or threat to international peace and security. But fact-finding and mediation should not wait for conflicts to erupt.
Until recently, preventive diplomacy tended to be neglected amid the emphasis on developing other peace and security tools. Not any more. I have been pressing this agenda, preventative diplomacy, and I am delighted to see Member States putting more emphasis, more resources, into this very important aspect of our global security. Last year alone, we supported 34 different mediation, facilitation and dialogue efforts.
In Guinea, United Nations envoys helped smooth the way to the first free elections since the country’s independence. An inquiry into horrendous crimes and violations of human rights sent a clear message against impunity. And a situation that looked like a disaster-in-the-making has ended with the country on a much more promising path. Last week, I met [with] President Alpha Conde and [welcome] his leadership.
In Kyrgyzstan, United Nations and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) envoys worked very closely in tandem, quickly and flexibly, to help ease the crisis.
And in Sudan, United Nations envoys together with the Americans, the European Union and many other parties, worked very hard. You may remember how much you were concerned about the situation in the Sudan, whether we would be able to successfully carry out this referendum. Generally, this referendum has been conducted peacefully and credibly.
Sometimes, a well-run election is the best prevention, especially in societies divided by conflict or undergoing critical transitions. There will be at least 20 more elections to be held in Africa this year. We have distinguished African leaders here. We have to help them, first of all, to carry out these elections, in a democratic and credible and fair [manner].
In Côte d’Ivoire, we see how much is at stake. The fundamental principle of democracy is at stake, the integrity of the United Nations, African leaders, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and, in a broader sense, the international community represented by the United Nations may be at stake.
At the recent African Union summit in Addis Ababa, we took an unequivocal stand, again in concert with the African Union and ECOWAS, against any effort to thwart the democratic process. Our message is clear and direct: the will of the people must be respected which has been truly expressed, the will of the Ivorian people.
Meaningful participation in decision-making is among the foundations for social stability and security. Repression and disregard for fundamental rights and freedoms breed crisis and insecurity. We recognize the limits of our diplomacy. We have made failures, but we have largely made many successes. When we cannot prevent conflict, we must turn to peacekeeping even though it may be very costly and cost human lives. United Nations operations currently deploy some 120,000 soldiers, military, police and civilian personnel from 116 countries in 15 different theatres worldwide.
Your Governments are asking us to do more, and in more places, than ever before. Increasingly, the sheer range and scope of these responsibilities has stretched our capacity. We no longer simply separate combatants increasingly, we must be proactive. We need to patrol, protect, robustly defend our mandates. A peacekeeping force that cannot react effectively and swiftly cannot adequately perform its mission. My peacekeeping colleagues and I spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to secure critical assets such as helicopters. Even in Germany yesterday, I was speaking with certain Heads of State asking for some support helicopters for Sudan. We are dealing with vast [lands]. So we have to have critical air assets and I really count on your support.
Consider the message that sends — to authoritarian leaders entrenching their positions, or non-State actors bent on plunder — a message saying the international community cares enough to adopt a resolution promising action, but not enough to follow through. We must fill the troubling gap between demand and supply, especially if the gap widens further still with new instability and unrest. We have reached a point where the old ways of deploying and equipping United Nations peacekeepers no longer suffice. We have responded with the New Horizons initiative. What would be the optimal size, the capacity of the United Nations in dealing with all burning issues in peacekeeping operations.
We need better “interoperability” of United Nations peacekeeping with regional partners — African Union and other regional organizations and the European Union. They have always been very cooperative. And we need more countries to contribute personnel and equipment. Above all, we must recognize that security efforts need to be underwritten by a political track.
We have seen that in Iraq, where the United Nations has helped craft a new Constitution and assist the country’s often-divided parties to form a national Government. We see it, as well, in Afghanistan, where we reiterate our firm belief that there can be no purely military solution — and where we will continue to strengthen the capacity of the Afghan Government to assume ever-greater responsibility, greater leadership.
In stabilizing post-conflict societies, early and visible “peace dividends” can help avoid a relapse into violence. The emphasis on early progress — seizing the unique moment when conflict has ended, hopes are high and the potential for transformation is greatest — is part of the essence of peacebuilding.
Fixing shattered societies is deeply complex work for which there is no single formula. But we are focusing as never before on building national capacity and State institutions, especially in the areas of public administration, rule of law and human rights.
Sceptics of our efforts in Sierra Leone once predicted that it would become the “graveyard of UN peacekeeping”. Yet when I visited last year, I found a success story. I was so moved that the United Nations through integrity had transformed this society.
This is a testament to the determination of the people of Sierra Leone to put war behind them. But it also shows what can happen when political, human rights, development and humanitarian programmes are integrated under a single strategy, and well-coordinated with the Government. The country’s police and security forces were rebuilt, with former combatants demobilized and integrated into society. Instead of paying more soldiers, Sierra Leone can now pay teachers, nurses, police officers, agricultural workers, and the United Nations can expect an exit strategy for 2012.
We cannot talk about security without addressing one of the gravest threats: stockpiles of tens of thousands of weapons, and the spectre of their proliferation and nuclear terrorism. During the past year, we made important strides, including the successful [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] NPT Review Conference and the signing by the Russian Federation and the United States of a new START [Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms] treaty.
That it should enter into force, here in Munich today, marks a milestone on the road to our ultimate goal of achieving a world free of nuclear weapons. I highly applaud President [Dimitry] Medvedev of the Russian Federation and President [Barack] Obama of the United States and for their leadership.
In Geneva last month, I pressed the Conference on Disarmament to agree on a programme of work without further delay, including immediate negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty. The credibility of the CD itself is at stake.
We stand at a critical juncture [from which] there is no sliding back. The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul offers an important opportunity — a conference on the establishment of a zone in the Middle East free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.
As the depository of the Nuclear Terrorism Convention, I reiterate the proposal I made last year at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington to consider convening a conference to advance that agreement’s important goals.
The unanswered questions about the nuclear programmes of Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea remain sources of serious concern. On the DPRK, I am particularly concerned by the recent revelation of a uranium enrichment facility, and I renew my call on the country to comply with relevant Security Council resolutions towards denuclearization. On Iran, I commend the leadership role of Lady Ashton for negotiations. I know that these meetings have not produced many encouraging developments, but I am continuously supporting, urging negotiations, [and I urge] Iran to fully comply with relevant Security Council resolutions and to fully cooperate with the IAEA.
As we scan the map of the world’s hot spots, we see some common themes. Conflict growing from the dashed expectations of ordinary people, from a lack of economic opportunity and growing social inequalities, from a lack of meaningful participation in political life, repression that robs people of their dignity and rights. Such tensions are compounded by demographics, by natural disasters and climate change, by competition over increasingly scarce resources. There are no easy answers, but development is key to all. And security is key to development.
Just as all of you in this room are consumed with these issues and the links among them, so are we at the United Nations. I look forward to working with you to find a peaceful, secure way forward to make a better world. Let us work together. I count on your leadership. Thank you.
Source: http://www.iewy.com
No comments:
Post a Comment