Political settlement of hotspot issues fundamental to civilian protection: Chinese envoy

Advancing political settlement of hot-spot issues is the fundamental way to attain the goal of protecting civilians, said a Chinese envoy here on Friday.

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks at a Security Council debate on protecting civilians in the context of peacekeeping operations.

Liu said UN peacekeeping operations should actively promote the peaceful settlement of disputes, work with the international community to seek political settlement of hot-spot issues, and create favorable conditions for advancing the political process.

Liu also noted that while implementing the mandate of protecting civilians, the peacekeeping operations should respect the ownership of the host countries and cannot replace the duties of host country government or parties to the conflict on civilian protection.

The debate was initiated by France, Security Council rotating president for June, to discuss the best approach for UN peacekeeping operations to implement its mandate to protect civilians.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that protecting civilians is an over-arching responsibility for all the critical functions of the United Nations, including its peacekeeping operations.

In this regard, Ban urged the council to give precedence to political strategy and whole-of-mission approaches when considering peacekeeping mandates to protect civilians.

The Security Council is responsible for setting up a UN peacekeeping operation and has been given the authority to decide its mandate. Civilian protection is one of the topics being discussed among council members on the reform of UN peacekeeping.

Discussions on this issue involves how to ensure non-military tools like political engagement in fulfilling this mandate, how to protect civilians when the host country is not cooperating with the mission, and the use of force to protect civilians under attack. Endit