Supporters:
Albania, Amnesty International, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Guyana, Hungary, Ukraine, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Principality of Liechtenstein, Malawi, Marshall, Islands, Mongolia, Portuguese Republic, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Vietnam,
The General Assembly,
Guided by the preamble of UN Charter to commit on to protecting our future generations from the scourge of war,
Welcoming our, elected Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his administration to provide suggestions and recommendations in reforming UN Peacekeeping Operations,
Recognizing the UN Charter Chapter VII Article 39 that determines the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression to make recommendations in attempt to decide measures that shall be taken,
Acknowledging the previous efforts made by the UN to reform the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations has provided substantial improvements to enhance the performance of United Nations Peacekeeping Forces Missions,
Reminding the importance in adapting towards current and future challenges is a necessity for the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in order to perform a comprehensive, flexible, effective, resilient and robust, mission,
Deeply concerned with the rising allegations of sexual exploitations conducted by UN peacekeepers towards civilians, including children,
Recalling previous reforms and reports made to enhance the operations of UN Peacekeeping Forces including but not limited to the Brahimi Report in 2000, 2005 World Summit outcome “Peace Operations 2010”, and 2008 Capstone Doctrines to lay out the basic principles which shaped the framework for UN Peacekeeping Operations for future events and further implementation of the mandates developed by the United Nations Security Council,
Recognizing the shift in mandates of UN Peacekeeping Operations from peacekeeping duties towards the process of peacebuilding and post-conflict developments to be addressed in a streamlined and comprehensive mandate for future and current operating missions to enhance the performance and impact of the Blue Helmets, on and off the field of operation,
Recalling Resolution 2083 (2013) of Security Council which endorses the importance of multidimensional approach to peacekeeping aimed at facilitating peacebuilding, preventing relapse into conflict to provide legal basis for a multidimensional approach towards complex conflicts the UN Peacekeeping Operations faces currently and possible in the future,
Keeping in mind resolution (S/RES/2272), (S/RES/2185), (S/RES/2167), (A/RES/67/254) , (A/RES/49/37) and other resolutions made by any United Nations council on the topic of peacekeeping operations,
Taking note on the Resolution 1325 on women and peace and security which reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, and in post-conflict reconstruction,
Recognizing the importance of gender perspective in encountering current and future conflicts to enhance the conflict resolution process with the consent of related parties, and to utilize the resources available for UN Peacekeeping Operations to perform their duties in accordance with their designated mandates,
GENERAL
Recommends Member States to adopt a Code of conduct on the use of the Veto in the United Nations Security Council when faced or threatened with cases of mass atrocities to prevent the use of national interests through the Veto interfering with the deployment of peacekeeping operations, preventing another massacres and genocides like the one in Rwanda and Srebrenica from happening, under the following guidelines;
On the legal basis:
The code will apply to current or future permanent and nonpermanent members of the Security Council;
Understanding Mass atrocities as: war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, as defined;
On the implementation of the Code;
On the assessment of the situation;
Recommends the authorization on the use of force in DPKO when tightened to assure their safety without waiting for mandates;
Suggests that United Nations (UN) Peacekeepers should retain the UN principle of impartiality in their operations, meaning that the PKO should not endorse or favor any one side of the conflict, and only tend to the protection of civilians whose fundamental human rights are being abused or who are under the threat of violation of human rights;
TRAINING
Encourages for the implementation of the emergency action programmes, mandated to educate and train civilians on the appropriate actions to be undertaken under different crisis scenarios;
Endorses the extension of the existing pocket rule cards with the conduct parameters for peacekeepers to include 10 new ones that will include guidelines on how to prevent, combat and help in cases of sexual abuses, in which they will be handed out in the mother language of each peacekeeper and will be divided in:
3 Cards for Prevention of conflict;
3 Cards steps to follow the Mandate;
3 Cards when witnessing violations of code of conduct;
1 Card on their duty;
Considers the division of UNPKO into three main pillars: Peacemakers (PM), Peacekeepers (PK), Peacebuilders (PB) with the additional support of a new unit called “Peace carriers” which would start participating immediately before the peacekeepers, to inform the society about the mandate, the limits and the channels to accuse any misconduct, as well as consolidate the reliability between society and PKO, support the negotiations carried by PM and make a transition period between PK and PB;
Recommends the peacemakers will do the mediation. Peacekeepers will enter on field later, to ensure that no conflict will happen. Peace carriers will be a sub-section and talk with the civilization. they will be the link between the civilians as well as the UN;
Further we want to encourage volunteers inside and outside the United Nations for different kinds of recruits for new units in order to staff enough the mission;
Recommends to set certain guidelines for the Chef De Mission based on the types of missions in order to help Secretary general in determining which CDM he should select, which will consist of:
A review of the requirements of a Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) Missions Chef de Mission as they should embody what we expected of the UNPKO in terms of their integrity towards establishing a secure, peaceful and sustainable environment for peacekeeping and peacebuilding process, also capable of conveying and carrying out the mandates properly, yet also able to put aside their personal or national interest, prioritizing the process of conflict resolution forward;
Encourages the enhancement of authority for the DPKO Mission Chef de Mission (CdM) to provide full control of their troops and full strategic utilization to ensure the fulfillment of the missions’ objectives under the auspices and supervision of United Nations Security Council including;
Recommends the execution of measures in the field of operation with limited time and maximum urgency including but not limited to the attack towards DPKO Officers, to be addressed under the discretion of CdM after exploring possible options which would later be conveyed post-event to the UNSC and SPECPOL;
Endorses the implementation of a set of strict standards called “Protect, not Disrespect”, used to filter the quality and integrity of peacekeepers to decrease the likelihood of deploying potential sex offenders, with the following specifications:
It would contain a series of psychological tests designed to assess sexual history and behavioral patterns in order to detect tendencies of sexual violence, such as these internationally renowned sexual assessment scales:
“Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory”;
“Multiphasic Sex Inventory”;
“Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest”;
Peacekeepers who show significant tendencies to conduct sexual violence will be required to undergo extensive rehabilitation before deployment, until their tests show that they are no longer a potential sexual threat, taking into account that rehabilitative processes would involve psychologists and criminologists who specialize in sex crimes to help past/potential sex offenders to;
Recognize their individual triggers on dangerous sexual behavior, and how to suppress and control those triggers;
Fully acknowledge and understand the destructive impact these sex offenses have on victims, to strengthen sense of empathy and compassion as a deterrent for sexual abuse;
Grasp methods of emotion management, to foster easier self-control;
Comprehensive background checks would be done to ensure that the peacekeepers have never committed sexual offenses;
It would be implemented during Level 1 of the existing UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System (PCRS), which is the human rights screening process;
Encourages exhort member states to join the “sustainable peacekeepers” as an incentive for countries with major contribution for peacekeeping in order to increase the Peacekeeping Operation staffing, working alongside with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to offer the funding of a sustainable development program for the top three contributors every year, depending on the positions in which;
The first position, with 25% of the funding;
Second, 15% of the funding;
Third, 10% of the funding;
Reminds to establish a review and monitoring framework as well as checking team to evaluate all of the work of the training working programs. Why is it important? It is to make them more appropriate in further training and action;
Recommends that United Nations Peacekeeping training focuses on:
The basics of peacekeeping as well as the context of the conflict. After they have been selected, they will be trained generally (what does it mean to be a peacekeeper, how should a peacekeeper act, How should the mandate be, etc.) Recommend the implementation of substantial peacekeeping knowledge under the training program named “White Troops” in the army forces to provide more insights and strategies on the field of conflict. To provide a more comprehensive follow up actions towards the enhancement of peacekeepers operations. Effectiveness and efficiency of the deployment troops will be improved and been under a harder control with better evaluation and feedback;
Pre-deployment specific training in which UN peacekeepers will have a joint training with the local officers, on the specifics needed to prevent cultural shock, and focus on the culture as well as the origin of the conflict;
All these trainings can be created by the Integrated Training service from the UN with the cooperation of other UN local agencies. (trainings will be done periodically in order to ensure the consistency of their work);
Encourages that a standard pre-deployment procedure be established in the DPKO mandate and include the following training protocols under the mandate of the Integrated Training Services (ITS) in addition to those currently existing;
Reaffirms the cooperation with Geneva Call which specialises in training personnel, disarming non-State Actors in situations with belligerent factions that may be engaged in civil war during UNPKO deployment;
Urges all Member States to engage in specialized pre-operational peacekeeping training to enhance the effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping operations, which can be done on a national, bilateral or multilateral level, where it should include cultural sensitization of the countries to which peacekeepers are deployed and their culture in order to successfully integrate peacekeepers;
Reaffirms the Gradual deployment of peacekeepers in missions that do not require immediate action;
Recommends To strengthen the organic combination of “peacekeeping”and “building peace”;
Urges all Member States to engage in specialized pre-operational peacekeeping training to enhance the effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping operations, this can be done on a national, bilateral or multilateral level;
ENFORCEMENT
Recommends the UN to delay reimbursed payments to troop contributing countries that fail to prosecute and punish perpetrators of sexual violence, in the interest of incentivizing countries to comply with commitments, to ensure that all sexual assaults criminals are held accountable for their actions, with the following guidelines:
Troop contributing countries are required to display evidence that the criminals have been subjected to the appropriate national court proceedings and have been punished according to their national law;
Payments (usually of approximately $1300/soldier/month) that are currently reimbursed to countries to pay their soldiers and pay for weaponry would be indefinitely withheld until the countries provide evidence specified in sub-clause (a);
Encourages that coordination/communication from headquarters to DPKO should come from one unified body, such as the Secretary General or Security Council as opposed to several committees which results in delayed operations and endangers civilians and peacekeepers, any coordination and communication should also include any local leaders and security forces;
Further invites regional bodies, NGO’s and countries to apply the “Clear Helmet” plan which is an addition of two more reports sent to the OIOS (office of Internal Oversight Service) about the conduct of UN peacekeepers under several mechanisms, these reports will follow the same criteria:
Peacekeepers conduct;
Civilians accusations;
In the scenario where the report between the four organization don’t match, investigation will be done by the staff member of the Secretary;
These reports will be also referred to the FEM REP team so they may take them into account in their investigations;
Emphasizing the NGO’s role in mediating communication between local population and UN Peacekeeping Forces;
Believes the country of which the Peacekeepers originated are responsible to prosecute perpetrators of misconducts under their national jurisdiction (with guidelines provided international community provides) and this information does not only goes to the home country but also to the secretary general and the OIOS which will prevent them for being deployed again. This report shall be called the: clear helmets report;
Reports from local communities to the UN secretariat about the misconduct of peacekeepers whenever a peacekeeper commit an offense, they must not be reallocated and be evaluated and put from the OIOS;
Encourages the Associate with Amnesty International to devise a curriculum for sexualt assault education with specific Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) for DPKO to identify victims of abuse and provide legal, medical and psychological assistance to victims. Furthermore, design part of the curriculum to include outlining the implications of misdemeanour and committing sexual assault in the country of deployment:
Amnesty International will provide volunteers with clinics to assist in education;
Utilize Amnesty International consultants within training to focus on underlying discrimination and the root of sexual assault problems;
Assisting with mechanisms for reporting sexual assault through the use of volunteers on the ground and utilizing Amnesty’s communication technologies;
Recommends a cooperation with the Include Medecin Sans Frontiere (MSF) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative to provide medical materials for immediate assistance in case of sexual assault reports;
AWARENESS
Calls upon a significant increase in the number of women participating in peacekeeping operations by:
Working with the Institute for Inclusive Security and the UN Standing Committee on Women and Peace Security, Sustainable Peace Through Justice and Security in increasing UN personnel numbers in both junior and senior levels, as well as increasing trust with local women in affected communities to create an environment that discourages sexual exploitation and increases approachability;
Supports the creation of the Women Inclusion Office (WIO) under the jurisdiction of the DPKO, with the main goal of directly implementing any ideas developed by the Institute for Inclusive Security and the Standing Committee on Women and Peace and Security amongst UN peacekeeping personnel;
Increase quicker reimbursement to countries that deploy at least 30% female peacekeepers each year (not easy for all countries to do this; mechanism: based on marginal increase and the total number of peacekeeper percent);
Create a goal of increasing women participation in the United Nations and peacekeeping operations by 5% every 5 years, up from their current position near 3% for military personnel and 10% of police personnel in peacekeeping operations (from 2014), until reaching a global rate of 30%;
Encourages a significant increase in the number and percentage of female peacekeeping personnel, in both junior and senior levels, to create an environment that discourages sexual exploitation, which can be done through:
Increase payments to countries that manage deploy at least 50 female peacekeepers each year (this minimum threshold would be increased each year to incentivise continuous progress), in which the payments would be increased based on the marginal increase and the total number of peacekeepers sent;
Intense promotions and advocacy for the recruitment of female peacekeepers in all member states regarding the importance of the presence of female personnel in peacekeeping missions, particularly their relevance towards building environments free of sexual exploitation;
Additional training by UN Women for female peacekeepers regarding:
Methods to detect occurrences of sexual exploitation;
Methods to approach victims;
Methods to build trust and comfort between civilians and peacekeepers in order to encourage reporting sexual exploitation etc;
Further recommends to expand the UN Trust Fund for Victim Assistance to include victims of sexual assault perpetrated by UN Peacekeepers:
Funding will voluntarily be provided by individual donors, and member nations;
Continues upon the premise of the Trust Fund for Victim Assistance, which provides appropriate treatment for physical and mental abuse, a safe place to recover, vocational, literacy, or life skills for parents, and schooling for any resulting illegitimate children;
Recommends the establishment of a highly vetted, primarily female community outreach team within each UN peacekeeping operation called the Reception, Examination and Protection Team (FemREP) that will be in charge of:
Further establishing a connection between local women and UN peacekeepers and the FemREP team in order to host reception of complaints and allegations related to sexual abuse or exploitation, and acquisition of evidence;
Examination of these complaints, utilizing a database in which they can record the military personnel or official’s name and location, which allows the UN to supervise sexual assault hotspots, report sexual assault cases, and target mission officials who have had multiple offences on their team with no improvement. Data can only be viewed by authorized officials, members of the FemREP team, UN personnel and representatives of Member States;
Recommend appropriate measures to be taken and connect victims with the extended Trust Fund for Victim Assistance;
Recognizes the shift of UN Peacekeeping Operations towards a more comprehensive peacebuilding and post-conflict development resolutions:
a. Recommends the initiation of Social Development Platform (SOCDEPLAT) to accelerate the post-conflict development process by incorporating social professionals such as teachers, social workers and health officers in the UN Peacekeeping Operations which could provide and accelerate the process of sustainable development for societies affected by the conflicts, as they could establish the cornerstones of a sustainable development process for welfare on socio-economic process and political stabilization;
b. Further recommends to put attention towards the traumatic state of post-conflict society as they are in a fragile state and needs assistance in going through the process of recovery;
c. Encourages approach through SOCDEPLAT to provide a softer approach and ensures the society of conflicted areas are on track for future developments by providing them education and social support to alleviate societal development stagnancy or deficiency;
d. Further Encourages the platform to be initiated as soon as possible to deliver expected result and preventing further regression towards the societies affected by the conflict in their potential to develop and overcome current and future challenges;
e. Suggests the creation of an OMBUDSMAN committee and international guidelines for every country to adopt after the evidence is given by the ombudsman, to designate per mission in charge of the report, in which this committee will be conformed by three people designated by the following UN Organs:
Security Council;
Human Rights Committee;
The Secretary General;
Calls upon the obligatory reporting of all allegations of sexual violence, in order that all related UN bodies become fully and immediately aware of abuses being done and coordinate joint responses to those abuses, which would include the following departments:
The human rights department of the peacekeeping mission;
The head or supervisor of the mission;
The child protection officer of the mission and UNICEF (in the case of sexual exploitation of children);
The SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict (in the case of sexual exploitation of adults);
MODERNIZATION
Encourages to implement the “Peace teams” to reach reconciliation between Peacekeeping Operations, belligerent groups and host societies, especially in those countries whose conflicts arose because of societal causes by calling for a meeting of all parties when they go to these places with a view to make a reconciliation, and this could also solve the problem about what role of peacekeeping operation;
Encourages the initiation of the Rapid Efficient Action Team (REAct Team) that would act as a rapid response team while establishing a PKO, where this temporary team will be trained by the UN and troop contributing countries, under a single chain of command to ensure their efficiency, with steps as follows:
The peacekeeping operation authorization under the normal UNPKO mandate;
Task forces will be asked to intervene depending on the situation that is presented;
The REAct team withdrawal after the actual peacekeepers are deployed;
Suggests the implementation of the Rapid Deployment Permanent Division (RDPD) that will act as an explorative division on the ground and will enhance the effectiveness of PKO by:
Being deployed to the area in conflict as soon as it is identified;
Getting an accurate and solid diagnose of the area in conflict;
Preparing a report for the REAct Team specifying the concrete needs of the area in conflict;
Going back to its base once the report is sent to be prepared to get in action again as soon as needed;
Emphasizes the need for the REAct Team to be divided into different task forces in order to have different teams with different sets of skills available to operate where different task forces will be asked to intervene depending on the situation that is presented upon by the Rapid Deployment Permanent Division :
Tactical and Military Task Force: Operates in military conflicts and war torn regions;
Search and Rescue: Operates during natural disasters in order to recover and rescue civilians trapped or under situations of perilous characteristics;
Humanitarian: Operates in regions where humanitarian aid is required in order to guarantee the survival of civilians;
Calls for the creation of the TECH committee which will:
Be a 2 year long committee, serving from the 1st of April 2017 till the 1st of April 2019 consisting of in total 50 United Nations officials, military personnel connected with United Nations peacekeeping operations, scientists with expertise in the fields of modern warfare, asymmetric warfare and community building and other experts deemed necessary;
Be seated in New York;
Have a chair appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations;
The chair may on his behalf invite more experts to assist the committee if the chair deems it necessary;
Look into the most efficient manner of implementing the recommendations made in the report from the Expert Panel on Technology and Innovation into the standard United Nations peacekeeping outfit;
Look into further improving the use and implementations of technologies already used by United Nations peacekeeping forces, such as but not limited to: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED) measures and real-time tracking systems;
Look critically towards the room for improvement of technologies already being used by United Peacekeeping forces;
Report to the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly on the 1st of April 2019 with a report of their findings;
Report on a three monthly basis to the Secretary-General and will also give their report to the Secretary-General on the 1st of April 2019;
Be funded from the United Nations General Budget;
Encourages the use of Joint Mission Analysis Centre (JMAC) to gather complex informations and conduct other necessary intelligences in the volatile mission field in order to meet the means of UN PKO with their mandates;
Exhorts specialized modern warfare troops and peacekeepers in UN PKO;
Recommends the collaboration between the United Nations Global Service Centre (UNGSC) and the African Union Standby Force (ASF). Allowing the UNGSC to use the ASF logistics base. This would undoubtedly strengthen support capacities and partnership between the UN and AU. This will allow a smooth logistical handover for operations across Africa and will ensure that operations across the African continent would not be deprived of essentials as a result of poor communication and logistical lines;
Recommends the establishment of “Shield Points” in the zones where the conflicts are more intense in order to set safe places for civilians and protect them with a double safety ring, including security checkpoints at the entrances to stop armed people to enter, distributing several places around safe places such as hospitals, stadiums, malls, among others, where the conflict is being held in order to avoid an easy target for any of the belligerents to attack and equip external security ring with the heaviest equipment to defend the zone, depending of the conflict type and the mandate given;
Encourages to initiate a cluster of experts that can assess the inner political, social, economical and historical situation. Report it to the Secretariat so that a design can be created to make a better tailored mandate. Scenario-based mandates for peacekeepers based on types of warfare:
Country vs Country;
Government vs Insurgent group;
Insurgent group vs Insurgent group;
Insurgent group vs civilians;
Civilians vs Civilians;
Emphasizes the need for sustainable policing, incorporating multidimensional missions working closely with local officials run by the OMA and leaving responsibility of civilian protection with host countries with training and support provided by UN peacekeepers;
Calls for the implementation of pilot systems with UN ICT Task Force and UN Global Compact to tackle cyber-warfare using innovative security solutions by collaborating with research think tanks such as but not limited to:
The AI^2 (Artificial Intelligence and Analyst Intuition) developers at Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) in the MIT, which uses an adaptive, self-improving logarithm that analyses data for anomalies;
IBM to learn about its pilot program Watson Cyber Security that uses natural language processing to detect and analyse unstructured data forms (such as blogs, academic papers, news stories and social media) combined with IBM’s threat intelligence platform, X-Force Exchange, and learn about potential real-time applications in the UNPKF crisis scenario;
Promote innovation in machine learning, big data analytics and data mining by hosting security-based hackathons and code fests held by the UN ICT Task Force and engage with data scientists;
Future Technology Investment Grant under the aegis of the UN ICT Task Force which hosts a competition amongst students looking for the best ideas in regards to technology that might assist UN peacekeepers, and helps provide funding to help make that technology reality with the help of production by host countries in order to create sustainable jobs;
Recommends the use of technology as a means of gathering and analysing security data as enforced by the government of Singapore in their Geographic Information System-based situation Awareness Analysis Application (GIS) in the following areas:
Homeland Security in the region of DPKO deployment;
Public Safety of civilians;
Law Enforcement;
Emergency Response;
Fostering Safe Communities.