Security Council to protect peacekeepers

The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for strengthened accountability for crimes committed against United Nations peacekeepers.

The resolution was jointly drafted by Pakistan and Denmark and gained 153 co-sponsors.

Speaking after the vote, Sun Lei, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, welcomed the adoption of the resolution, saying UN peacekeeping operations are an important instrument for maintaining international peace and security.

Sun said peacekeepers are facing serious traditional and non-traditional security threats amid a complex international security environment. Recent attacks causing casualties among peacekeepers have shown the need for further Security Council action, especially as progress in investigations and accountability has been inadequate, he said.

One Serbian UN peacekeeper was killed in an attack in southern Lebanon earlier this month, while two peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), from El Salvador and Spain, were injured.

According to the UN, the latest death raised the number of UN peacekeepers killed in the region to seven since Israel resumed "targeted" ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in early March.

"Deliberate attacks against peacekeepers violate international humanitarian law and relevant Security Council resolutions," Sun said, adding that China supports the implementation of the resolution and hopes it will help strengthen the safety of peacekeepers and accountability for perpetrators.

China pays tribute to all UN personnel serving in peacekeeping operations and to those who lost their lives in the cause of peace, Sun said.

China is the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget and the largest troop-contributing country among the permanent members of the Security Council, Sun said.

China has dispatched more than 50,000 peacekeepers to 29 UN peacekeeping operations authorized by the Security Council, established an 8,000-member peacekeeping standby force and formed a standing peacekeeping police squad.

More than 20 Chinese peacekeepers have died while serving in UN peacekeeping missions, including one female peacekeeping police officer, he said.

According to the United Nations, more than 4,500 UN peacekeepers have lost their lives in the line of duty since UN peacekeeping operations began in 1948.

Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said attacks against UN peacekeepers across several missions have increased in number and sophistication.

"Peacekeepers are being targeted, often with little accountability," he said, adding that the draft resolution seeks to move the Council beyond statements condemning such attacks.

Resolution 2823 requests the UN secretary-general to report annually to the Security Council on the status of investigations and prosecutions in cases involving the killing of, and acts of violence against, UN personnel serving in peacekeeping operations.

It also requests the secretary-general to provide, within 120 days, options on ways to strengthen the accountability framework for crimes against peacekeepers.

Ahmad said the measures would "help the Council assess what is working, where gaps remain and what further action may be required".

The vote came as the inaugural UN Peacebuilding Week is being held at UN Headquarters in New York from Monday to Friday.