Under-Secretary-General Rosemay DiCarlo's remarks at the
DPPA and DPO Consultation with the General Assembly
Review on the Future of All Forms of UN Peace Operations
ECOSOC Chamber, 27 May 2025
Mr. President,
Excellencies, and Distinguished Delegates,
We are grateful to the President of the General Assembly for convening and chairing this meeting. Today’s discussion provides us with an important opportunity to hear Member States’ views and suggestions as we work to implement the request in the Pact for the Future for the Secretary-General to conduct a review on the future of all forms of UN peace operations.
We are confident that this is the beginning of a series of useful engagements between the Secretariat and Member States, building towards our common goal of ensuring that United Nations peace operations remain effective today and in the future.
Peacekeeping operations and special political missions are essential instruments of multilateral action for peace. For nearly eight decades, these operations have enabled the United Nations to deliver tailored responses to critical peace and security challenges, including mobilizing and funding Member State capacities beyond the reach of any single actor.
Over the past few years, however, we see the emergence of a number of global trends which are shaping the work of the United Nations, including that of peace operations. These trends, presented in the Secretary-General’s A New Agenda for Peace, have only solidified – or intensified -- since the document was issued:
- The post-Cold War era has ended, and a multipolar order is emerging;
- The frameworks that Member States have used to manage disagreements and maintain stability have eroded;
- Many States are seeing this moment as an opportunity to assert their strategic independence and renegotiate their standing in the emerging global order;
- Lack of trust among Member States is hindering collective action on urgent issues that pose a critical threat to humanity;
- Member States from the Global South have a deep sense of alienation due to the unmet promises of the multilateral system and their continued inability to participate in decision-making on equal footing with others; and
- Normative frameworks developed over the past decades are challenged or interpreted differently by parts of the membership. This includes not only the human rights norms, but also the norm of peaceful settlement of disputes.
Today, growing geopolitical fragmentation at both global and regional levels has led to increasing divergences of opinion, especially within the Security Council and among host states, around how peace operations should function, what mandates they should be given, and under what circumstances they should be deployed.
Meanwhile, peace operations confront an evolving and more complex conflict landscape:
- Non-state armed groups continue to proliferate, many of which use terrorist tactics or espouse unclear political objectives, which traditional peacemaking engagements struggle to address;
- New technologies bring opportunities, but also risks where they are being weaponized, from Artificial Intelligence to new types of weapons;
- Transnational drivers of conflict, such as organized crime, the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the impact of climate change, are increasingly prevalent in many of the operational environments where we are present.
And yet, just as these threats are converging, increased competition at the geostrategic level is making international cooperation to address them more difficult.
In light of these challenges facing peace operations, there is a clear need to reflect on their future.
This is why we welcome the request in the Pact for the Future for a review of the future of all forms of UN peace operations. This request is an opportunity to examine the entire spectrum of UN peace operations and produce recommendations to ensure that they are better equipped to respond to current and emerging challenges, and that they receive the political support needed to implement their mandates. DPO and DPPA are jointly conducting this review, which will be finalized in early 2026.
We have also begun internal consultations across the UN system to help shape the review. Importantly, we had an initial discussion with all Special Representatives and Envoys leading peace operations. We will continue consulting closely with our peace operations to ensure that their experience and views inform the review.
Finally, I also want to note that, as a substantive input into the review, DPPA will soon release a comprehensive compendium of special political missions – the most complete historical record of their work to date. Beyond cataloguing the missions established since 1948, it offers a window into how these missions have evolved amid geopolitical tensions and shifting global dynamics, and how they have adapted to support Member States in their efforts to uphold international peace and security.
I look forward to hearing your view today. Thank you.
