Human rights officers work closely with national authorities and civil society to support national judicial institutions and other accountability mechanisms.

Further, in Somalia, intense fighting in Mogadishu and other parts of the country severely limits the access of human rights officers. Human rights officers of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia have been working with internally displaced persons in Somaliland and Puntland and interviewing on a regular basis individuals who had fled southern and central Somalia.

Finally, I would welcome the opportunity to share information relating to this topic with the Council in future, including reports and recommendations arising from our human rights monitoring work on the ground, and to keep it apprised of evolving situations where civilians are at risk.

Effective prevention begins with the facts. Through human rights monitoring and reporting, we are able to build up a detailed picture of the situation on the ground, anticipate emerging threats and take appropriate preventive action in a timely manner.

Effective monitoring and reporting of human rights violations and encouraging greater compliance with international human rights law require opportunities to engage directly with both State and non-State actors, as well as access by human rights officers to populations at risk. In that context, it remains of grave concern that human rights officers still cannot access large parts of Darfur for security reasons.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2010/579) paints a very bleak picture of the state of the protection of civilians. Any positive and encouraging developments are heavily outweighed by what is happening on the ground: the continuing and frequent failure of parties to conflict to observe their international legal obligations to protect civilians.

The first is mission drawdown. In recent months, United Nations peacekeepers have begun to withdraw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad is expected to withdraw completely by the end of this year. The protection and humanitarian implications of drawdown are contextspecific.

The Council's continued attention to access constraints is welcome. However, greater precision is needed in specifying the nature of the constraints and the actions to be taken to counter them. The Council must ensure enhanced accountability for grave instances of deliberate delays or denials of access for humanitarian operations, as well as situations involving attacks against humanitarian workers.

Some speakers have raised concerns over the inclusion of certain situations in the report of the Secretary-General and their characterization as situations of armed conflict. Whether a situation constitutes armed conflict is determined by the facts on the ground. It is determined on the basis of criteria developed in the jurisprudence of international tribunals.

Secondly, the protection of civilians is a shared responsibility. Humanitarian workers and peacekeepers have distinct roles and responsibilities, but these need to be brought together in a coherent and strategic way.