Statement by His Excellency Dr. Ali Naseer Mohamed,

Permanent Representative of Maldives to the UN

UNSC Open Debate

United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Their potential contribution to the overarching goal of sustaining peace

United Nations, New York, 29 August 2017

Thank you Mr President,

Let me start by congratulating you on your assumption of the Presidency of the Security Council, and also convening this important debate on the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.

Peacekeeping operations are at the heart of the United Nations. It is as much about peace making, and peace enforcement, as it is about peacekeeping. There is no better cause than preventing violent conflicts; it is about saving lives and livelihoods; it is about bringing hopes to the vanquished; it is about creating conditions to empower communities to enable their children to realise their dreams, and let them to dream new dreams.

The Maldives wishes to submit to this Open Debate that it is of profound importance for constructing an analytical framework that enables the Council consider the necessary changes to the mandates of the UN peacekeeping mission. Such a framework can start by establishing, at the inception level, a greater coordination and operational coherence between peacekeeping operations and the UN country team on the ground. The designing stage of any peacekeeping operation should take full account of the unique historical, political, and economic circumstances of the situation, using the most relevant analytical tools available.

Any such analysis should produce the correct diagnosis of the underlying causes of the conflict. The visible signs we see and we hear about a conflict, might, at times, be the symptoms of an underlying set of issues. As such, identifying the underlying causes that led to the conflict, in the first place, should be the basic outcome of even the initial diagnosis of the conflict situation.

Situations give rise to conflicts which become intractable over time, quite often, because of system level failures. Such failures might be as a result of decaying social fabrics that held the communities together for centuries, or it might be the gradual weakening of the State's capacity to govern and maintain order. Any peacekeeping operation, in any interstate conflict, should aim to build the capacity of the State, first of all, to govern, and then, to foster a governing order that is rooted in the principles of democracy, good governance, and inclusive development.

Building the capacity of the State is important, too, in developing an institutional architecture that would help in creating a shared vision for the country and in mobilising and sustaining support for such a vision. If there is one thing that the peacekeeping operations can help the countries to create and sustain peace, it is a set of institutions that can inspire national unity, that can deliver peace dividend to every corner of the country, and one, that can cultivate and foster, a culture of peace, respect, and tolerance in the country concerned.

The Maldives believes that the Security Council, in close collaboration with other agencies in the UN system, can inspire and lead in bringing the necessary reforms to the peacekeeping missions; in designing such operations; and in implementing the set of strategies that will sustain peace. Women and men, in every corner of the world, look up to the Security Council for leadership; we in the Maldives, have full faith that the Council will not fail in providing that leadership.

I thank you