October 2, 2000
On his first day on the job, the new head of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations today said that improving the Organization's capacity to maintain and build peace would be one of his top priorities. Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno, who replaced Bernard Miyet on 1 October, said that one of the key challenges faced by his Department was bringing together "the operational side of things and the political side of things."
Having recently returned from visits to UN peace operations in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Guéhenno said that the integration of the operational challenges faced by UN workers there and the political challenges faced by UN staff at Headquarters was "not always totally adequate." "I think each side has to work together to move things forward," Mr. Guéhenno said, adding that the recent Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations accurately emphasizes the necessity for action on the part of both the UN Secretariat and Member States. The report, prepared by 10 experts and chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria, makes concrete recommendations on how to improve UN peacekeeping.
Mr. Guéhenno, a French national, has vast experience in the field of diplomacy, defence and international relations, as well as administration and management. He spent part of his career in France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1979-1995) and has also been a member of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Advisory Board on disarmament matters.
