“Our contribution to peacekeeping has not been without cost,” Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, said while participating in the Security Council debate on peacekeeping operations, and added that “156 of our bravest have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the cause of peace”.
Citing the recent closure of UN missions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Cote d’Ivoire as evidence of successful peacekeeping, she told the council members: “It is a humbling for us that in these missions, Pakistani peacekeepers were deployed. They accomplished their tasks, fulfilled their mandates and above all, they won hearts and minds.”
Lodhi called for precise mandates and adequate resources for effective and efficient UN peacekeeping.
“When mandates and capabilities are out of sync, efficiency and effectiveness inevitably suffer,” she added.
At the time of creating and updating the mandates of missions, she said, the Security Council must base its decisions on practical analysis by the Secretariat of resource requirements.
Welcoming the focus on performance, the Pakistani envoy said that improved performance would lead to better results and improve the safety and security of peacekeepers.
Lodhi told the council that Pakistan has developed peacekeeping training modules that form part of the curricula of its mandatory courses, as professionalism in peacekeeping ensures excellence in service delivery.
Pre-deployment training, she stressed, including common and standardised training, is vital for all UN mission components.
Lodhi expressed Pakistan’s willingness to share this expertise with other troop contributing countries and with the UN.
The “Blue Helmets” (UN peacekeepers wear blue helmets), she said, symbolise the UN’s commitment to regional and international peace, security, and stability.
“They are emblematic of the collective will and endeavour of all member states to make this world peaceful and stable,” she asserted.
“Enduring conflicts mean lives lost, families broken, people in camps, women and children left to languish in vulnerability,” Lodhi added.
UN peacekeeping, she said, has saved and protected millions of lives, and helped shattered communities and neighbourhoods rebuild themselves.
