United Nations General Assembly 2018: IRC Report

Baroness Goldie Excerpts

Thursday 6th September 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goldie (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Howell for tabling this timely debate and for his lucid and analytical speech, as I thank all noble Lords for their thoughtful contributions. The Government welcome the International Relations Committee’s report on the forthcoming 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. The report identifies a number of interrelated issues facing the UN, and I shall refer to these as I respond to noble Lords’ points.

It goes without saying that, as a founder member of the United Nations, its third-largest financial donor, a permanent member of the Security Council and a growing contributor to UN peacekeeping, the UK plays a significant role in the organisation and will continue to do so in the period ahead. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, made a pertinent observation when he said that the United Nations is not some abstract organisation. He is quite right: it is our United Nations, as it is the United Nations of all the other member states.

The UK takes its responsibilities as a permanent member of the Security Council extremely seriously. As noble Lords will be aware, we have just completed our latest month as rotating president of the council and, under the chairmanship of my noble friend Lord Ahmad, we focused the council’s attention on the importance of mediation in the UN’s conflict prevention and resolution work, particularly the vital role of women mediators. We were fortunate to benefit in that debate from the participation and experience of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury.

My noble friend also chaired a Security Council briefing on the situation in Burma and the plight of the Rohingya people. It is the Government’s intention to maintain a spotlight on the Rakhine crisis until such time as the Rohingya people are able to return home in peace and with dignity. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, who specifically raised the matter of Burma, that the United Nations fact-finding mission’s report reaffirmed the appalling human rights violations that so many in Burma have suffered. As Ministers have stated in the UK Parliament, this has been ethnic cleansing and may be genocide. I assure her that there cannot and must not be impunity for such acts.

I turn to the UK’s engagement with other protracted conflicts. The Government actively support the efforts of the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to bring the parties together and to work towards a political agreement. Similarly, in Syria we continue to support the Geneva-based political process led by the UN Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura. In both cases, the complexity of the conflict is such that only an inclusive political solution will enable those countries to emerge from conflict and rebuild.

The noble Lord, Lord Stone of Blackheath, raised a number of issues, including the Alliance for Middle East Peace. The UK believes in the work that ALLMEP conducts and we support its objectives. ALLMEP’s work in developing an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace is a concept that the UK supports. He also raised issues in Tanganyika and across the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We share his concerns there: as well as supporting the work of the UN stabilisation mission in the DRC, we supported a resolution at the 38th session of the Human Rights Council in June this year that mandated an investigation into human rights abuses across the DRC.

The noble Lord raised a very important and cogent point about mindfulness, while the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, was a little less charitable in her reaction to that. It is a technique that raises awareness of one’s thoughts and their effects on behaviour towards oneself and others. Perhaps we might want to think about it in this House. It is encouraged in government departments and we can see how it might be useful to apply it in the context to which the noble Lord referred.

A number of noble Lords referred to terrorism—not least the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, and my noble friend Lady Bottomley. As my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary noted in his recent speech in Washington, Islamist-inspired terrorism continues to be a challenge to the global order, and we welcome the UN’s recently refreshed global counterterrorism strategy. In this 73rd session we will work with the United Nations’ new Office of Counter-Terrorism and with the General Assembly membership to strengthen counterterrorism policies and programmes, including those on aviation security and preventing terrorists’ use of the internet.

Not surprisingly, a number of noble Lords mentioned the issue of human rights: the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, and my noble friend Lady Bottomley. The UK has played a key role in United Nations human rights fora since their inception, and we remain committed to promoting and safeguarding universal human rights, both because they are important in themselves and because defending them is in the national interest: human rights violations lead to less stable, less prosperous and less democratic societies. We warmly congratulate Michelle Bachelet on her appointment as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The UK will remain a strong advocate of the UN Human Rights Council and the tools and mechanisms at its disposal for strengthening human rights protection.

On migration, which was referred to by a number of noble Lords, unmanaged migration continues to pose a significant challenge across Europe, and it is clear that bilateral and regional efforts to address this challenge are by themselves insufficient. A number of noble Lords also asked about the global compact for migration. The UK recognises the value of safe, orderly and properly managed migration, and the Government welcome that global compact, which was agreed in New York in July, as an international framework towards achieving a more orderly and managed process. We look forward to its implementation. In this context, I also noticed a very interesting observation by the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, in her point about language and translation, which will be noted.

On sustainable development goals, on which, understandably, a number of noble Lords focused, my noble friend Lord Howell identified positive progress. The committee’s report rightly highlights delivery of the sustainable development goals as a priority—indeed the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, underlined that. The UK remains firmly committed to delivering the goals, both at home and abroad, and next year at the United Nations we will be presenting a voluntary national review of progress towards these goals.

I think the noble Lord asked specifically about sustainable development goal 16, which is concerned with peace, justice and strong institutions. We continue to work to meet these indicators. For example, we are contributing to reducing conflict and violence through our conflict prevention work, as set out in our strategic defence and security review of 2015.

We are leading in the Security Council on protecting children and women in armed conflict, and on peace and security. Indeed—this is related but not directly connected to that issue—the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, gave a very interesting account of his recent visits to Africa and an illustration of progress in education on that continent. On the broader issue of sustainable development, it is important that the Government’s commitment to spending 0.7% of gross national income on development remains steadfast.

A number of noble Lords’ contributions covered peacekeeping, as well as increasing our own participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations. We continue to work closely with the UN and other member states to support peacekeeping reform. We remain focused on three priority areas: better mission planning; more pledges of quality equipment and personnel; and stronger performance and accountability. We also fully support the Secretary-General’s zero-tolerance approach to sexual exploitation and abuse.

My noble friend Lady Anelay, in a characteristically informed contribution, raised some important questions which I want to try to deal with. She asked about ministerial attendance at UNGA. There will be a stellar cast: the Prime Minister; the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; the Secretary of State for International Development; the Minister for Women and Equalities; our colleague my noble friend Lord Ahmad; and the three other Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers Alistair Burt, Harriett Baldwin and Mark Field. I would also pick out Karen Pierce, who my noble friend Lady Bottomley very rightly referred to and who is regarded as a most influential presence in the forum.

My noble friend Lady Anelay also asked about UK discussions with the US regarding the funding of peacekeeping. Our Government have had a number of discussions with the US in relation to peacekeeping finances. The allocations for individual missions were agreed at the fifth committee of the General Assembly in late June for the current peacekeeping financial year, which runs from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.

My noble friend also raised the important matter of sexual exploitation. I reassure her that we have strengthened language on the protection of women and girls, participation in peace processes and mainstreaming on gender perspectives in all peacekeeping mission mandates over the last 12 years. I think she specifically raised Resolution 2272; we remain committed to the full implementation of that resolution.

In connection with peacekeeping roles, the noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, also raised the greater role for the private sector. Let me reassure her that the Prime Minister will chair an event during the UNGA ministerial week, designed to bring together state actors, NGOs and the private sector to stimulate employment and enterprise, particularly in Africa to harness the huge potential of its youth. That is an indication of our strong support for bringing the private sector into play.

My noble friend Lord Young is reminding me that we are rapidly running out of time. There are points I wanted to cover, as some very good issues were raised. I undertake to write to Members if I have not managed to respond to them specifically in the context of this debate.

Reform is an important issue, raised by a number of contributors. I thought that my noble friend Lord Howell spoke eloquently on that. Secretary-General Guterres’s work on UN reform has made solid progress during the 72nd session, but there is more to do. Let me assure your Lordships that the UK will play its part in assisting the Secretary-General to secure and implement the reforms needed to enable the UN to meet future challenges.

We also noted that the report referred to the significance of cybersecurity as a priority for the Government. We agree and think that UNGA 73 presents an opportunity to be ambitious and develop common understandings about that issue.

In his recent speech in Washington, the Foreign Secretary reminded us that to address successfully the range of challenges facing the global order, we must restore confidence in our multilateral institutions. The UN is pre-eminent among these.

In conclusion, it is perhaps fitting that I make this comment. I was struck by the number of contributors who specifically singled out Kofi Annan for favourable and positive comment. He was arguably one of the most successful holders of the office of Secretary-General, and I thank all those who acknowledged and paid tribute to him. We must seize his legacy and work to transform the UN into an institution ready to take on the complex challenges of today and tomorrow. As the 73rd session of the General Assembly approaches, the Government will do their part in delivering that legacy for the benefit of the UK and the international community.

House adjourned at 7.19 pm.