STATEMENT BY MR KEITH TAN, DELEGATE TO THE 67th SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON AGENDA ITEM 54, COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE WHOLE QUESTION ON PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS IN ALL THEIR ASPECTS, FOURTH COMMITTEE, 8 NOVEMBER 2012

Mr Chairman,

                Let me first extend my delegation’s congratulations to you and your Bureau on your election. I will like to take this opportunity to commend on the work of the Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Mr Hervé Ladsous and his team. Singapore also joins other delegations in thanking and underscoring the excellent work of Ms Susana Malcorra, former Under Secretary-General for the Department of Field Support and her team in seeking approaches to improve the quality and effectiveness of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, and welcomes Ms Ameerah Haq and wishes her success on her mission. We look forward to continued cooperation with both the Department of the Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support. My delegation associates itself with the statements delivered by the distinguished representatives of Egypt and Thailand, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations respectively.

Mr Chairman,

                The United Nations remains the most critical institution in maintaining peace and the international order. In the past 48 years, not only has the United Nations  played a cardinal role in helping to defuse international crises and resolve conflicts, but also undertaken 67 missions of varied complexity ranging from humanitarian assistance to peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

                As a concerned and responsible member of the international community, Singapore fully supports the efforts of the United Nations in promoting international peace and stability, and in upholding the rule of international law.

                In this regard, that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) have strived to serve in 15 peacekeeping and observer missions since 1989 despite its constraints as a small conscript army evinces Singapore's firm belief and support for the United Nations' role in maintaining international peace and security and the principles of the United Nations Charter.

Mr Chairman,

                The turn of the 21st century heralded an era of multi-faceted security challenges in combating global terrorism, set against the dynamic backdrop of abiding transnational threats related to pandemics, piracy, food security, natural disasters, financial crises and cyber-attacks.

                Rapid change and the ensuing ambiguity set the new global order, challenging peacekeeping organisations and personnel in their mission to restore international and regional stability and security.

                The safety of the 118, 000 peacekeeping personnel, including 96, 000 troops, police and military observers, in carrying out precarious, yet crucial assignments, cannot be overstated.

                The regrettable high mean number of over 100 fatalities among the peacekeeping personnel over the past ten years is a stark and solemn reminder of the need for adequate protection and security of, and not forgetting, capacity building in them.

                Besides the established roles of protecting territorial sovereignty, conventional combat skills and policing, Troop and Police Contributing Countries would need to equip their peacekeeping personnel with new skill sets such as collaborative skills in working with other civilian and non-governmental relief agencies, and even additional language training to aid in better communications with conflict-hit local population, while maintaining traditional competencies.

                It is clear that there are new demands placed on today's military professionals. They are expected to respond to changing external dynamics and rapid technological advances. Military professionals must be competent in a wide spectrum of missions which include peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance. They can be deployed at short notice to faraway places where they will have to navigate sensitive racial, religious and cultural practices.

Mr Chairman,

                These capacity development efforts would ensure higher survivability and livelihood of not just the peacekeepers operating in hazardous situations and environment but also the intended civilians in these war-torn territories. 

                With law and order restored in the aftermath of conflict, capacity building continues to be the cornerstone for nation building in the areas of infrastructure, education, employment and industries, finance and development. It is imperative for the United Nations peacekeeping forces to work collaboratively with the host Governments and local communities to protect the civilians from violence, murders and gender-specific crimes and torture.

                As the singular body charged with the comprehensive review of the whole question on peacekeeping operations in all its aspects, the Special Committee has registered significant progress in UN peacekeeping reforms. We would like to urge the Committee to further cooperate in peacekeeping training among Member States, including the provision of training opportunities and assistance to new and emerging Troop Contributing Countries and the protection of peacekeeping forces and civilians alike to enhance the capacity of the United Nations to fulfill its peacekeeping and peacebuilding responsibilities, bearing in mind the need to maintain efficiency and the effectiveness of the work of the Special Committee.

Mr Chairman,

                My delegation recognises one key problem in UN peacekeeping mission, as outlined in the Brahimi Report, is the challenge in adequately supporting field operations in the areas of human resource, information and communications technology, administration and logistical and financial management to accomplish mission objectives. In this connection, we welcome the good progress of the work of the Department of Field Support and the considerable achievement in the first year of the five-year implementation timeline of the Global Field Support Strategy (GFSS), as noted in the Report of the Secretary-General on the Progress in the implementation of the GFSS (A/66/591), as well as the Report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on the Audit of the implementation of the GFSS (A/66/714).  

                We would like to call on the Department of Field Support to continue to seek improvements in its governance, risk management and control processes, including appropriate key performance indicators and their related benchmarks so as to provide reasonable assurance regarding the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery in an integrated, accountable, transparent and timely manner in support of mission operations. We also urge the Secretariat to continue to hold informal quarterly briefings on the strategy in all its operational aspects to enable meaningful discussions with all Member States, in particular troop- and police-contributing countries.

Thank you.