National Defence Committee on May 1st, 2018

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Professor Mason.

[Peggy Mason]

Yes, just to echo that point, both the Netherlands and Germany have three-year commitments and this is really what the UN has been urging, to have some kind of continuity. We'll basically be preparing to leave when we go in, so it's not sufficient.

If I may, though, I would like to come quickly back to this discussion of UN command and control. The UN has made huge progress in this regard, and independent studies going all the way back to 2009 demonstrate that the decentralized command and control, down to the head of mission at the operational level, the SRSG, who also has a quasi-strategic function, was far superior to NATO command and control.

The new issue that's arisen is the one that was raised with respect to when you have two other missions operating, as in Mali. How do you do that kind of coordination? The answer is not for an individual member state to say, we're going to do it. The answer is to support the UN Security Council and the UN headquarters in coming to grips with the kind of mechanism that they can develop to assert that kind of strategic-level coordination over the three missions.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

General Fraser, do you think the contributions we're doing now are enough to get us back into the peacekeeping leadership role?

[MGen (Ret'd) David Fraser]

In short, no. It's piecemeal. There is no coherence to it. There is no Team Canada approach that gives mass concentration to meet the aspiration that our Prime Minister stated. I think the pieces are there, but it's not packaged properly.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Ms. Novosseloff, what does Canada actually bring to the table that would be valuable now?

[Dr. Alexandra Novosseloff]

I think it has to be a more comprehensive contribution. It's certainly rather easy, like sending a number of staff officers, not only in Mali but in a number of other peacekeeping operations, so that you go again into this process of learning what UN peacekeeping is about, how the UN is functioning on the ground, and also put a number of civilians, maybe not the SRSG but DSRSGs, chiefs of staff, which are very key positions, in the system. That's how you will again build that knowledge that is crucial to any contribution.

Thank you.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

Great.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

The last question is to MP Robillard.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for all the witnesses.

While a number of previous witnesses have talked about the importance of women in peacekeeping missions, what measures should the United Nations take so that women's participation in conflict resolution would be considered a priority and an essential part of international peacekeeping and security?

[Zoé Dugal]

I will go first.

Women must be involved at all levels. Is not enough to send a few women in some contingents. As soon as peace negotiations begin, in the peace agreement, women from the country in question must be involved in all aspects of the negotiations. But that hasn't really been done. The few times that has been done were very successful.

It has been proven that peace negotiations that involved local women brought a sustainable peace in those countries because women have a different position and see things differently. Often, they are not fighters. They come from communities and are local leaders. They provide a perspective and think of including things in the peace agreement that men would not include.

It is crucial for women to be involved at all levels, from the very beginning. It must also be determined how they can be integrated into the UN. There are women on the civilian side. In fact, there are more women than men within the UN. However, women must be encouraged to take on leadership positions. There are women at lower levels and some in the middle, but we need women to be special representatives of the secretary general and be involved at high levels in UN missions. In addition, there must be women at the UN headquarters, In New York, and not only on the ground.

In terms of military and police services, every member state must ensure to increase the number of women in those organizations. It must begin with having more women in police services and in the army. Those women will then be deployed on the ground. If there are no women in police services, they cannot be sent abroad.

That is basically my answer.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you.

[Peggy Mason]

Thank you very much.

Yes, it's absolutely important to champion women in the peace process, but that means that you have to have a good peace process. It's part of the bigger picture. It's not just saying that we support women. It's getting behind the peace process tangibly. It is similar with peacekeepers. Canada has an initiative to help promote more women peacekeepers. Let's lead by example and have more peacekeepers, including more women peacekeepers.

Thank you.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Thank you very much.

Whether we call it—I wrote down some new ones—peace operations, peace support operations, peacekeeping, or UN operations, it's really the substantive nature of the conversation that is going to move the yardsticks.

I very much appreciate all four of you participating in this conversation. It added value to what we're trying to do here. We appreciate your time.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.