Press releases

With the General Assembly having just wrapped up talks on the Secretary-General’s sweeping proposals for transforming service delivery to United Nations peacekeeping missions, senior field support officials announced today that the world body was poised to approve a new, enhanced global system to match the global enterprise into which peacekeeping has evolved.

Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank the President of the General Assembly for organizing and scheduling this debate to mark the 10th anniversary of the Brahimi Report, a milestone in the evolution of United Nations peacekeeping operations.

MESSAGE FOR “GLOBAL OPEN DAY FOR WOMEN AND PEACE” [week of 7 June 2010] This October, we will mark the tenth anniversary of the Security Council’s groundbreaking resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, which called for higher levels of women’s involvement in peacemaking and peace-building. This anniversary is an opportunity to reaffirm the core message of that landmark text: sustainable peace is possible only with women’s full participation -- their perspectives, their leadership, their daily, equal presence wherever we seek to make and keep the peace.

The outstanding resilience of blue helmets in Haiti provided a powerful symbol for the marking of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers this year, United Nations Secretariat officials said this afternoon. “Haiti tested us to the limit and we showed we have learned from experience and were able to deliver,” Susana Malcorra, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support told correspondents at Headquarters.  “It was the best way to pay tribute to the ones we lost,” she added.