UN adopts resolution to ensure perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers face justice

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday authorizing new steps to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers face justice.

Nearly 1,100 peacekeepers from countries around the world have lost their lives in the line of duty and thousands of others have been injured since 1948, according to U.N. peacekeeping department figures. Yet the resolution says the rate of prosecution for killings and other criminal acts against peacekeepers “has remained very low.”

The resolution, sponsored by Pakistan and Denmark and cosponsored by more than 150 countries, seeks to fill gaps in ensuring accountability. It authorizes Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to ensure that after future attacks, facts are collected and to support investigations and prosecutions of all violent acts.

Denmark’s U.N. Ambassador Christina Lassen said the resolution sends a clear message to the more than 50,000 personnel serving in peacekeeping missions from Lebanon and Cyprus to South Sudan and Central African Republic: “Attacks against them will not be met with silence or impunity.”

“To the perpetrators of any crimes, wherever and whoever they are,” she said, “it sends a firm message that the international community is watching, that crimes will not go unpunished, that accountability and justice will be pursued and will be upheld.”

Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Asim Ahmad said attacks against peacekeepers in several countries have increased in number and sophistication, often with little accountability.

Condolences are necessary when peacekeepers are killed and injured, but what’s needed is justice, he said. “Most importantly, this resolution is a strong expression of the council’s political will to stand by the peacekeepers. ”

The Security Council also adopted a resolution in 2021 aimed at strengthening accountability for crimes committed against perpetrators.

The U.N. peacekeeping department pointed to “significant progress” since then, with an increase in national investigations and the number of alleged perpetrators identified, detained, or both. It pointed to 103 individuals convicted since 2020 for a range of offenses related to the killing of 35 peacekeepers and two U.N. experts in the Central African Republic, Congo, Lebanon and Mali.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric welcomed the council’s adoption of the resolution and noted the actions since 2020 but stressed: “Much more needs to be done.”

The resolution adopted Tuesday asks the secretary-general to provide options to the council within 120 days on ways to strengthen accountability for crimes against peacekeepers.

“This will help the council assess what is working, where gaps remain, and what further action may be required,” Pakistan’s Ahmad said.

Denmark’s Lassen said the council looks forward to considering the proposals and working together “to translate them into meaningful progress.”