Mr President,
I would like to thank you for organising this debate and our speakers for their contributions.
There is no glory in prevention. History remembers conflicts and their outcomes. Monuments to victory abound. While avoided wars and defused violence barely catch our attention. Yet it would be more useful to erect statues to the heroes who prevented or overcame conflicts, to the facilitators and mediators who saved the lives of thousands of civilians and averted humanitarian disasters.
In this respect, we welcome the fact that Sierra Leone has focused on the lessons learned from its own recent history.
We also welcome the fact that this debate is being held against the backdrop of the New Agenda for Peace, which calls on us to make prevention a political priority and to develop national prevention strategies. In this respect, we are proud to have been able to join forces as part of the initiative of the successive Presidencies of August, September and October of this Council for joint action for the New Agenda for Peace, launched a few moments ago.
Mr President,
Your country's lessons are valuable, but it would be wrong to believe that prevention only concerns States that have suffered or are at risk of suffering armed conflict, whereas violent extremism, and even intra-State and interpersonal violence, must be confronted by everyone.
A recent study carried out as part of the ‘Halving global violence’ initiative by the Pathfinders group showed that the economic costs of violence in various countries, including Switzerland, are considerable.
Prevention, as explained in the New Agenda for Peace, needs to be tackled at local and national level, while drawing on exchanges of experience between different countries.
Allow me to contribute five observations to this debate:
First: Prevention depends on confidence in security, justice and the guarantee of freedom. These are national responsibilities, anchored in international conventions and commitments. Such confidence is a powerful antidote to violence. The human rights affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights more than 75 years ago also have a preventive objective. We also affirmed this with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda.
Secondly, it is important to defuse our political apprehensions about the notion of prevention and let ourselves be guided by the facts. Recent evidence-based studies from diverse national contexts identify key elements for national prevention strategies. These elements range from measures to ensure the security and independence of the judiciary, to initiatives to strengthen tolerance, solidarity and inclusion, to trust in institutions (at the heart of SDG 16), and to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Thirdly, prevention is effective if it emanates from the local level. Switzerland recognizes this by delegating many powers to the regional and local level and by encouraging, for example, civil society initiatives to combat extremism, violence and marginalization.
We can also share our experiences and offer mutual support. In Benin, for example, Switzerland supports the presidential initiative to prevent the spread of armed extremist groups. the government is implementing a holistic approach by investing in urban planning and economic incentives to improve the living conditions of the population in the north and prevent their recruitment by extremist groups. This is just one example of a number of national projects that deserve our support, even though they are far removed from the conflicts that attract the attention of our Council, which all too often has to deal with acute crisis situations.
Fourthly, the Peacebuilding Commission is ideally suited to sharing experiences on national prevention. Thanks to its collective expertise, it can support countries that wish to do so in their peacebuilding processes. We welcome its advice, which is not only valuable to us in the context of this meeting, but can also guide us in all our future work. In addition, thanks to the Peacebuilding Fund, the UN has a flexible instrument that can serve as a catalyst for investors with greater resources, such as the international financial institutions.
Finally, this Council must fully assume its role in prevention. On the one hand, it must make better use of the instruments in Chapter VI, which enable it to make recommendations for the peaceful settlement of disputes. Secondly, the regional missions it mandates, such as those in West Africa and the Sahel, Central Africa and Central Asia, must be able to support governments - at their request - in identifying increased risks of conflict and reducing them in the long term.
Mr President,
As the Sierra Leonean author Manratu Kamara so aptly put it: we cannot change the past, but we can choose to create a new future. With the Summit of the Future only a few weeks away, this open debate serves as a clear call for an ambitious pact on prevention. Let us seize this opportunity.
Thank you.