Pakistan is proud to achieve UN Missions goal
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NEW YORK - At the United Nations, Pakistan has reiterated its support to strengthen and expansion of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan.
Speaking in UN Special Committee on Peace Keeping Operations in New York, Pakistan Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dr Maleeha Lodhi said as a leading troop contributor as well as a host state, Pakistan would continue to support efforts to strengthen peacekeeping.
She said our faith in this indispensable tool for the maintenance of international peace and security is firm and abiding.
Maleeha Lodhi stressed that the safety and security of peacekeepers remained urgent as threats faced by them have increased due to complex and evolving conflicts.
She said the UN Special Committee must play its role in norm building and policy formation, and enable peacekeepers to meet the high expectations that we all have of them.
Calling for increased representation of major troop contributing countries at leadership levels in the field and at headquarters, Ambassador Lodhi said such a step would bring more field-based perspective in decisions related to peacekeeping operations.
She also touched upon the issue of financing peacekeeping operations and criticized calls for cutting costs. Peacekeeping, she maintained, is already a cost-effective undertaking which draws strength from the collective political will of the international community.
Maleeha Lodhi informed that Pakistan has enhanced the participation of women in UN Peacekeeping Operations.
She said that Pakistan is proud to have achieved the goal of deployment of 15 percent female staff officers in UN Missions.
Based on the Security Council's call in 2015 to double the women in uniform component, the UN's Office of Military Affairs set the target of deploying 15% female military and staff officers in Peacekeeping Missions by December 2018.
Pakistan envoy further informed the UN Committee that Pakistan is deploying an engagement team consisting of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May 2019.
The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, also known as C-34, is an annual forum where key stakeholders deliberate on issues of peacekeeping and evolve policies to address emerging challenges.
