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Mr. President,
Thank you for convening today’s thematic debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. It underscores the pivotal importance of the issue, especially as civilians have become an ever-rising proportion of victims in ongoing armed conflicts, which have been expanding in scale and intensity in an era that recently the Secretary General aptly portrayed as one of mega-crises.
My delegation appreciates the insightful briefing by the Deputy Secretary General and by the President of the ICRC.
Mr. President,
The suffering of civilians caught in the line of fire in conflict situations is unspeakable. Tens of thousands of people, including women, children and the elderly, have become tragic victims of conflicts, not of their making. Civilian casualties have mounted and with that the need for humanitarian assistance.
A UN report released today reveals that in Iraq’s ongoing conflict, nearly 19,000 civilians have been killed between 2014 and 2015 and another 36,000 wounded.
Millions have been dislodged from their homes, driven out by bloody and unremitting conflict and unending turmoil or persecution. Many who managed to flee have seen their perilous journeys of escape become journeys of death. Others have arrived on alien shores only to confront unwelcoming hosts and escalating xenophobia.
The protection of civilians is a system-wide responsibility but host countries bear the primary responsibility for protection of all civilians without discrimination.
A normative framework is in place and the international community keeps urging all parties to comply with their obligations and abide by international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law.
But compliance, unfortunately, is sporadic at best, and defiance remains rampant, especially, but not only, by non-state actors. As recent examples testify, starvation has been used as an instrument of a siege strategy and indiscriminate bombing campaigns have been undertaken with no regard to the loss of civilian lives. The destruction of hospitals and attacks on medical workers has been the most egregious example of the impunity of such violations of international humanitarian law.
All these practices have presented formidable obstacles to legitimate humanitarian access to affected populations, and resulted in untold and avoidable death and destruction.
We would therefore fully support efforts to strengthen compliance and accountability measures.
Mr. President,
The attention given to the subject in the Report of the High-Level Panel on Peace Operations is timely. We support its recommendations for better training of peacekeepers and closer trilateral dialogue and collaboration.
We do, however, believe that the fundamental Principles of Peacekeeping are not an impediment to the Protection of Civilians mandates. The Security Council establishes these mandates and the use of force in defence of the mandate is an integral part of those Principles.
The report also urges extreme caution when mandating enforcement tasks. We also believe such operations should be on an exceptional and a time-limited basis.
Pakistan, as one of world’s top troop contributing countries, has proudly and conscientiously undertaken the task of proactively protecting civilians, when mandated by the Council, including in current Missions in the DRC, Darfur, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic and Liberia. We have demonstrated that this can be done by a robust deterrence posture and without resort to the use of force. Action by Pakistani troops in UNAMID offers an example of active protection of civilians while adhering to the principles of peacekeeping. Through robust posturing and preventive diplomacy, it was able to avert a bloodbath.
Mr. President,
While we appreciate the acknowledgement in the Secretary General’s report that Pakistan's counter-terrorism operations “involves better advance planning to limit the effect on civilians”, we reiterate that these are law enforcement actions and do not constitute a situation of armed conflict.
We, of course, strongly condemn the deliberate targeting of civilians in conflict situations. We have even temporarily relocated civilians to protect them from deliberate targeting by terrorists in areas where law enforcement operations are goingon.
As has been demonstrated time and again, terrorists are not bound by any consideration of humanity. The have not even spared school children as the cowardly attack on a school in Peshawar showed a year ago, underlining the new and appalling levels of inhumanity to which violent extremists have sunk.
Even so, the response of states to combat terrorism must be measured, well planned and carefully targeted to protect civilian lives and uphold human rights. Anything less would play into the hands of terrorists and be counter productive.
Finally Mr. President, the goal of protection of civilians is best served by preventing the outbreak of armed conflicts in the first place, addressing the root causes of conflicts, and finding inclusive political solutions to disputes and seek peaceful settlement of conflicts. This, we believe, is the strategy that would lead us to sustainable and enduring peace and security.
I thank you, Mr. President.