India slams UN Security Council discord hampering peacekeeping, urges reforms

United Nations, Sept 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) India has criticized political discord in the Security Council affecting peacekeeping operations and called for making its permanent members more representative, especially with the participation of Africa.

India’s newly appointed Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, delivered his maiden address to the Security Council on Monday and said: “The lack of political unity in the Security Council, which we have seen many times in the past few years, has had a negative impact on UN peacekeeping. The Security Council needs to be more representative of today’s realities, especially in the permanent category.”

Since more than half of the Security Council’s work focuses on Africa, “India has been consistently calling for greater representation of Africa,” as demanded by the continent’s countries.

In their Sirte Declaration, named after the Libyan city where it was drafted, and the Ezulwini Consensus reached in the Eswatini Valley, African countries demanded two permanent seats and three additional elected seats on the Security Council.

Harish took part in the debate on strengthening peace operations and said the Council should also consider authorising African Union-led peace operations.

Harish noted that India is the largest contributor to peacekeeping missions, having deployed over a quarter of a million troops in over 50 missions over the past 70 years.

He said that “it is important that large troop-contributing countries are actively involved in the decision-making process” to address the challenges arising from the Council’s “lack of clarity in mandates”.

Harish drew the Council’s attention to the increasing risks peacekeepers face from “asymmetric threats ranging from landmines to IEDs (improvised explosive devices)”. He said peacekeepers must be adequately equipped to deal with the threats.

“Technology and innovation are key to improving efficiency,” he said.

The General Assembly has unanimously adopted a resolution proposed by India to create a ‘memorial wall for fallen UN peacekeepers’.

“It is now time to move forward with the erection” of the memorial in honour of the over 4,000 peacekeepers who made the supreme sacrifice,” he said, noting that 182 Indian peacekeepers died “while upholding the cause of international peace and security”.

Earlier, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, also referred to the geopolitical disagreement within the Security Council, which undermines support for peace missions.

“As geopolitical tensions rise, including here in the Council, and amid changing global and regional dynamics, peace operations can increasingly rely less on Member States to act in a strong, united manner in support of peace efforts or the political processes they are intended to support,” he said.

“Peacekeeping missions are increasingly confronted with conflicts that know no borders, such as transnational organised crime, illegal exploitation of natural resources and the impacts of climate change,” he said, outlining the growing challenges.

Non-state actors – terrorist groups and rebels – “involved in these illicit activities also use low-cost technologies such as improvised explosive devices and drones as weapons and spread disinformation and hate speech,” Lacroix warned.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at [email protected] and followed at @arulouis)

Source: IANS

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