Statement of New Zealand, September 2016

New Zealand is also working to make the Council more effective in Conflict prevention.

We want to make the Council better at responding to political crises before they spiral out of Contro.

There is no lack of mandate for conflict prevention. It's in the Charter.

There is no lack of information about escalating situations. We see the evidence of this - often in the most heart-breaking images in the media,

The problem is that we don't always have the will and we don't use the tools available to

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Many States block action, asserting sovereignty and ignoring the rest of the Charter. Others don't want to spend the money,

Most have bilateral or national interests. And leaders of countries in political crisis often don't want their actions to be on the Council's agenda.

But we cannot ignore the growing gap between the humanitarian costs of picking up the pieces after conflict and the amount the UN allocates to prevent conflict.

The shortfall is growing at an unsustainable rate, while the peace operations budget is increasing year on year.

But this is not about money. It is about saving lives.