The UAE underscored that the UN and its Member States must take a holistic approach to peace and security as the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continue to highlight the need for a strong international response.
“It is already abundantly clear that the pandemic is worsening conditions that both lead to and amplify conflict and violence, from hunger to deterioration of basic services to hate speech,” the UAE emphasized in its written statement to the UN Security Council for its open debate on pandemics and the challenges to peace building and sustaining peace.
Focusing on promoting a holistic approach to sustain and foster peace and security, the UAE stated that the UN and Member States should continue to empower its Resident Coordinators around to world to facilitate the international response to COVID-19, as well as enhance the UN’s work on preparedness and peace building. The UAE stressed that the holistic approach is only possible through a lock-step coordination among the diverse UN system, noting that the Resident Coordinators are best placed to facilitate the development, humanitarian, and security pillars of the UN that work hand-in-hand toward collective outcomes. The UAE said that heads of missions authorized by the Security Council should systematically liaise with Resident Coordinators to identify the contributions they make to pandemic recovery and long-term peace and security. They also added that Resident Coordinators should also be front and center in the work of the UN’s Peace building Commission and Fund.
The UAE welcomed the trend of including additional international organizations and other stakeholders in efforts to diversify UN country teams. They emphasized that diverse country teams lead to better coordination, resource mobilization, and outcomes for affected communities and individuals.
Stressing that gender equality is central to durable peace and economic recovery, the UAE underlined that the international community must accelerate efforts to mainstream gender in peace and security. Women and girls have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, like other crises, further prompting to ensure that the Security Council is always briefed on the role of women in peace building and peace processes. In this regard, the UAE also stated that Council must ensure that its mandated missions have sufficient gender resources and that UN peace and security activities have gender metrics linked to personnel performance evaluation.
Furthermore, the UAE encouraged the UN to move toward risk-informed anticipatory action, with a special focus on conflict prevention, noting that credible warnings of factors that could worsen or enable conflicts should be matched by increased and coordinated development, humanitarian, and peace building action to prevent or mitigate the conflict. They added that risk-informed action could result in the Security Council’s earlier mobilization of mandates and resources.
