UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution highlighting the important contribution that U.N. policing can make to peacekeeping and special political missions throughout the conflict cycle.
In the unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member Security Council, while stressing the primacy of political solutions to conflict, resolved to include, on a case-by-case basis, policing as an integral part of the mandates and decision-making structures of U.N. peacekeeping operations and special political missions.
While endorsing the role of U.N. policing in U.N. efforts to prevent conflicts, the council called on the U.N. Secretary-General to make sure that planning of U.N. peacekeeping and special political missions with police mandates are based on a thorough analysis of the context, capacities and needs of host-states.
The council affirmed the important role that U.N. police components can play in the protection of civilians, including in preventing and addressing sexual and gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence and violations and abuses against children in the conflict and post-conflict situations.
Briefing the council, Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that the U.N. police played a continued vital role in bridging the organization's work from prevention and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and development.
U.N. police now operate on a solid foundation based on the Strategic Guidance Framework, use comprehensive approaches to operations, capacity-building and development, and focus on basic skills transfer and strengthening host-state police institutions.
"As more is demanded from police officers, there is also a need to ensure their welfare, safety and security in the field," he said, noting that they need to be supplied with up-to-date equipment to increase their situational awareness.
Issoufou Yacouba, head of the police component of the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), told the council that some 24,000 security personnel had been trained, with 1,385 trained specifically for fighting organized crime and terrorism.
The U.N. Police Week kicked off at U.N. Headquarters Monday. Heads of U.N. police components from 12 peacekeeping and special political missions are here this week to discuss how to make U.N. police more effective.
