AMN /
India has stressed the need for careful planning and consultative dialogue between UN Security Council members and the troop contributing countries while formulating the mandate of UN Peace Keeping Operations.
Speaking at the meeting of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Commission, C-34, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said, planning and dialogue will go a long way in promoting safety and security of the peacekeepers. He said, all Member States where Peace Keeping Operations are deployed must ensure that in cases of attacks on the peacekeepers there is an effective process to prosecute, punish and penalise the perpetrators of the attacks.
Mr Akbaruddin said, the landscape of Peace Keeping Operations has changed drastically in the last few decades and the peacekeepers face many challenges which include threats from intra-ethnic conflicts to terrorist related attacks. He said, there has been a need for all peacekeeping missions to adjust to the reality which they face and Peacekeepers have to literally reinvent themselves with new tools to tackle the issues.
He said, India as one of the most active contributors in Peace Keeping Operations do realise the change and willing to add new tools in the skill sets of the troops to face these challenges in a more robust fashion. Mr Akbaruddin strongly condemned recent cases of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse which have surfaced in some of the UN Peace Keeping Operations. He said, India have a zero tolerance policy on such cases as well as across the UN.
He said, India is supportive of technology being used to make peacekeeping more effective. He said, technology should be used with a sense of responsibility wherein the information that sensitive technology provides access to should be with relevant stakeholders directly involved with those operations. Mr Akbaruddin also welcomed the recommendations of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations.