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Protecting Civilians Through UN Peacekeeping
This year hundreds of thousands of civilians around the world were killed or harmed in armed conflict, said Ambassador Robert Wood, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations.
In recent years, many UN peacekeeping operations have spearheaded efforts to protect civilians in conflict areas. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, or MINUSCA, is a case in point said Ambassador Wood:
“For nearly a decade, the Mission has worked to promote security and stability throughout the Central African Republic by deterring violence by armed groups, facilitating the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, supporting the peace process, and promoting disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration.”
Likewise, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO, prioritizes the protection of civilians, including supporting the safety of internally displaced persons. MONUSCO protects the city of Goma and the surrounding area from the M23 armed group and ensures the continued delivery of aid to internally displaced people.
Just this month the United Nations peacekeeping mission for South Sudan, or UNMISS, conducted day and night patrols in Tambura, Western Equatoria State, after an outbreak of intercommunal violence led to the need to protect newly displaced persons in South Sudan.
Peacekeeping is not without danger, noted Ambassador Wood.
“In responding to intercommunal violence in a late January in Abyei, a contested border area between Sudan and South Sudan that lead to scores of civilian casualties, two peacekeepers – one Ghanaian and one Pakistani – lost their lives, and several other United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei personnel were injured.”
Regarding Haiti and Sudan, the international community is grappling with how to develop new tools to deal with these age-old challenges, said Ambassador Wood:
“In the face of destabilizing and deadly gang violence in Haiti, the Security Council came together to authorize the Multinational Security Support Mission, which under Kenya’s leadership, may deploy soon. In Darfur, 20 years ago, the UN and African Union came together to protect civilians through UNAMID [United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur].”
“Protecting civilians is the moral obligation of all and the foundation of international humanitarian law,” declared Ambassador Wood. “It is our duty as members of this Council to uphold the protection of civilians as we strive towards a more peaceful and secure world under the UN Charter.”