Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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358. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which he, through the European Union or directly in the context of wider global consultations, can influence a review of the strength, the role and respect for the United Nations with particular reference to the need to meet ongoing challenges caused by war, strife and genocide and the need to establish safe havens for refugees and an orderly method of processing their respective situations; if any study has been done to identify the restoration of an increased role for the United Nations in the Middle East and other trouble spots globally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19765/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The United Nations plays a critical role in the resolution of conflicts and the maintenance of international peace and security. It does this primarily through the UN Security Council which has, under the UN Charter, ‘primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security’. The Council has a variety of tools at its disposal to address threats to international peace and to contribute towards the settlement of disputes and conflicts: it has the power to authorise military action, deploy peacekeeping and political missions, and to impose sanctions against non-compliant States.

However, although the UN undoubtedly has a central role to play in addressing conflict, ongoing crises in the Middle East and Africa serve to underscore the need for the UN to be much more effective. Ireland, both directly and in co-operation with our partners in the European Union, continues to support efforts to reform the UN’s structures and systems.

In 2015, the UN Secretary General initiated three major review exercises which were aimed at improving the overall effectiveness of the UN’s response to conflict. The findings from the high level policy reviews on (1) UN Peace Operations, (2) Peacebuilding Architecture and (3) Women, Peace and Security were published and are in the process of being implemented. Each of the reviews offered recommendations on how the UN can improve and reform its functions and structures particularly in relation to the global challenge presented by conflict and war. Ireland engaged fully with all three reviews, calling for the recommendations to be discussed and implemented as part of our broader calls for UN reform.

Ireland has also called for reform of the UN Security Council and has consistently stated that the Council needs to become more representative, more transparent and more efficient. Ireland has called for an expansion of Security Council membership to that end and for restraint in the use of the veto by the five permanent members. Ireland is a member of ACT, the ‘Accountability, Coherence and Transparency’ group in the UN, that launched a Code of Conduct in 2015 calling on all member states, including permanent members, to support timely and decisive action by the Security Council aimed at preventing or ending genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

Regarding the situation of refugees in particular, Ireland has been tasked with co-facilitating the negotiations at the United Nations leading up to the Summit on large movements of refugees and migrants which will take place at the UN in New York on 19 September. The fact that this Summit has been convened is a clear sign that the UN recognises the scale of the challenges posed by large-scale refugee movements and the need to build international solidarity and momentum to address these challenges. It is hoped that leaders will be able to agree on a new set of global policy principles – the first of their kind – on refugees and migration. Inter-governmental consultations on the Summit outcome are already underway and will continue through the coming weeks.

More broadly, Ireland will continue to advocate, through a range of available fora, for reform of the UN’s structures and systems to ensure that it is equipped to respond to the challenges of the twenty-first century and fulfil its critical role in the maintenance of international peace and security.