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8086th Security Council Meeting: United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
The Security Council this afternoon resolved to include, on a case by case basis, policing as an integral part of the mandates and decision-making structures of United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions.
Unanimously adopting resolution 2382 (2017), the Council would take into account the need to give clear, credible, achievable, appropriately resourced mandates for policing related activities, and emphasize in that context the need to ensure a United Nations system wide approach to the rule of law.
By the text, the Council would continue to promote and support the finalization and operationalization of the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping. It requested the Secretary General to, among other things, provide updates on progress in terms of gender responsive police reform and protection activities, where mandated, including efforts to make national police services more accessible and responsive to women.
Recognizing the important role that United Nations police components could play in the protection of civilians, including in preventing and addressing sexual and gender based violence, and violations and abuses against children, the Council urged police contributing countries to ensure that all deployed officers, formed units and specialized teams had undergone comprehensive training. It reiterated that the protection of children in armed conflict should be an important aspect of any comprehensive strategy to resolve conflict and build peace, underscoring in that regard the importance of specialized predeployment and in mission training and stressing the importance of enhancing coordination between police components and child, women and gender protection advisers.
Further to the resolution, the Council urged all police contributing countries to deliver robust predeployment training to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse and to ensure that all personnel to be deployed were vetted for previous criminal acts of sexual exploitation and abuse.
Welcoming efforts of Member States and the Secretariat to strengthen the strategic generation of both female and male police personnel with the appropriate expertise and language skills, the Council urged police-contributing countries to, among other things, substantially increase the numbers of women officers, doubling their numbers by 2020, and increase their representation in leadership positions.
Briefing the Council, Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Pierre Lacroix said the United Nations police played a continued vital role in bridging the Organization’s work from prevention and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and development. United Nations police now operated on a solid foundation based on the Strategic Guidance Framework, used comprehensive approaches to operations, capacity building and development and focused on basic skills transfer and strengthening host State police institutions. As more was demanded from police officers, he said, there was also a need to ensure their welfare, safety and security in the field. As such, they needed to be supplied with up to date equipment to increase their situational awareness.
Issoufou Yacouba, Head of the Police Component of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), said the situation on the ground was characterized by a resurgence of attacks against Malian security forces, Mission forces, Operation Barkhane, humanitarian workers and civilians in the north and centre of the country. MINUSMA had developed a comprehensive policing plan charged with strengthening the Malian structures that fought both criminality and terrorism. Some 24,000 security personnel had been trained, with 1,385 trained specifically for fighting organized crime and terrorism. A gender strategy was a large part of all training. In addition, Mission officers continued to support the work of the special judicial police.
Georges Pierre Monchotte, Police Commissioner of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), said the first challenge of the transition was managing troop drawdowns and tailoring the initiative to the new landscape, including promoting gender equality. A harmonious transition had been made in cooperation with Haiti’s national police, using a new approach to transferring skills, with the aim of generating cultural exchanges. An advice and support programme had centred on mentoring senior officials in the areas of command and administration. More broadly, he encouraged police contributing countries to deliver the necessary resources and to include more female officers.
Priscilla Makotose, Police Commissioner of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), said including more women was indeed important. Noting that 20 per cent of UNAMID officers were female, she said few women were serving in the Sudanese police in Darfur, emphasizing that progress was essential in order to address conflict related sexual violence and sexual- and gender based violence. Women also needed additional training, mentoring, more role models and the appointment by Member States of more qualified females to senior positions. Turning to UNAMID priorities, she highlighted civilian protection and the creation of a protective environment through community policing initiatives and capacity building for Sudan’s police force. Mission police also supported the institutional development of Sudan’s police force.
Council members agreed that police work was a crucial part of United Nations peacekeeping and that the completion of mandates and exit strategies of missions were dependent on reformed and strengthened national capacity in security. They stressed that national ownership was critical and that given the multiple challenges that related to gender and communities, deploying female police officers was of particularly importance. Predeployment and in mission training of police personnel should also be enhanced, many delegates said, and better resource management should be focused on boosting capacities for planning, providing timely information and increasing communication and leadership.
The representative of the Russian Federation said that United Nations police must scrupulously comply with Council mandates and the principles of the United Nations Charter. While the Russian Federation had supported the resolution, he noted that work on the document had encountered difficulties. He also stressed that peacekeepers should under no circumstances become parties to a conflict nor be in a position to use force against a host State. China’s representative stressed the importance of observing Charter principles, including impartiality and no use of force except in self defence or when mandated.
In an interactive dialogue, the Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations and the police commissioners answered questions posed by Council members.
Representatives of the United States, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Uruguay, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Japan, Egypt, United Kingdom, Bolivia, France, Senegal and Italy also spoke.
The meeting started at 3:34 p.m. and adjourned at 6:03 p.m.
