Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 15 Jun 2000

Vol. 521 No. 3

Written Answers. - UN Status.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

15 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps he has taken to enhance and improve the status of the UN with particular reference to the need to safeguard the UN's stature as an internationally recognised and acceptable peacekeeping agency; if measures can or have been identified to prevent reoccurrences such as the detention of UN personnel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16959/00]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

The Government is committed to working with our EU partners to help ensure that the UN is given adequate resources to enable it to fulfil its key international role in conflict prevention and resolution. The UN has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The forthcoming millennium summit in September will offer the opportunity for the international community to reaffirm its confidence in the UN through a political commitment to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to deploy peace support operations quickly and effectively.

The United Nations has already made, over many years, a major contribution to peace through peacekeeping operations. Many UN peacekeeping operations have been very successful. We in Ireland can be very proud of the contribution made by our Defence Forces, notably in the Lebanon since 1978. However, there have also been failures. The UN itself is highly aware of the deficiencies in peacekeeping operations which have led to the scenes witnessed recently in Sierra Leone and previously in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia. The Secretary-General himself has openly admitted that the UN has made grave mistakes.

The Secretary-General has appointed a high-level panel to review all aspects of UN peacekeeping and to report back before the millennium summit. A new generation of complex peacekeeping operations, with political, humanitarian and military dimensions, has made it essential that the various departments and agencies of the UN involved work together in a coherent and co-ordinated manner. This, and the need to improve the UN's rapid deployment capability are among the issues which the review panel will address. We look forward to the report of the panel and will give it our fullest consideration.

An important new legal protection for UN peacekeepers is the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel. Ireland fully supports this convention, which reflects the widespread concern felt at the growing number of deaths and injuries resulting from deliberate attacks against United Nations personnel working in the field. Attacks against, detention, or other mistreatment of personnel who act on behalf of the United Nations are unjustifiable and unacceptable. The convention aims to secure the better protection of personnel working on behalf of the United Nations in the areas of preventive diplomacy, peace support, humanitarian and other operations. It entered into force on 15 January 1999 and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has published a Bill to enable Ireland to ratify the convention. This is now at the final stages of consideration by this House.

Ireland at present contributes just over 700 military and police personnel to UN peacekeeping missions, with our main participation in UNIFIL. We underlined our commitment to UN peacekeeping in 1998 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN committing 850 Defence Forces personnel to UN peacekeeping under the UN Standby Arrangements System, UNSAS. This initiative is designed to increase the UN's capacity to respond to emergency situations. Some 88 countries have indicated their willingness to participate in UNSAS, and 32 countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising their commitment. Most of the personnel committed by Ireland are already on service with UN, and UN authorised, peace support missions at the present time.