UN / SECURITY SECTOR REFORM

STORY: UN / SECURITY SECTOR REFORM
TRT: 2:28
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 MARCH 2023, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT

SHOTLIST:

RECENT – NEW YORK CITY

1.Wide shot, exterior, United Nations

16 MARCH 2023, NEW YORK CITY

2.Wide shot, Security Council
3.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Zouev, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peace Operations:
“Addressing these challenges requires strong United Nations leadership. It needs predictable mandates by the Security Council for our peace operations to assist security institutions in building democratically governed, accountable, inclusive, and people-centered services. It will also require strategic and impactful interventions informed by political economy analysis that identify barriers and articulate incentives for national actors to commit to SSR (Security Sector Reform).
4.Wide shot, Security Council
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Zouev, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peace Operations:
“We often encounter situations where inclusive national ownership and leadership of SSR is lacking. Without buy-in from the highest national authorities, the United Nations is lacking the very foundation for its support and for sustainable peace more broadly. Secondly, national parties and international partners are often reluctant to integrate SSR into early stages of mediation and peace processes, thereby risking reoccurrence of conflict when key questions around SSR remain unresolved for too long.”
6.Wide shot, Security Council
7.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Zouev, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peace Operations:
“Too often critical progress in reforms cannot be financially sustained after the drawdown of peace operations, risking conflict relapse. And lastly, we see too many barriers to women’s participation in the security sector. Gender stereotypes are still deeply embedded in institutional cultures of the security services – undermining people’s trust in them.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9.SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Zouev, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Department of Peace Operations:
“Mandates on SSR without the financial and human resources to fulfil them, undermine the credibility of the United Nations and undercut our support for the people we serve. We need Member State’s support for the new UN programme of action on SSR, designed to implement your priorities, including for our newly established Standing Capacity on SSR which I mentioned.”
10.Wide shot, Security Council

STORYLINE:

UN Senior official for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, Alexandre Zouev, told the Council that addressing the challenges of Security Sector Reform “requires strong United Nations leadership. It needs predictable mandates by the Security Council for our peace operations to assist security institutions in building democratically governed, accountable, inclusive, and people-centered services.”

Assistant Secretary-General Alexandre Zouev today (16 Mar) in New York briefed the Security Council on the Secretary-General’s report “Strengthening the United Nations approach to security sector reform.”

Zouev told the Council that Secretary-General’s report outlined a new bold vision for security sector reform, which focuses on the primacy of politics and governance, and provides concrete recommendations for the work of the organization in implementing Security Council Resolution 2553 on SSR, in line with Action for Peacekeeping Plus, and Our Common Agenda.

He briefed the Council on the progress made by the United Nations in implementing the priorities set out in the report, saying that through inter-agency SSR Task Force, for the first time ever a system-wide Programme of Action on SSR was launched to guide the implementation of the new SG Report. Strategic partnerships have been further strengthened, including with the AU, EU, OECD, and the World Bank.

On challenges, Zouev said, “We often encounter situations where inclusive national ownership and leadership of SSR is lacking. Without buy-in from the highest national authorities, the United Nations is lacking the very foundation for its support and for sustainable peace more broadly.”

Secondly, “national parties and international partners are often reluctant to integrate SSR into early stages of mediation and peace processes, thereby risking reoccurrence of conflict when key questions around SSR remain unresolved for too long,” the UN senior official added.

Thirdly, the Assistant Secretary-General continued, “Too often critical progress in reforms cannot be financially sustained after the drawdown of peace operations, risking conflict relapse.”

And lastly, he said, “we see too many barriers to women’s participation in the security sector. Gender stereotypes are still deeply embedded in institutional cultures of the security services – undermining people’s trust in them.”

Zouev reiterated, “Mandates on SSR without the financial and human resources to fulfil them, undermine the credibility of the United Nations and undercut our support for the people we serve.”

He added, “We need Member State’s support for the new UN programme of action on SSR, designed to implement your priorities, including for our newly established Standing Capacity on SSR which I mentioned.”