Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to note that tomorrow, 29 May, is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. On this day at the UN Headquarters in New York, the Secretary-General conducts a wreath-laying ceremony in honour of all peacekeepers who have lost their lives while serving under the UN flag. Since the first UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1948 around 3,000 military, police and civilian personnel have lost their lives. Some of those peacekeepers who died on duty in this decade were my friends and colleagues with whom I served in Kosovo and Gaza.

For all the scorn that is sometimes directed toward the UN and its dedicated and courageous staff it should be remembered that it is the UN member states themselves, particularly the members of the Security Council, which determine the priorities, mandates and resources for UN activities. In light of the appalling atrocities in Syria, I hope the Security Council, and indeed the whole international community, will now take appropriate action to protect civilians in accordance with the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. The Syrian people are in desperate need of the international community's assistance and we cannot have them being left to a fate like Rwanda or Srebrenica.

Finally, as the chair of Australia's UN Parliamentary Group I have the pleasure today of welcoming to the parliament Mr Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees and where I worked for 2½ years while based in Gaza a decade ago. I would particularly like to pay tribute to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in the UN and in UNRWA for their high level of professionalism, dedication and courage.