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7808th Security Council Meeting: UN Peacekeeping Operations
As the Council held its annual dialogue on the role of police in United Nations peacekeeping operations, Under-Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous said that, since women and children were particularly vulnerable in conflict situations, there should be enough women among the staff of peacekeeping police components, and expressed hope that the staffing target of 20 per cent of staffing by women could be achieved in the near future.
He said that assistance for building the capacity of host-State security institutions was clearly essential for supporting local political processes. The recommendations of a recent evaluation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) suggested how to better align such assistance with available resources, he added.
Turning to the question of sexual abuse and exploitation, he said police components of United Nations peace operations had been trying to implement the zero-tolerance policy and played a particular role in preventing such conduct, and in providing assistance to victims.
The Council also heard from the police commissioners of four United Nations peacekeeping operations, invited to participate in the discussion in observance of “United Nations Police Week”.
Bruce Munyambo, Police Commissioner of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said his force had faced some “very significant” challenges in protecting civilians and engaging communities throughout 2016. Describing community engagement as a key factor underpinning all Mission police activities, he said the security context was placing significant demands on his force. One lesson learned was the importance of ensuring that all police officers not only had the relevant skill set, but also the right mind set to respond quickly and appropriately to crisis situations, he said.
Priscilla Makotese, Police Commissioner of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) said that her force prioritized supporting civilians and creating a protective environment through community-oriented policing. Gender-sensitive policing was essential in fulfilling those tasks, she said, noting that UNAMID currently had 267 female police officers, representing 19 per cent of the mission’s police component. Female officers participated in all activities, including patrols, family and child protection, gender awareness and community-oriented policing, she said. They were also role models, inspiring Darfuri women and girls to advocate for and defend their own rights.
Georges-Pierre Monchotte, Police Commissioner of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), highlighted the challenges of helping the Haitian National Police reduce kidnapping and murder, gather intelligence, combat organized crime and control firearms. The force helped in terms of setting institutional policies, executing budgets and strategic planning. Emphasizing the essential importance of promoting justice and corrections reform in parallel with police reform so as to ensure access to justice and inclusivity, he said it was critical for Haiti’s long-term stability that building national police capacity remained a priority for the international community.
Delegates noted that the environments in which United Nations police worked had become more complex, and that each was unique to every particular mission. Police-contributing countries should provide pre-deployment training, including on human rights and in addressing sexual abuse and violence, he said. In particular, police should be able to speak local languages in order to build relationships with local communities. Spain’s representative said police components played an important role in building confidence among local populations through close contact, and locals should view them more as guarantors of their rights than as enforcers of law and order.
Echoed by other speakers, Ukraine’s representative said peacekeeping operations should be provided with resilient executive mandates in order to ensure security and public order, including the prevention of illegal cross-border inflows of weapons and mercenaries. Police components of peacekeeping missions should be provided with sophisticated technologies and clear mandates to improve the protection of civilians and manage counter-terrorism activities, he said.
Speakers also emphasized the importance of police components helping host countries build national police, judicial and corrections capacity. New Zealand’s representative stressed the need to recruit suitably qualified personnel who could help to build up the core functions of the host State’s police force. Others speakers underlined the importance of gender sensitivity in community policing, urging the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as well as police-contributing countries to provide more female officers.
The Russian Federation’s representative said the gathering of intelligence should be carried out with the full agreement of the host country. Police components must comply strictly with Council mandates and the basic peacekeeping principles of impartiality, non-interference and non-use of force, and should not take on political functions, such as monitoring human rights, he added.
However, the representative of the United States noted that the Police Commissioner of MINUSMA, the world’s deadliest mission, had appealed for support for intelligence-based policing, and expressed hope that the Council would heed his appeal.
Also speaking today were representatives of Malaysia, France, Venezuela, United Kingdom, Angola, Uruguay, China, Egypt, Japan and Senegal.
The meeting began at 10:55 a.m. and ended at 1:55 p.m.
