Military

265. The present report targets two groups in presenting its recommendations for reform: the Member States and the Secretariat. We recognize that reform will not occur unless Member States genuinely pursue it. At the same time, we believe that the changes we recommend for the Secretariat must be actively advanced by the Secretary-General and implemented by his senior staff.

266. Member States must recognize that the United Nations is the sum of its parts and accept that the primary responsibility for reform lies with them. The failures of the United Nations are not those of the Secretariat alone, or troop commanders or the leaders of field missions. Most occurred because the Security Council and the Member States crafted and supported ambiguous, inconsistent and under-funded mandates and then stood back and watched as they failed, sometimes even adding critical public commentary as the credibility of the United Nations underwent its severest tests.

267. The problems of command and control that recently arose in Sierra Leone are the most recent illustration of what cannot be tolerated any longer. Troop contributors must ensure that the troops they provide fully understand the importance of an integrated chain of command, the operational control of the Secretary-General and the standard operating procedures and rules of engagement of the mission. It is essential that the chain of command in an operation be understood and respected, and the onus is on national capitals to refrain from instructing their contingent commanders on operational matters.

268. We are aware that the Secretary-General is implementing a comprehensive reform programme and realize that our recommendations may need to be adjusted to fit within this bigger picture. Furthermore, the reforms we have recommended for the Secretariat and the United Nations system in general will not be accomplished overnight, though some require urgent action. We recognize that there is a normal resistance to change in any bureaucracy, and are encouraged that some of the changes we have embraced as recommendations originate from within the system. We are also encouraged by the commitment of the Secretary-General to lead the Secretariat toward reform even if it means that long-standing organizational and procedural lines will have to be breached, and that aspects of the Secretariat’s priorities and culture will need to be challenged and changed. In this connection, we urge the Secretary-General to appoint a senior official with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of the recommendations contained in the present report.

269. The Secretary-General has consistently emphasized the need for the United Nations to reach out to civil society and to strengthen relations with non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and the media, who can be useful partners in the promotion of peace and security for all. We call on the Secretariat to take heed of the Secretary-General’s approach and implement it in its work in peace and security. We call on them to constantly keep in mind that the United Nations they serve is the universal organization. People everywhere are fully entitled to consider that it is their organization, and as such to pass judgement on its activities and the people who serve in it.

270. There is wide variation in quality among Secretariat staff supporting the peace and security functions in DPKO, DPA and the other departments concerned. This observation applies to the civilians recruited by the Secretariat as well as to the military and civilian police personnel proposed by Member States. These disparities are widely recognized by those in the system. Better performers are given unreasonable workloads to compensate for those who are less capable. Naturally, this can be bad for morale and can create resentment, particularly among those who rightly point out that the United Nations has not dedicated enough attention over the years to career development, training and mentoring or the institution of modern management practices. Put simply, the United Nations is far from being a meritocracy today, and unless it takes steps to become one it will not be able to reverse the alarming trend of qualified personnel, the young among them in particular, leaving the Organization. If the hiring, promotion and delegation of responsibility rely heavily on seniority or personal or political connections, qualified people will have no incentive to join the Organization or stay with it. Unless managers at all levels, beginning with the Secretary-General and his senior staff, seriously address this problem on a priority basis, reward excellence and remove incompetent staff, additional resources will be wasted and lasting reform will become impossible.

271. The same level of scrutiny should apply to United Nations personnel in the field missions. The majority of them embody the spirit of what it means to be an international civil servant, traveling to war-torn lands and dangerous environments to help improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable communities. They do so with considerable personal sacrifice, and at times with great risks to their own physical safety and mental health. They deserve the world’s recognition and appreciation. Over the years, many of them have given their lives in the service of peace and we take this opportunity to honour their memory.

272. United Nations personnel in the field, perhaps more than any others, are obliged to respect local norms, culture and practices. They must go out of their way to demonstrate that respect, as a start, by getting to know their host environment and trying to learn as much of the local culture and language as they can. They must behave with the understanding that they are guests in someone else’s home, however destroyed that home might be, particularly when the United Nations takes on a transitional administration role. And they must also treat one another with respect and dignity, with particular sensitivity towards gender and cultural differences.

273. In short, we believe that a very high standard should be maintained for the selection and conduct of personnel at Headquarters and in the field. When United Nations personnel fail to meet such standards, they should be held accountable. In the past, the Secretariat has had difficulty in holding senior officials in the field accountable for their performance because those officials could point to insufficient resources, unclear instructions or lack of appropriate command and control arrangements as the main impediments to successful implementation of a mission’s mandate. These deficiencies should be addressed but should not be allowed to offer cover to poor performers. The future of nations, the lives of those whom the United Nations has come to help and protect, the success of a mission and the credibility of the Organization can all hinge on what a few individuals do or fail to do. Anyone who turns out to be unsuited to the task that he or she has agreed to perform must be removed from a mission, no matter how high or how low they may be on the ladder.

274. Member States themselves acknowledge that they, too, need to reflect on their working culture and methods, at least as concerns the conduct of United Nations peace and security activities. The tradition of the recitation of statements, followed by a painstaking process of achieving consensus, places considerable emphasis on the diplomatic process over operational product. While one of the United Nations main virtues is that it provides a forum for 189 Member States to exchange views on pressing global issues, sometimes dialogue alone is not enough to ensure that billion- dollar peacekeeping operations, vital conflict prevention measures or critical peacemaking efforts succeed in the face of great odds. Expressions of general support in the form of statements and resolutions must be followed up with tangible action.

275. Moreover, Member States may send conflicting messages regarding the actions they advocate, with their representatives voicing political support in one body but denying financial support in another. Such inconsistencies have appeared between the Fifth Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters on the one hand, and the Security Council and the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations on the other.

276. On the political level, many of the local parties with whom peacekeepers and peacemakers are dealing on a daily basis may neither respect nor fear verbal condemnation by the Security Council. It is therefore incumbent that Council members and the membership at large breathe life into the words that they produce, as did the Security Council delegation that flew to Jakarta and Dili in the wake of the East Timor crisis last year, an example of effective Council action at its best: res, non verba.

277. Meanwhile, the financial constraints under which the United Nations labours continue to cause serious damage to its ability to conduct peace operations in a credible and professional manner. We therefore urge that Member States uphold their treaty obligations and pay their dues in full, on time and without condition.

278. We are also aware that there are other issues which, directly or indirectly, hamper effective United Nations action in the field of peace and security, including two unresolved issues that are beyond the scope of the Panel’s mandate but critical to peace operations and that only the Member States can address. They are the disagreements about how assessments in support of peacekeeping operations are apportioned and about equitable representation on the Security Council. We can only hope that the Member States will find a way to resolve their differences on these issues in the interests of upholding their collective international responsibility as prescribed in the Charter.

279. We call on the leaders of the world assembled at the Millennium Summit, as they renew their commitment to the ideals of the United Nations, to commit as well to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to fully accomplish the mission which is, indeed, its very raison d’être: to help communities engulfed in strife and to maintain or restore peace.

280. While building consensus for the recommendations in the present report, we — the members of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations — have also come to a shared vision of a United Nations, extending a strong helping hand to a community, country or region to avert conflict or to end violence. We see an SRSG ending a mission well accomplished, having given the people of a country the opportunity to do for themselves what they could not do before: to build and hold onto peace, to find reconciliation, to strengthen democracy, to secure human rights. We see, above all, a United Nations that has not only the will but also the ability to fulfil its great promise and to justify the confidence and trust placed in it by the overwhelming majority of humankind.