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8251st Security Council Meeting: United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
On the seventieth anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping, the commanders of three of the Organization’s missions in Africa briefed the Security Council this afternoon on the increasingly complex challenges faced by Blue Helmets, emphasizing that their core role was to establish secure environments that would enable political solutions to take root.
Jean‑Paul Deconinck, Force Commander, United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), said the paradigm of peacekeeping was shifting, with the report on “Improving Security of United Nations Peacekeepers” (the Santos Cruz report) defining the actual environment in which missions now operated. “We owe it to our peacekeepers, both civilian and military, to implement the action plan for peace, to change our mindsets and to adapt”, at all levels, to new challenges, he said. In a contested security environment, where MINUSMA and civilians were targeted, he said the Force’s impartiality towards terrorist and insurgent groups was compromised. Understanding the character of the conflict with those groups must determine MINUSMA’s response. “We have to adapt to the circumstances that are defining the current challenges,” he said.
Frank Mushyo Kamanzi, Force Commander, United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), speaking via videoconference from Juba, said civilian protection was his Mission’s top priority, alongside supporting humanitarian efforts. Routinely working in “particularly demanding” climate conditions, the Mission also faced obstruction, access denials and Status of Forces Agreement violations by the Government. Thus, patience, good communication with all parties and a robust posture were important, and Mission patrols had shown an unwillingness to be inhibited, even if they had to negotiate for hours.
Leonard Ngondi, Force Commander, African Union‑United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), said that UNAMID’s mandate was fairly robust. Its four pillars — protection of civilians, delivery of humanitarian aid, negotiating between the Government and non‑signatories to the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, and assisting in community resolution mechanisms — were simple, understandable and implementable, so long as there was political will and commitment among all parties to the conflict. On support from the Security Council, he said the Government of Sudan could be persuaded to adhere to the Status of Forces Agreement and allow UNAMID freedom of movement, while armed groups must be persuaded to embrace dialogue.
This afternoon’s meeting coincided with the annual Heads of Military Components Conference at Headquarters, and followed an open debate in the Council on 28 March during which the Secretary‑General unveiled his proposals for peacekeeping reform (see Press Release SC/13268). It also took place alongside this year’s round of negotiations in the General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on the 2018/19 peacekeeping budget.
Jean‑Pierre Lacroix, Under‑Secretary‑General for Peacekeeping Operations, introducing the briefers, said the force commanders who had converged on Headquarters this week were being briefed on the Secretary‑General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, and considering efforts to improve the conduct, discipline, security, training and performance of Blue Helmets. In recent months, there had been some encouraging developments in the field, but while there remained a long way to go, with strong Council support and force commander engagement, it would be possible to make a difference.
In the discussion that followed, Council members posed a variety of questions, including the achievability of mandates, cooperation with regional and subregional organizations, pre‑deployment training for Blue Helmets, new technology, intelligence gathering, the need for more women peacekeepers, and efforts to combat sexual exploitation and abuse.
The representative of Côte d’Ivoire, where the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) was drawn down in June 2017, said new challenges such as non‑State actors called for long‑term multidimensional responses as well as support for political processes, which remained the cornerstone of peacekeeping operations. He went on to emphasize the provision of adequate human, financial and material support, as well as the recommendations of the independent report on improving the security of United Nations peacekeepers, prepared by Lieutenant General (Retired) Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz (Brazil).
The representative of China, a major troop‑contributing country among permanent Council members, described a mismatch between the increasing number of mandates and limited resources, underscoring the need for the proactive settling of regional hotspot issues. When mandates were being designed and adjusted, troop‑contributing countries must be given more input, while the Secretariat should enhance support for peacekeeping operations, focusing on safety, he said.
“Peacekeepers cannot and should not remain indifferent in the face of significant threats to themselves as well as to innocent civilians,” Ethiopia’s delegate said. Peacekeepers required a robust mandate with a clear concept of operation and rules of engagement based on a thorough situational analysis, threat assessment and planning.
The Russian Federation’s representative, however, said robust mandates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali had not been convincing so far. There must be an objective assessment how strengthened mandates would make a difference, he said, stressing that missions should not be burdened with tasks better done by specialized United Nations entities.
The representative of the United States, the biggest contributor to the peacekeeping budget, said that with the rate of peacekeeper fatalities on the rise, it was important to assess whether peacekeeping was “the right tool at the right time” to tackle security challenges. The United States supported the United Nations in raising the bar on performance, starting with development of comprehensive policy identifying performance standards and measures to hold underperformers accountable.
Also speaking today were representatives of the United Kingdom, Equatorial Guinea, Peru, France, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Sweden, Bolivia and Poland.
The meeting began at 3:05 p.m. and ended at 6:13 p.m.
