Peace, security reform should adhere to UN Charter's purposes, principles: Chinese envoy

UNITED NATIONS - A Chinese envoy said on Wednesday that the peace and security reform of the United Nations should adhere to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

"The reform should remain true to its original aspiration, and adhere to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter," Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the meeting of the Fifth Committee of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly on the review of the implementation of the peace and security reform.

The reform "should be based on enhancing the capacities of peacekeeping operations and special political missions to implement General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, focuses on better fulfilling their mandates and tasks, concretely improving their efficiency and effectiveness, allocating resources and personnel as well as setting up institutions in a scientific and rational manner," said the envoy.

Talking about the process of the reform, the ambassador said that the reform should "keep transparent, open and fair."

"The Secretariat should provide update and feedback to member states on the implementation of reform in a timely manner," he said.

"Members states' monitoring of reform should be ensured, comments of member states should be listened, member states' concerns should be accommodated, and reform measures should be adjusted timely in line with member states' recommendations to cope with new challenges in the process of reform implementation," the envoy added.

The ambassador noted that the single political-operational structure has rationality, while internal coordination should be strengthened to make sure that the structure works smoothly under dual leadership of the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the Department of Peace Operations (DPO).

Speaking about the emphasis of the reform, Dai said that the reform should put emphasis on addressing the imbalance of geographical representation.

"DPPA, DPO, each PKO (UN Peacekeeping Operations) and SPM (Special Political Mission) should take concrete measures to address the imbalance of staff geographical representation, implement related General Assembly resolutions and increase the number of international staff from developing countries and troop contributing countries at all levels," he said.

"Promoting gender parity is not a replacement of addressing the imbalance of geographical representation," said the envoy.

Dai said that closer alignment with the development pillar is inherent requirement of the peace and security reform.

"Prevention of conflicts and sustaining peace can only be achieved by helping the host country to enhance self development capacities. Cooperation with Resident Coordinators System should be strengthened, and development should be put as priority," the envoy noted.

"Nowadays, the security of peacekeeping personnel is facing growing threat from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other traditional and nontraditional security risks. The peace and security reform should focus on effective measures to implement related General Assembly and Security Council resolutions to protect the security and health of peacekeeping personnel," he added.