Emerging Threats and Security Challenges Facing the United Nations
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security Gilles Michaud visited Tokyo in early November to recruit Japanese staff to help the UN deliver its mandate of promoting human rights and supporting communities in danger zones such as the Middle East, Myanmar and Ukraine.
At the United Nations University on November 5, in an event entitled “Emerging Threats and Security Challenges Facing the United Nations”, FBI-trained Michaud also explained the immediate and serious challenges and threats facing the UN in several global hotspots.
Over the past decade, the environment in which the UN and its partners operate has become more complex, and the threats that UN staff face have increased in severity. It is likely that these trends will continue, and perhaps increase in the coming years. The trends require the United Nations, including the United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS), to anticipate and respond quickly to emergencies of varied nature and severity.
How does the United Nations operate in regions where its own personnel face serious security risks? What are the threats posed by new technologies? What is the outlook for the UN’s peacekeeping, peacebuilding and humanitarian efforts given these emerging challenges?
“Our main challenge is ensuring safety and security of UN staff as more nations have become unstable and more conflict occurs. The UN is asked for help more these days. Japan, for example, provides good support for the safety and security of UN staff, but some nations do not. When my department was created in 2006, we had six high-risk nations, but now we have 24,” multiple award-winning Michaud explained.
He said safety and security for the UN started to erode in Iraq in 2003 when several of its staff were killed. “The erosion of humanitarian laws is creating an environment that is putting the UN in a hard spot. How can we operate in such places?”
A more recent challenge is misinformation and disinformation, he said. “Some nations are being misinformed about our intentions and actions.” In Gaza, the UN employs about 250 Palestinian staff who are trained in checkpoint duty, first aid, and how to spot and disarm unexploded bombs. “We now need armored vehicles, which we did not need before. But even with these measures, UN staff are impacted by the conflicts.”
Critical is community engagement with local actors, he said. “It’s all about access and providing the UN with a secure space to operate so we can best understand when and how to act. Yes, we also sometimes engage by outreach with criminals to gain their support, which most times has worked favorably for us.”
We also need to reflect the communities we serve, he said. “One of my biggest challenges, both regionally and culturally, is gaps in gender representation. In Afghanistan last month some UN female staff shared their stories about harassment by religious hardliners on their way to work at the UN office; they need more support. For example, there are not enough female security staff. The male staff are blind in how to diversify the security service.” Climate change is also blamed for unrest. “It drives the displacement of people and government, which creates conflict, and this is where the UN is asked to step in.”
What skills are needed to work for the UN? “A desire to be of service to the population, to make a difference, to learn and grow. It’s a calling. It’s not about hours and benefits and sometimes the places we work are not nice,” he said. “For skills, we are especially looking for tech-savvy people and those with analytical and planning skills as well as project managers.”
Gilles Michaud
A Canadian, Michaud took up the role of United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security on 1 July 2019. He leads and coordinates safety and security operations across the United Nations Security Management System to enable global United Nations programme delivery.
Previously, in a policing career that spanned over 33 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Michaud developed a wealth of experience in transnational organized crime, counter-terrorism, national security, cybercrime and protective policing. He last served in the RCMP as Deputy Commissioner for Federal Policing where he led the development of organizational transformation and managed substantial human, physical and financial resources at the national and international level.
Michaud has an extensive background in multilateral organizations as the lead on peacekeeping, international capacity-building, and liaison activities for the RCMP and has served on the Executive Committee of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). He is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Program in National and International Security and McGill University’s Executive Development Program. He is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Executive Institute’s 39th Session, the FBI National Academy’s 213th Session, and the Leadership in Counter-Terrorism Program administered by the FBI National Academy. Michaud has received numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Academic Medal, the Queen’s Jubilee and RCMP Long Service medals. In January 2014, he was appointed to Canada’s Officer of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.