In this regard, we believe that we should recognize the valuable progress that has been made over the past two years in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. It is in our interest to continue working constructively along these lines. To that end, on 6 December, together with the Mission of Australia, we will organize a third workshop on the protection of civilians in peacekeeping operations.

Finally, my delegation stresses the importance of all parties in all situations preserving, strengthening and complying with the standards of international humanitarian law in order to ensure full respect for the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, as well as the absolute necessity of facilitating access for humanitarian workers and of ensuring adequate security for the fulfilment of their tasks.

We understand far better than we did a decade ago what protecting civilians in armed conflict truly entails. We are developing more tools and mechanisms to implement lessons that have been painfully learned. We must remain vigilant and address future challenges together more consistently. We still have far more to do to save the lives of civilians in conflict zones.

We recognize the importance of the collective efforts by the political, peacekeeping, human rights, humanitarian and development components of the United Nations to ensure proper protection from the horrors of war. We have seen the impact the United Nations and its partners have made in such places as Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Timor-Leste and other countries shaken by armed conflict.

Thirdly, we must ensure that the Council is not being selective in its application of protection principles. We are encouraged by the work of the informal Expert Group on the Protection of Civilians. We call for its focus to expand to consider crosscutting protection concerns and to monitor progress on the benchmarks and indicators being developed by the Secretary-General.

The United States hopes that we can work together towards improvements in four key areas. First, we must continue our efforts to better tailor peacekeeping mandates to adequately address situation-specific challenges on the ground. That includes laying out a clear hierarchy of tasks so that peacekeepers can understand the priorities.

The progress of the United Nations is the result of years of hard work at Headquarters and in the field. Resolution 1894 (2009) was a landmark in the global effort to better protect civilians in conflict zones. So, too, is this year's report from the General Assembly's Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (A/64/19). Both documents called for mission-wide planning, better predeployment training and stronger protection strategies.

Secondly, we should increase our ability to provide peacekeepers and humanitarian organizations with the knowledge, training and resources needed to fulfil their protection mandates, including protection against sexual and gender-based violence. Many peacekeeping missions and humanitarian organizations struggle due to inadequate resources and insufficient communication with local communities.

Fourthly, we must hold accountable groups and individuals that flagrantly violate the laws of war, including those who use rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war.

All too often humanitarian workers themselves are the targets of attack by warring parties and terrorists. Such intimidation and violence is appalling and unacceptable. While eight United Nations peacekeeping missions are now mandated to protect civilians from physical violence, many civilians suffer not only from indiscriminate attacks but from attacks directed at them deliberately.