UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, stressed that peacekeeping forces are not a “magic wand”, at a time when the limitations of their work sometimes lead residents to feeling “frustrated”. support for the development of complementary tools to protect civilians in areas characterized by critical and complicated situations.
Approximately 90,000 peacekeepers serve under the United Nations flag in twelve missions around the world, from Lebanon to the Democratic Republic of Congo and from South Sudan to Western Sahara. However, these missions do not necessarily enjoy consensus, as in the case of Mali, where the government forced peacekeepers to leave, or in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some residents have shown hostility towards these forces.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix stated in an interview with Agence France-Presse that peacekeepers protect “hundreds of thousands of civilians” every day, but admits that “our mandate, which focuses mainly on the protection of civilians, raises (sometimes) aspirations that we cannot meet.” “Due to our capabilities, budget, field and logistical constraints.”
He added: “We are witnessing the frustration of a certain part of the population,” a frustration that is being “exploited by those who prefer the continuation of chaos,” denouncing “fake news” and misleading information “that has been weaponized.” . but stressed that without these operations “the situation could be… Much worse in most cases,” adding: “This does not mean that peacekeeping operations are a magic wand, or a one-size-fits-all solution of crisis”.
To strengthen its effectiveness, he first reminded the Security Council of its responsibilities in this area.
He explained that peacekeeping forces are deployed “to create conditions that allow the progress of a political process and lead to lasting peace”, but added that “our Member States today are divided and these political efforts no longer benefit of strong and unified support from them. “
Therefore, I hope that the ministerial meeting to be held in Ghana on 5 and 6 December will be an opportunity for Member States to “re-engage” in UN peacekeeping operations, as well as make new contributions, especially at troop level.
Although peacekeepers can protect civilians in the event of a ceasefire, Jean-Pierre Lacroix stressed that these forces “do not enforce peace.” Furthermore, these missions do not constitute a counter-terrorism or anti-gang force.
However, they are being deployed in “increasingly dangerous” situations, in the presence of “armed groups, non-governmental actors and private security companies” and entities “involved in terrorism or the exploitation of transnational criminal activity,” as he described. .
As a result, the idea of making room for non-UN missions mandated by the Security Council has begun to gain more attention.
In this context, Lacroix stated: “We must have more options to provide an adequate response” to crises that are “increasingly diverse”.
He added: “We need a more diverse set of tools: peacekeeping operations as they are today, new forms of peacekeeping operations to better respond to the causes of conflicts (such as climate change or transnational criminal activities), or peacekeeping operations implemented by the armed forces. African Union or other countries”. Regional Organizations,” but what about Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas?
On Monday, Antonio Guterres spoke of a political “transition” with the participation of different actors, such as the United States and Arab countries.
Lacroix asked: “Could there be some sort of safety mechanism?”, replying that “millions of scenarios can be imagined, but at the moment they are very hypothetical”.
Whether affiliated with the United Nations or not, the challenge remains finding volunteers and funding to implement peace operations. After a year of procrastination, the Security Council decided early last October to send a multinational mission led by Kenya to fight criminal gangs in Haiti. However, Nairobi, which had promised to send 1,000 police officers, asked member states to finance the operation, which has not yet been implemented.