Statement by Deputy Permanent Representative Anna Evstigneeva at a UNSC Briefing on the UN Police
Mr. President,
We thank Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Christophe Bizimungu, head of MINUSCA police component, Ms. Minzhu Xu, Senior Police Adviser to the UN Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), and Mr. Faisal Shahkar, Director of the UN Police Office. We are grateful for their assessments. Through you, we would like to thank all police peacekeepers who have heroically performed their solemn duty to maintain peace and security in complex conflict situations. We honor the memory of all Blue Helmets who perished in the discharge of their mandate.
The police play a special role in the life of any State. After all, it is police officers who uphold law and order, protect us from criminals, create conditions for secure life and development. Therefore, the effective work of national law enforcement agencies and the trust that the people place in them are a good indicator of the general level and the well-being of the country.
The police component plays a unique role in UN peacekeeping efforts. The Blue Helmets are, in fact, the face of the UN. They engage with locals on a daily basis, helping them to build national law enforcement agencies and fight crime. For people in the countries hosting peacekeeping operations, the UN is not about the headquarters in faraway New York and not about the abstract resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly; for them, the UN is about that very peacekeeping policeman who is patrolling the streets of their hometown and knows firsthand the problems the locals are facing.
In order to keep and live up to the trust of the host country, missions should be stuffed with the best of the best servicemen, those who have gone through a rigorous selection process and have all the necessary skills for it. My country is proud that since 1992, more than 700 people from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs have become peacekeeping police officers. Now Russian nationals are part of the peacekeeping missions in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cyprus and in the Abyei region. We are pleased to say that three of our fellow-citizens were among the UNFICYP police officers awarded with UN Peace medals last November. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Cyprus and Head of UNFICYP, Colin Stewart, praised their contribution of the Russian peacekeepers to the common cause, noting their professionalism and high level of training.
Today, Ms. Minzhu Xu has already noted the important role played by the UNFICYP police contingent in shaping international efforts to maintain stability on the island. Officers from 15 countries are actively involved in patrolling the buffer area on the island and ensuring law and order and security for all its inhabitants. We are convinced that their presence contributes to building confidence among Cypriot communities and creating conditions for their peaceful coexistence. What is noteworthy here is that almost half of those serving in the police contingent are women.
On a separate note, I would like to delve into the role of the MINUSCA police component, which was covered in the briefing by Mr. Bizimungu. Three thousand police officers, primarily from African countries, are valiantly discharging their duty as they protect civilians and maintain law and order. The Blue Helmets of the Mission are also contributing significantly to promoting the security sector reform in CAR. They have trained hundreds of officers for police and security forces in CAR, facilitated the effective operation of law enforcement agencies, and helped restore police infrastructure.
We also separately point out what the Mission is doing to advance the development of the penitentiary system in the Central African Republic. This is a very important area where the national authorities are still facing serious challenges, primarily those of an administrative and budgetary nature. What is important here is that Bangui highly appreciates the efforts made by the Mission's police component and support the continuation of these efforts. And this is the best manifestation of the accomplishments of the MINUSCA Blue Helmets.
Mr. President,
The activities by police peacekeepers are multifaceted and, depending on the mandate, range from providing limited advisory assistance for national law enforcement agencies to temporary ensuring the public order using exclusively their own forces. Whatever the future holds for peacekeeping operations, we have no doubt that the demand for police assistance will persist in one form or another.
The key to success, as the above-mentioned examples illustrate, lies in building constructive and trusting relationships with the host country with due regard to its priorities. The goal here is to leave behind a system of law and order that will not need any external assistance. In order to attain that goal, the mission (even while it is present in the country) needs to take into account the country-specific conditions and the factors that may later undermine the infrastructure; and the work should be done in such a way so that the outcome would be sustainable and long-lasting.
We do support the increased participation of women in UN peacekeeping. Practice has shown that for women it is often easier to establish effective communication with locals, and in some ethno-religious contexts their role is simply irreplaceable. At the same time, we do not deem useful to strive for percentage-expressed gender-indicators. What should be a cornerstone here is an effective implementation of the mandate with due regard to the circumstances of deployment and the security situation. We also would like recall here that it is important to strictly observe the principle of wide geographic representation when sending women to UN peacekeeping missions, including for leadership positions.
Mr. President,
The Russian Federation, as a police-contributing country, seeks to enhance its contribution to UN peacekeeping and to deploy to UN Missions the people who have appropriate skills. Russia is contributing also through training peacekeeping police officers, including foreigners. Since 2000, at the UN-certified All-Russian Peacekeepers Training Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Domodedovo, we’ve trained more than 350 specialists from more than 50 countries. Our country has unique experience in providing professional training for the Blue Helmets, and we are ready to share this experience.
Russia will continue contributing to the work of police peacekeepers.
Thank you.
