Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's speech at World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul

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High Level Roundtable on Political Leadership to Prevent and End Conflicts

Co-Chairs, Mr Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would like to thank you, Mr Secretary-General, for convening this Summit and would like to express our great appreciation to the Government of Turkey for hosting it. Let me state that Finland welcomes the Secretary General's report and we confirm our strong support of the five core responsibilities in it.

I also want to express Finland’s strong support of the core commitments of this roundtable, which is calling for political leadership to prevent and end conflicts. The theme of our discussion is, indeed, timely and affects us all. 

Dear colleagues, we must increase our efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts. We must walk the talk. Let me highlight three important themes.

First, we must address the root causes behind conflicts. Here, Finland is committed to continued support to the least developed countries and fragile states. This is a priority in our development policy.

Second, conflicts need to be resolved through dialogue and negotiations, and not by the use of weapons and military force. Finland, together with Turkey, co-chairs the Group of Friends of Mediation in the United Nations. Finland does this because we believe in mediation as an effective way– including a cost-effective one – of resolving crises sustainably. Mediation must be brought to the core of the UN peace work, and the visibility of mediation efforts must be increased. Through the work of the Group of Friends, Finland wants to strengthen the normative basis of mediation. We also intend to collect and share best practices and lessons learnt from conflict prevention.

Third, true leadership in preventing and ending conflicts also means bringing forward those voices that are not sufficiently heard. Women are still underrepresented in most processes aiming at ending conflicts. This needs to change. It is a question of justice and equality, and it is also a question of fully benefitting from the invaluable insights that women all over the world can bring to conflict resolution. The implementation of Resolution 1325 is a priority for the Finnish Government. This year, we will again update our national Action Plan on 1325. We will also increase our financial support to partnerships aimed at creating action plans in other countries and regional organisations. 

The international community has managed to create many mechanisms for addressing human suffering. We, as political leaders, must pay tribute to all humanitarian aid organisations and their staff – women and men in difficult situations around the world, who unselfishly help those in need. We must also remind ourselves of the importance of our international legal framework concerning humanitarian principles, human rights and the protection of civilians. We must not tolerate the repeated violations of this legal framework.

Finally, I would like to stress the importance of international cooperation. It is always a process of give and take, but in the end we all stand to gain from it. Let us use this Summit to renew our commitment to working together. We owe it to the victims of conflicts and emergencies, and we owe it to those helping them. 

Thank you for your attention today.