Toespraak minister-president Rutte bij de VN Veiligheidsraad, New York

Toespraak | 28-03-2018

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all I’d like to thank Secretary-General Guterres, Moussa Faki and Fatimata Touré for their inspiring contributions.

UN peace operations save lives. For many men, women and children in conflict areas, the UN is their last hope. And sadly, more and more people around the world have only that last hope to cling to. Since 2010, the number of major violent conflicts has tripled. They’ve also become more complex.

The history of peace operations has seen notable achievements. But it also has its dark pages. We in the Netherlands know that all too well. But that doesn’t make us want to look away. On the contrary. Modernising and improving UN peace operations is one of the priorities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We fully support the Secretary-General’s efforts.

Which brings me to my main message today: we need to shoulder our responsibilities.
This applies to us all.

First of all, the Security Council. We must establish clear and focused mandates, and put pressure on parties to conflicts to find a political solution.

It applies to the host countries, which must cooperate fully with missions.

It applies to the Secretariat, which must support missions efficiently and effectively.

And last but not least, it applies to all member states.
Because we are the UN. And we must make sure that sufficient funding, political support and well-trained, disciplined and well-equipped troops are always available.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is shouldering its responsibility. We are a big financial donor, we make an innovative contribution to the UN mission in Mali, and we contribute to missions in South Sudan and the Middle East.

Excellencies, we want more effective and flexible missions. But how do we achieve that? Let me highlight a few specific points.

First, good intel is one of the keys to a successful mission. Together with other countries, the Netherlands has developed a new intelligence capability in Mali. In this way the UN mandate can be carried out more effectively, and civilians and peacekeepers can be better protected.

Second, capabilities like helicopters and medical facilities are vital, but scarce. Norway was the first country to set up a rotation scheme for this. And after the Netherlands and then Germany supplied helicopters in Gao, Canada recently announced that it would take up the baton. That’s great news. Rotation schemes lower the threshold for participation in missions, increases their sustainability and improves their quality.

Third, I’d like to stress the importance of an integrated approach within UN missions. Each mission must have an overall strategy – with benchmarks – and I’m delighted that such a strategy will be put in place for MINUSMA.

Finally, the UN is working more with regional partners such as the AU and EU. It’s good news that organisations like the African Union and the G5 Sahel are taking their responsibility.

These are only a few of the many improvements – big and small –being made.  We will continue to press for modernisation of UN peace missions, during our membership of the Security Council and beyond.

I hope that today will spark greater commitment to making peace operations more effective. So that the United Nations can go on making a difference to the lives of millions of men, women and children around the world.

Thank you.