UN Police Response - Peacekeeping chief briefs Security Council

Briefing by Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, on United Nations peacekeeping operations, during the 8661st meeting of the Security Council.
Peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council that while “the overall number of peacekeepers have decreased over the last years,” peacekeeping missions “are increasingly faced with challenges that call for a response which UN Police (UNPOL) is particularly well placed to provide.”
Lacroix, who is the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said the number of peacekeepers has contracted due to “the closure of some of our missions that have completed their mandate,” but stressed that “the role of police in peacekeeping is likely to further increase in coming years.”
He told the Council that “increasing the number of women in peacekeeping means making peacekeeping more effective” and noted that to date targets have been met “for the percentage of women police peacekeepers deployed as individual officers, 26.8 percent, and as part of formed units, 10.9 percent.”
Nevertheless, Lacroix said that “these targets are baselines not ceilings” and “more work remains.”
The Police Commissioner of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), Mary Gahonzire, Police, told the Council that “sustaining peace is a goal and a process to build a common vision of society with national ownership, where local actors have a consistent voice and women and youth play a critical role.”
In the context of Abyei, she said, the role of UNPOL is to support Community Protection Committees (CPCs), “enhance and foster a positive protective environment across Abyei, conduct awareness campaigns, and sensitize communities on the effects of crime and crime prevention,” especially Sexual and Fender Based Violence (SGBV) “and serious and violent crimes.”