Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege for me to rise this afternoon.
Peacekeeping missions took a new turn in the 1990s. In order to meet the new challenges of global security in the next century, we need a United Nations Organization and other international organizations that are able to play a more efficient role in conflict resolution.
The extent and complexity of contemporary peacekeeping missions call for the UN to ask regional organizations to play a greater role in conflict resolution.
The role of NATO in this effort is an excellent example of the co-operation that is possible between international organizations.
The UN is the ideal tool for giving legitimacy to an international peace mission and NATO is the organization best equipped for carrying out a mission in Europe, especially one that could call for the use of force. But the UN still needs to be changed.
Created in the 1940s, the organization must get the tools necessary for facing the challenges of global security in this century and those to come. The UN record since the end of the cold war is quite impressive for the most part. Missions in El Salvador, Cambodia, Mozambique and Haiti have produced sound results. But failures in Africa and the former Yugoslavia have raised some doubts.
Unfortunately, many member states put all the problems of the world on the UN's shoulders, which is very unfair. Member states must stop criticizing and start doing their bit. Canada is well aware of the UN's problems, but our government is determined to find solutions.
Given our experience and expertise in all aspects of peacekeeping and the new ideas we propose, we are in a unique position to help the UN. Canada helps to improve UN peacekeeping missions in different ways, such as offering expertise at UN headquarters in New York and establishing the Lester B. Pearson training centre for peacekeeping at Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.
As Canadians, we can offer pragmatic and feasible ideas to prepare the UN for the future. Last September, for example, Canada submitted to the General Assembly the results of a study to improve the UN's capacity to respond in times of crisis. Events in Rwanda showed that simple measures can settle a crisis before it is completely out of control.
The Canadian study recommends concrete changes at all levels of the UN system to ensure that such measures can be implemented quickly and effectively. These changes would be cost effective and their implementation would not require any reform to the present UN charter.
The studies clear recommendation is its proposal to create a multi-national, multi-disciplinary headquarters planning cell, comprised of military and civilian personnel from member states. This planning cell, which would operate under the authority of the security council and the strategic direction of the Secretary-General, would fill an enormous vacuum in the UN system.
It would be responsible for planning and preparing for rapid deployment of a multi-functional standby force of up to 5,000 military and civilian personnel. This force would be deployed for a brief period either to meet an immediate crisis or to anticipate the arrival of follow-on forces or a more traditional peacekeeping operation.
For this vanguard concept to work, this rapid reaction force, the UN standby arrangement system would need to be enhanced so that all the essential components of the force, either military or civilian, could be identified well in advance.
The authority to deploy personnel would still require a UN resolution as well as the consent of each participating government. So far the response to our study from other member states has been encouraging. We look forward to building on this initiative in the months ahead.
In conclusion, while the international environment is becoming even more complex, it is no surprise that peacekeeping has followed suit. As new security threats continue to emerge, Canada and other members of the international community must not let up their efforts to discover new and innovative approaches to peacekeeping.
Whatever the challenges are, Canada's commitment to this useful conflict resolution tool should remain steadfast.