United Nations: India is a very important supporter of peacekeeping, including its support for various efforts such as its lead on efforts to ensure accountability for crimes against peacekeepers, the UN’s top peacekeeping official has said.
Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix's comments came during a press briefing on Thursday on the occasion of International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
He had visited New Delhi to attend the first-ever Conference for Women Peacekeepers organised by India on February 24-25.
“Yes, I really wanted to go to New Delhi and to that conference,” Lacroix said in response to a question by PTI about the conference and his assessment of it.
“First of all, because India is a very important troop and police contributing country. It's also a very important supporter of peacekeeping, beyond the important contribution of men and women from India, but also in terms of supporting various efforts. I'm thinking in particular, but there are many other examples, of the lead from India on the accountability for crime against peacekeepers,” Lacroix said.
The Delhi conference with the theme of ‘Women in Peacekeeping: A Global South Perspective’ was organised by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence and the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK).
It brought together women peacekeepers from 35 Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) from the Global South to discuss the evolving challenges in peacekeeping and the critical role women play in advancing peace and security.
Lacroix added that the issue of women in peacekeeping has two dimensions.
“It's more women in peacekeeping, which guarantees a more effective peacekeeping, and it's more empowerment of women through peacekeeping, in terms of the role of women in political processes, their empowerment, making sure that they are part and parcel of all these peacebuilding and peacekeeping efforts,” he said.
Noting that “there is nothing ideological in this”, the UN peacekeeping chief said it is “just plain realism that women need to be fully involved and participating in all these efforts, and that's why we are continuing our effort to have more women in peacekeeping.”
Accompanied by Acting Military Adviser of the United Nations Major General Cheryl Pearce at the briefing, Lacroix noted that the world organisation is “doing good in terms of the numbers of women peacekeepers “although we still have more to do".
He added that UN peacekeeping is still having challenges in terms of the formed military units because the resources of member states are not so high.
“Also, in terms of senior female general, although, thankfully, we have an excellent example of that,” he said, referring to Pearce.
“But yes, we would want to have more senior female generals applying for positions of Force Commander and Deputy Force Commander. It’s a work in progress,” he said.
India is the 4th largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping. It currently deploys more than 5,300 military and police personnel to the UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Somalia, South Sudan, and Western Sahara.
India was the first country to deploy an all-women Formed Police Unit to Liberia in 2007. In January 2023, India also deployed an all-women's platoon of peacekeepers as part of its battalion to the UN Mission in Abyei, the single largest deployment of women peacekeepers in recent years.
In December 2022, India, during its presidency of the UN Security Council at the time, launched a ‘Group of Friends’ to promote accountability for crimes against peacekeepers. India had also announced the launch of a new database designed to record crimes against Peacekeepers and monitor progress in holding perpetrators accountable.