EU Presidency Statement - Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict

EU Presidency Statement by Adam Thomson, Deputy Permanent Representative, UK mission to UN, on behalf of the European Union, in Security Council Open debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, New York

I have the honour of speaking also for the European Union. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey and Croatia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential Candidate Countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine align themselves with this statement.

First of all, I would like to join others in thanking Mr Egeland and Mr Forster for their briefings this morning. The subject of today's debate is of huge importance: five years after the last Resolution on this issue, the situation for civilians caught up in armed conflict remains critical.

In Resolution 1296, adopted five and a half years ago, the Council called on the Secretary General to report with recommendations as to how the Council could further improve the protection of civilians in armed conflict. After five years of such recommendations, it is time to take stock of what lessons have been learned, what progress has been made, what gaps need to be filled, and how best we can fill them. The European Union therefore supports the initiative taken by the United Kingdom within the Security Council to pursue this through a new Resolution.

The gaps are clear. Prevention. Protection. Humanitarian access. Impunity. And they can be filled only by combined action. Action by parties to conflict, action by individual States concerned, action by the international community ( in accordance with the UN Charter), and action by UN agencies, peacekeeping and peace support missions. At a political level, it requires us all to be alert and active.

First, we have to do better on the prevention of harm to civilians. The UN family as a whole recognised, in the 2005 World Summit Outcome, that prevention is a critical part of the continuum in the protection of civilians. We recognised our collective responsibility in this regard, and we pledged to support fully the mission of the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide. Timely and adequate briefings to the Security Council by the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, and by other relevant parts of the UN system, will help the Council act sufficiently early on in conflict situations to effectively protect civilians at risk.

As regards protection, parties to conflict must comply fully with the requirements of international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law on the protection of civilians, especially concerning the prohibitions on physical attack, sexual and gender-based violence, the use of child soldiers, and forced displacement. They must also ensure that specific measures for the protection of civilians are included in peace agreements. Meanwhile, the United Nations must give peacekeeping missions the mandates and the resources to protect civilians, in particular those under imminent threat of physical attack. Just as importantly, peacekeeping missions must be given proper guidelines on how, within their mandates, to protect civilians.

Humanitarian access is a crucial part of protection. Starvation, and dying of cholera, dysentery or malnutrition, are only slower ways of dying. The right to food and the right to health are fundamental human rights, but the denial of humanitarian access is increasingly used as a political tool, and even as a weapon of war. And attacks on humanitarian personnel cannot, under any circumstances, be tolerated. All parties to conflict - as well as neighbouring States - must, as the draft resolution proposes, provide unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance, and take all necessary measures to guarantee the safety, security and freedom of movement of humanitarian personnel. UN peace support operations must have the mandates and resources to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance where States cannot or will not. Involving the UN Humanitarian Coordinator from the earliest stages of planning of all peacekeeping operations will help to ensure this.

The investigation of crimes under international law committed against civilians, and bringing their perpetrators to justice, is vital: vital to deter future abuses, vital to provide some form of redress to victims, and vital to ensure that a page can be turned in a country's history. There can be no peace without justice. Participation of victims in judicial proceedings, and assistance to victims by the ICC Victims Trust Fund forms an integral part of the healing process. As the Resolution demands, it is for States to bring to justice the perpetrators of the most serious crimes, and for the international community to support their efforts. But where States cannot or will not bring perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity to justice, the international community should be able to act. As the investigation by the ICC of atrocities committed in Darfur and Northern Uganda shows, we cannot stand by while people - no matter how high their rank - get away with the most egregious crimes.

At the World Summit three months ago, our Heads of State and government reached a historic agreement on the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The European Union regarded this outcome, embracing the concept at the highest level, as one of the most important of the Summit. R2P is a distinct concept, carefully set out in the World Summit Outcome. But it clearly relevant to the issue of the protection of civilians in armed conflict, and it is only appropriate that it should be recalled in this resolution.

Protection of civilians also includes the special protection needs of displaced persons, women and children. The European Union therefore welcomes the fact that the draft Resolution calls on parties to conflict to provide, in peace agreements, for these special needs, and to take concrete measures for the safe and sustainable return of displaced persons, and calls for peacekeeping missions to have the mandates and resources to guarantee this, by, for example, providing security for and around displaced persons camps.

Given the increasing incidence of sexual and gender-based violence, child abduction, and use of child soldiers, it is more important than ever to have a strong message, as in the draft Resolution, to all parties to a conflict to refrain from such actions, and on all States to ensure that those who carry them out are brought to justice. Peace support operations should be mandated to employ all feasible measures to prevent such crimes, and to address their effects where they take place. UN peacekeeping and peace support operations, and associated personnel, must demonstrate exemplary standards of behaviour. There must be zero tolerance of sexual abuse and exploitation, human trafficking, or other related acts, by such personnel.

The European Union believes strongly in the core message of Security Council Resolution 1325, that the protection of civilians in armed conflict can properly be achieved only by strengthening the role of women as constructive actors in developing and implementing appropriate responses. We must therefore seek to ensure increased and more equitable participation of women at all decision-making levels.

Whilst not directly addressed in this draft resolution, it would be wrong to address the issue of the protection of civilians in armed conflict without raising the issue of illicit small arms and light weapons. Much progress has already been made since the 2001 Programme of Action, but, five years on, small arms and light weapons still account for more deaths world-wide each year than does any other type of weapon. The excessive and destabilising accumulation of small arms and light weapons, and their unrestrained transfer, continue to pose serious challenges for international security, human safety and socio-economic development. The European Union therefore looks forward to working with other member States in 2006 to review the Programme of Action to ensure that it remains relevant. And we welcome the growing support, in all parts of the world, for an international treaty to establish common standards for the global trade in conventional arms. An Arms Trade Treaty that agreed binding standards, consistent with the existing responsibilities of States under international law, would be critical in tackling the proliferation that undermines peace, security, development and full respect for human rights in some of the most vulnerable parts of the world. The United Nations is the only forum that could deliver such a truly universal instrument.


* Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

| Arriba |

• Speech by Crisis Management Initiative Chair Ahtisaari - From Needs to Solutions: Enhancing Civilian Crisis Response Capacity of the EU (14/11/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - Strengthening of co-ordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of UN (14/11/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - Peacebuilding Commission (2/11/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - Role of the Security Council in Humanitarian Crises (12/7/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement - Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (21/6/2005)