Australia
My statement today will obviously not be able to do justice to all the challe...
My statement today will obviously not be able to do justice to all the challenges presented in the Secretary-General's report (S/2010/579), so I would like to briefly draw attention to three issues. First, we need to ensure there is greater compliance with international humanitarian law. Australia is concerned about the increased indiscriminate targeting of civilians with explosive weapons, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The most recent Secretary-General's report on the situation in Afghanistan (S/2010/463) reported an 82 per cent increase in IED incidents, which is an alarming trend. We support the Secretary-General's recommendation for further systematic data collection and analysis of the human costs of the use of explosive weapons.
Secondly, we support the Secretary-General's call to move away from a selecti...
Secondly, we support the Secretary-General's call to move away from a selective approach to addressing the protection of civilians. We must acknowledge that peacekeeping is but one tool at the disposal of the Council in protecting civilians. The most effective way, of course, is to prevent the conflict in the first place. In this vein, we welcomed the initiative of the United Kingdom earlier this month in convening a meeting of the Council with Under-Secretary-General Pascoe at the start of the month to provide a briefing on global hotspots. The Council, as members know better than I, has a heavy, labour-intensive agenda each month — much of it predetermined through regular mandate renewals, reviews of reports by the Secretary- General, thematic reviews. We think that an early, focused briefing on hotspots, such as was undertaken this month, should better prepare the Council to anticipate trouble and take action as required to prevent conflict and to protect civilians.
Thirdly, I would like to discuss an issue on which Australia has been particu...
Thirdly, I would like to discuss an issue on which Australia has been particularly active. Uniformed components of peacekeeping missions need guidelines to implement protection-of-civilians mandates. Guidelines are necessary to enable troop and police contingents to understand their responsibilities and adequately prepare and execute protection-of-civilians mandates. Guidelines will assist peacekeepers in their engagement with the local population, their anticipation of threats and the assessment of the use of force and deterrence permissible under the mandate. The development of guidelines will also assist in determining the necessary resources and capabilities and the overall management of expectations. Australia has been pleased by the considerable progress that has been made during the last 18 months in this area. We are encouraged by the development of a strategic framework to guide senior mission leadership in the development of mission-specific strategies on the protection of civilians, following a request by the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations earlier this year. We look forward to cohosting, with Uruguay, another workshop here in New York on 6 December to enable discussion between the Secretariat and Member States on that framework. We have also been pleased to contribute in a small way to the work under way to develop African Union (AU) guidelines on protection of civilians, as referenced in the Secretary-General's report. We will continue to assist the AU in that endeavour.
Despite some progress, much work obviously and inevitably remains to be done....
Despite some progress, much work obviously and inevitably remains to be done. Public information strategies are needed to manage international and local expectations regarding the ability of a peacekeeping mission to protect civilians, including the reality that peacekeepers cannot possibly protect everyone, everywhere, all of the time. Australia encourages United Nations missions to develop risk mitigation strategies where insufficient resources are available to physically protect all civilians. As examples, those could include visits to areas within missions where there is not a permanent United Nations presence, the establishment of mechanisms to encourage dialogue with the local population and the establishment of effective communication mechanisms to provide early warning, as is already the practice in some missions. The use of benchmarks in peacekeeping mission mandates is an important tool for the articulation of the Council's expectations. Benchmarks on the protection of civilians need to be included from the mission outset, should include effective indicators to measure progress and need to be used as a basis for determining when a peacekeeping mission may draw down. To support such initiatives, as requested in resolution 1894 (2009), there also needs to be a comprehensive and consistent approach to reporting on protection of civilian issues as part of peacekeeping operations.
To conclude, we welcome the presidential statement that was adopted at the st...
To conclude, we welcome the presidential statement that was adopted at the start of today's debate (S/PRST/2010/25). As we know, the majority of casualties in a conflict are civilians. The Permanent Representative of Afghanistan, the preceding speaker, has just reminded us very well of what that means: the loss of life. As the Secretary-General's own report says, the unstinting and rigorous attention of the Council to the protection of civilians remains vital and must be at the centre of not just its deliberations, but more decisively, of course, its actions.