Kigali, 23 October 2023

Today, Honourable Minister of Defence, Mr Juvenal Marizamunda presided over the opening ceremony of the preparatory conference for the 2023 Peacekeeping Ministerial on Protection of Civilians and Strategic Communications.

Taking place in Kigali from 23 to 24 October 2023, the conference is co-hosted by Indonesia, The Netherlands, Rwanda and The United Kingdom.

In his opening remark, Hon Marizamunda said that this event comes at a time when peacekeeping missions across the world are facing serious challenges in their deployments.

“These challenges are particularly acute with respect to the core task of protecting civilians in a context where disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, are being propagated faster than ever through social media platforms. One must also highlight that challenges to multidimensional peacekeeping missions are increasing with the proliferation of armed groups, many of them acting as peace spoilers, living of war economies, bent on sexual violence, organized crime, drug trafficking, etc. No single peacekeeping mission is free from these threats,” said Hon Marizamunda.

He emphasized that in this context, managing the legitimate expectations of local populations is a challenge that affects all peacekeeping missions, adding that it is therefore up to the International Community to use technology more effectively as an enabler for mandate delivery, in countering false messages and deconstructing false narratives to shape domestic and international perception about UN Missions.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial is an important opportunity for Member States to come together in a collective effort to strengthen the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations and their impact on the communities they serve.  It is the seminal high-level event for UN peacekeeping, held biennially with the participation of Foreign and Defence ministers. 

The 2023 Ministerial will be held in Ghana in Accra on 5-6 December this year.

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