(Please check against delivery) Statement by H.E. Ina H. Krisnamurthi Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia on behalf of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) before the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) of the 72 st Session of the United Nations General Assembly Agenda Item 56: Comprehensive review of special political missions New York, 31 October 2017 1
Mr. Chairman, 1. I am honored to speak on behalf of the Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprising Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and my own country, Indonesia. 2. ASEAN would like to align itself with the statement by Morocco on behalf of the Non- Aligned Movement. 3. ASEAN thanks the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and Under-Secretary General of the Department of Field Support (DFS) for their statements and comprehensive briefing. 4. ASEAN also expresses its sincere appreciation to the Special Representatives, the Special Envoys and Advisors to the Secretary-General as well as all staff in the special political missions for their tireless work to support our common efforts to maintain peace and security, promote respect for human rights and support sustainable development in countries concerned. 5. The seminal joint resolutions by the Security Council and General Assembly on the UN peacebuilding architecture, last year, outlined sustaining peace, as activities that go across the peace continuum - from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and long term-development. 6. It is critical that all stakeholders inside and outside the UN have a common understanding of the sustaining peace concept as a process and a goal, which relies on everyone working from the same page. 7. It is thus vital that there be no ambivalence special political missions are part and parcel of the essential tools and activities that enable sustaining peace. Mr. Chairman, 8. ASEAN regards special political missions as a very significant UN tool in responding to the complex, rapidly-changing and more demanding global security challenges today. 9. ASEAN welcomes the emphasis in the Secretary General report on SPMs (A/72/357/Rev.1) as well as his other relevant reports on enhancing prevention, political diplomacy, mediation, credible political solutions and peaceful settlement of conflicts. ASEAN supports elevating focus on timely results of SPMs by more effectively tackling conflicts root causes, improving UN expertise and enhancing transparency, accountability, geographical representation, gender perspective, women equal participation as well as the role of regional organizations. ASEAN also believes that, in this regard, there is considerable room for the General Assembly to play a more meaningful oversight role. 2
10. With a view to help sharpen the work by SPMs, ASEAN would like to additionally highlight the following: 11. First, ASEAN takes note of the on-going process to reform the peace and security architecture, particularly in making political solutions and prevention a priority to the UN. ASEAN underscores that this process must go hand-in-hand with other processes such as that for UN development system and management reform. Only by doing that can we address the persistent silo-mindset in the UN. ASEAN appreciates the on-going consultative process and will continue to work together with the Secretary-General and other relevant stakeholders to ensure greater coherence and synergy among UN s various efforts. 12. Second, ASEAN reiterates the primary responsibility of the host country in advancing its nationally identified and owned peacebuilding initiatives. Capacitating state institutions and an inclusive process whereby all legitimate national stakeholders can contribute meaningfully to build a shared national vision are critical. Indeed this also supports the SPMs work. 13. Third, where the affected countries governments should engender peace and the neighboring countries should play a positive role, a concerted and sustained effort by the UN organs, relevant main committees, Peacebuilding Commission and the C-34 Special Committee for Peacekeeping is very important as well. ASEAN emphasizes that a synergized UN system that can partner effectively with regional organizations as well as relevant non-un stakeholders is also vital. For the SPMs to enhance prevention and offer lasting solutions, which many times require regional responses, it is essential that partnerships with regional and sub-regional organizations be strengthened. ASEAN stresses that the UN efforts, backed up by Member States and regional partners be fully supported politically. 14. Fourth, women equal participation and their agenda must continue to become an integral part of all stages of the peace process. ASEAN commends Secretary-General efforts to achieve gender parity, in particular at senior levels of the Organization, and welcomes the creation of a Gender Parity Task Force to develop a strategy for the UN system. We support efforts to appoint more women to senior leadership positions, particularly as Special Representatives and Envoys in UN missions and country teams. A full implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, and women equal participation should be among the guiding principles to advance peace and security efforts. 15. Fifth, as the missions transition from peacekeeping to political or SPMs, insufficient capacity and finances should also be addressed squarely. If we want to make sustaining peace a sound strategy, robust capacity-building and adequate financial support for all activities on the peace continuum must be ensured. 3
ASEAN also believes that the alignment of budgetary considerations of SPMs with that of peacekeeping operations cycle should be looked into. The financial needs of SPMs need to be perceived in a similar fashion to the scale of assessments for peacekeeping operations. We see merit in the ACABQ recommendation that there be a special and separate account for the funding of SPMs on an annual basis. ASEAN will continue to raise these issues, including in the Fifth Committee, and hope that the Members of this Committee will also lend similar support. 16. In closing, ASEAN would like to reiterate its strong commitment to increasing the effectiveness, transparency and accountability of SPMs. We look forward to working closely with partners in the Fourth Committee as well as other forums to achieve these goals. Mr. Chairman, 17. With your permission, I would like to briefly mention a few points in Indonesia s national capacity. 18. First, on the peace and security architecture reform, we take note of the proposal of DPA restructuring into Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA). We support the elevation of peacebuilding perspective in the DPPA, as it reflects the imperative of integrating peacebuilding into sustaining peace. Any integration of the existing capacities and resources should also strengthen prevention and mediation elements, and there must be a clear case demonstrated for concrete bolstering of sustaining peace. The resetting of DPA as DPPA should also be accompanied with a strengthened accountability framework for UN peace and security architecture along with improved and more responsive service delivery for specially the conflict-affected countries. 19. Second, the role of civilian capacity to mitigate conflicts is critical. Building on the work that Indonesia and Canada had undertaken, as co-facilitators of the UN civilian capacity initiative, Indonesia remains convinced that the UN with support from non UN partners needs to more systematically harness the expertise available from particularly those developing and conflict-affected countries that have transitioned in democracy, peacebuilding and development. The provision of qualified and readily deployable civilian expertise for various activities on peace continuum is all the more important today to ensure that Sustaining peace and 2030 Agenda both inseparably connected - succeed in their actualization. On its part, Indonesia has long contributed and will continue to offer its civilian capacity support to all those interested. 20. Third and as a related point, South-South Cooperation increasingly serves as a very valuable addition to the traditional modes of support. While South-South Cooperation has been more visible in development, it is less so in international peace and security. It is high time that the UN accords greater attention to and help facilitate mechanisms, based on South-South as well as Triangular cooperation, to better reinforce various activities on the peace continuum. 4
Triangular arrangements also offer opportunities to all stakeholders to diversify their assistance in new settings, which were not accessible to them previously. We encourage the DPA to explore further ways with the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) on different approaches for SPMs. 21. In conclusion, I want to reiterate that Indonesia will remain supportive of the efforts to make SPMs more effective in achieving positive results. We will also continue with our active contribution in the UN and elsewhere to help make the world peaceful and stable for everyone. Thank you. 5