Focus on Homework
Amen Teferi
Ethiopia has always remained to be a beacon of peace on the global stage. This was affirmed again during the 72nd regular session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 72) held September 19 and 20, 2017. The assembly has unanimously approved a draft resolution Ethiopia submitted with a view of consolidating international peacekeeping missions.
The draft resolution, tabled by Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, called for a reform on the peace-keeping mission conducted under UN oversight. The resolution requires member states to increase financial backing for the UN peace-keeping missions around the world and its unanimous endorsement was a clear signal for the indispensable contribution Ethiopia made in preserving world peace. It was also considered as an important compliment to Ethiopia’s foreign policy.
At present Ethiopia is the chair of the UN Security Council and the Ethiopian premier had presided the Security Council meeting that had unanimously endorsed the draft resolution Ethiopia has submitted. Hailemariam Dessalegn has also chaired a forum, dubbed “the High Level Open Debate on Reform of United Nations Peacekeeping.”
Secretary-General António Guterres, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki and former President of Timor Leste and Chair of the High Level Panel on the Review of Peace Operations (HIPPO) José Ramos-Horta briefed the council on the theme of the debate.
The proposed resolution calls for accelerating reform and welcomes efforts being made by the secretary-general in this regard. It also lays emphasis on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of UN peacekeeping and underscores the need for peacekeepers to be equipped with the necessary capabilities.
In this regard, it calls for the existing gaps to be addressed while it also recognizes the importance of enhancing partnerships, particularly between the UN and the AU. Thus, the council has agreed to consider to taking practical steps on financing AU-led peace operations authorized by the Security Council on a case-by-case basis.
All council members have decided to co-sponsor the draft resolution and several other non-members are also expressing interest in co-sponsoring it. The statement issued by Ethiopia’s Permanent Mission to the UN has expressed the endorsement as “a big success.”
Ethiopia is a leading troop-contributing country that attaches great importance to strengthening UN peacekeeping and has committed itself to take issues of peacekeeping mission as most important priorities in its activities in the Security Council.
This event has given Ethiopia a spotlight and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has praised PM Hailemariam for the commitment in designing the draft, saying “Your personnel are on the frontlines in some of our most challenging missions, and we are extremely grateful for that commitment.”
Security Council Resolution 2320 of November 18, 2016, which largely built on the HIPPO report, stressed that the AU-UN partnership should be underpinned by mutual consultation between the Council and the AU’s Peace and Security Council. The resolution highlighted that such cooperation should be “based on respective comparative advantage, burden sharing, consultative decision making, joint analysis and planning missions and assessment visits by the UN and AU, monitoring and evaluation, transparency and accountability.”
The HIPPO report made over 160 recommendations on how to ensure better design and delivery of UN peace operations, focusing particularly on how to make peacekeeping more responsive and fit-for-purpose.
On the other hand, the current chair of the UNSC Ethiopia has expressed its concern with regards to the escalating confrontational situation in the Korean Peninsula. It has expressed the need to quickly resolve the problem before it becomes serious threat to global peace. Besides, Ethiopia had highlighted the crisis in South Sudan and the acts of terror perpetrated by al-Shabaab in Somalia.
As the reform document on the operations of UN peacekeeping and other proposals Ethiopia forwarded on regional and global issues were product of a genuine motive and rich experiences acquired over the years the they were wholeheartedly accepted by all concerned bodies of the UN. Ethiopia’s position on climate change was another agenda that has been acclaimed by the global communities. Climate change is a global problem that is inflicting massive human and material destruction. Ethiopia has also expressed the problem posed by the Climate change and its strong support to the implementation of the Paris agreement at the various forums and has once again firmly voiced and advocated the African stand on climate change.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn had sideline meetings with his Japanese counterpart on issues of Korean Peninsula and has urged member states of AU to condemn the irresponsible acts of North Korea.
In nutshell, the 72nd UN assembly was a forum where Ethiopia has reaffirmed its commitment to world peace and to avert the eminent impact of Climate Change on the global community. For sure, as we have seen on the recent UN general assembly, Ethiopia’s diplomatic stance has greatly improved. But, we are not oblivion of the fact that this success is exclusively based on what we accomplished at home. Therefore, in order to excel at international stages as we did now, we need to focus and address problems we face at home on all fronts. This is the instruction of our foreign policy.