UN official urges greater efforts to protect civilians

Additional measures must be taken to protect civilians worldwide, who often bear the brunt of military conflicts, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, said on Monday. "The time is right for the [UN Security] Council to consider adopting a new resolution on the protection of civilians in armed conflict areas to reflect important developments that have taken place over the last four years," he said at the UN headquarters in New York when he presented a fourth report on the issue to the council. It has been four years since the adoption of the council's first resolution on the protection of civilians. Since then, Egeland said, some progress had been made; peacekeeping mandates had been broadened and greater emphasis had been placed on protection. Egeland urged the council to adopt a new resolution that would lay down measures to improve the information flow between the humanitarian community and the council regarding key protection issues and developing situations of concern. He said progress made so far remained insufficient and, without further commitment from the international community, the establishment of a culture of protection would remain a distant goal. In particular, he named six major issues that requiring further attention. These included humanitarian access in conflict areas, the safeguarding of humanitarian staff, the fight against impunity and the protection of women and children in armed conflict. "Sexual violence and other particularly abhorrent human rights abuses against women and children had been perpetrated on a horrifying scale in Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, northern Uganda and other conflict situations," he said. In the ensuing debate, the council noted the challenge of dealing with the phenomenon of widespread sexual violence as a tool of war, and the emergence of non-state actors as perpetrators of these crimes. [On the NET: Full UN Security Council statement www.un.org ]