Roundup: Head of peacekeeping stresses role of UN Police in protecting civilians

The UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, on Friday said that perhaps the most important reservoir of protection expertise was found among the world's police officers.

Though generally far less numerous than the military component in United Nations peacekeeping operations, UN Police (UNPOL) play a vital role in protecting civilians and training local forces, facing multiple challenges and dangers in fulfilling their mission, Ladsous said at an open meeting of the UN Security Council on the challenges of policing within a protection of civilians mandate.

These are the women and men who receive training to engage with communities, analyse potential threats, and, if necessary, take action, he said.

He said that 10 peacekeeping operations have a mandate of protecting civilians and that the police in particular have an important role to play in protecting civilians, especially as their numbers and responsibilities expand.

During the last decade, the number of police authorized for deployment nearly tripled to over 13,000, and their mandates are increasingly multidimensional.

The Police Commissioners for the UN Missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and in Liberia (UNMIL) as well as the Deputy Police Commissioner for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) also addressed the Council.

"UN Police provide core protection activities and are critical actors in our peacekeeping missions," Ladsous told the 15-nation UN body, whose authorized deployment has nearly tripled to more than 13,000 in the last decade and now participates in 10 of the 17 current missions.

"Enhancing the capabilities of UN Police will further improve their ability to protect," he said. "This includes rapid deployment of police units in situations with urgent protection needs."

Meanwhile, he noted the role undertaken in the Central African Republic (CAR) with round-the-clock monitoring of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, where UNPOL last month prevented an attack in Bangui, the capital, by nearly 200 armed ex-Seleka members, coming under fire themselves.

"UN Police are essential actors in ensuring that their national counterparts carry out the training and institutional reforms to make them effective and accountable protectors of the populace and in helping their colleagues build a trusting relationship with the communities that they are intended to protect," Ladsous said.

He also called for more UN women police officers. "Despite an increase in female police officers in missions, the number still falls short of UN targets," he said. "DPKO understands our missions' limitations, and is working hard to implement our Protection of Civilians (POC) Action Plan to strengthen our police as well as our military and civilian components."

DPKO stands for the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, headed by Ladsous.

Detailing the challenges confronting UNPOL operations on the ground in some of the world's worst trouble spots, the deputy police commissioner of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Charles Brent, underscored the "constant, daily threats" in trying to maintain order in POC sites where populations have ballooned to 180,000 over the past two years.

"The UNMISS POC mission suffers many challenges and dangers," he said. "Situations can quickly escalate to where staff members are surrounded by tens and even hundreds of aggressive and threatening IDPs. Serious physical injury to UN personnel has happened on several occasions."

"The scope of this tasking is vast and includes civilians sheltering for safety in various venues, including those which are within UN compounds," he added. "Against these challenges, UNMISS continues to look for innovative ways, 'a better way' of doing things."

These include the Pilot Project for Safe Return based on training South Sudan police to protect human rights, especially those of women and children, and to tackle gender violence. The newly proposed Joint Integrated Police has "great potential here to positively influence and build the future national police service of South Sudan," he stressed.

Police Commissioner Pascal Champion of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) devoted his presentation to the Beni region, in the east of the vast country, where UNPOL and the national police force (PNC) have been waging a joint struggle against "grave threats and multiple killings" for the past 18 months.

He noted that the PNC "suffers from very numerous deficiencies," including poor training, antiquated infrastructure and a lack of funding from both the Government and the UN.

"This joint UNPOL-PNC goes beyond the mere policing dimension to target a more global approach," he said. "The strategy combines the protection of civilians and the restoration of State authority."

In Liberia, where the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIL) played a key role in restoring peace and stability after years of civil war, the Ebola epidemic that began in 2014 and infected nearly 11,000 people, killing over 4,800, presented UNPOL with "unprecedented challenges," UN Police Commissioner Greg Hinds said.

"It tested the Mission's ability to re-think and adapt the execution of its protection of civilians' mandate, and explored new areas of cooperation and support with the national police and other actors in providing a security envelope to allow the necessary health and humanitarian efforts to occur," he said.

"This highlights the critical role police play, in often unpredictable operational contexts, in protecting civilians," he added, stressing that that policing "remains an integral part of UN peace operations, and we must have clear, credible and achievable mandates, matched by appropriate resources." Enditem