UNSC reforms essential for peacekeeping operations to be effective: India

Peacekeeping operations can be effective only if the Security Council is reformed to give it the legitimacy that comes from reflecting the contemporary realities, according to India.

“The effectiveness of UN peacekeeping is tied to the structure and legitimacy of the UN Security Council, which must be reformed to ensure expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories to reflect the contemporary realities,” India’s Permanent Representative P. Harish said on Wednesday.

The major contributors, like India -- which has sent the most troops -- to peacekeeping operations are shut out of the permanent membership in the Council, which gives the missions their mandates.

To address the emerging challenges to peacekeeping, consensus arrived through a member state-driven process of wide-ranging consultations is essential, Harish said.

All stakeholders, particularly the troop and police-contributing countries, should participate in the process, he added.

He was speaking at the Council open debate on peacekeeping convened by South Korea, the president for this month.

Harish said that peacekeeping operations are confronting "multiple challenges, with political, operational, and technological complexities” and a return “to core principles of UN peacekeeping” is needed to face them, he said.

The mandates must be simple, realistic, clear, and focused, he said.

Peace operations are likely to succeed when they are accompanied by a broader political process, with a clearly envisioned political outcome.

He noted that funding for peacekeeping operations is uncertain, and to meet this challenge, "the scope of mandates should match the resources available to peacekeepers”.

US President Donald Trump is threatening to cut or eliminate his country’s contributions, which make up 25 per cent of the peacekeeping budget.

“It is time that UN peacekeeping missions with outdated and obsolete mandates are withdrawn and liquidated,” Harish said.

Although he did not mention it, the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, which India has said is now redundant under the current situation, is one of them.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said that peacekeeping operations are not meant to be indefinite, and for them to end without a relapse into conflict, “clear, prioritised mandates, active political engagement and statements of support” are essential

The Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, said that peacekeeping missions are often deployed in politically volatile situations, even in the middle of an ongoing civil war.

“In such situations, the initial goals of our missions should be more limited – such as preventing a deterioration of violence, achieving a ceasefire, or helping a fragile incipient peace process get off the ground,” she said.