VZCZCXYZ0014
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #5929 3141655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101649Z NOV 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 115929 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNSC
SUBJECT: GUIDANCE: PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS DEBATE, NOV. 11 
 
¶1. (U) This is an action message.  Please see Paragraph 3. 
 
¶2. (U) Mission may draw on the building blocks at paragraph 
three for the November 11 Security Council high-level debate 
on the protection of civilians. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Begin Building Blocks: 
 
Mr. President, 
 
It is now over ten-years since the Security Council first 
undertook efforts to improve the physical and legal 
protection of civilians in armed conflict.  It recognized 
that civilians - men, women, girls and boys - accounted for 
the majority of casualties in conflict-zones. Since then, the 
Council has adopted at least four resolutions on the subject 
and the Secretary-General has presented seven reports, with 
over 100 recommendations on such issues as protection of 
specific groups, humanitarian access, sexual violence, 
impunity, the ratification of international instruments, 
small arms and the role of peacekeeping missions and regional 
organizations. 
 
The resolution the Security Council is now adopting 
consolidates ten years of study and effort.  We thank you, 
Mr. President, and the Government of Austria, for your 
leadership on it.  We also take this occasion to pay tribute 
to the hundreds of UN personnel dispatched to war-zones, who 
have died trying to put our aspirations into practice. 
 
As a result of this past decade of UN action, millions of 
civilians have been saved and assisted through political, 
peacekeeping, human rights, humanitarian and development 
efforts.  Progress is evident in such places as Burundi, Cote 
d'Ivoire the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, 
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, and several 
other countries affected by armed conflict.  UN-backed 
mediation on Kenya helped avert further devastating bloodshed. 
 
But, also in this decade, the response came too late, fell 
short, or still has a long way to go. Millions of Congolese 
died in the last decade as a direct and indirect cause of 
armed conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Darfurians were 
butchered in cold blood and millions driven from their homes. 
The plight of civilians in eastern DRC, Darfur, and elsewhere 
in North and South Sudan remains precarious and extremely 
worrying. Somalia and its civilian population remain 
devastated by decades of violence.  Sri Lanka's people are 
just beginning to recover from over twenty years of conflict 
and its affects.  Insurgent attacks still terrorize civilians 
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistani civilians today experience 
one of the world's worst displacement crises. And, the United 
States remains deeply concerned about the human suffering of 
the Palestinian and Israeli peoples that result from the 
ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. 
 
Unfortunately, far too many civilians remain threatened and 
victimized by violence.  The perpetrators - frequently 
terrorist and extremist groups, rebels, and other non-state 
actors - are unmoved by and operate outside of the law. 
War-torn states often lack the capacity to bring perpetrators 
to justice and to provide security for their citizens.  State 
security forces lacking necessary training and oversight, as 
well as state forces integrated with former rebels in the 
context of peace agreement implementation, themselves can 
threaten civilians. Both of these problems are evidenced in 
the case of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of 
the Congo (FARDC). 
 
International peacekeepers aim to support a stable peace and 
supplement local capacity in conflict-affected countries. 
Some missions have not understood how to effectively protect 
civilians, especially from physical violence, sexual and 
gender-based violence, and rape, or had the means to match 
their challenging mandates. We must do better, and understand 
the threats to civilians when missions deploy, support 
efforts to prevent and halt violence if it emerges, and to 
back up these missions if it does. 
 
In some cases, as we have seen, the severity of the threat 
goes well beyond the capability of UN peacekeeping and 
requires the Security Council to authorize combat forces to 
help the host government stabilize the situation and enforce 
a peace.  It is especially important that military forces 
undertaking such action abide by the Geneva Conventions, 
whose 60th anniversary we celebrate this year.  Our forces 
are committed to compliance with the laws of war, including 
the Geneva Conventions, even as we face an enemy that is 
loyal to no state, that hides among civilians, and that 
routinely violates laws. 
 
Mr. President, 
 
The lives of innocent civilians in all of the world's 
conflict zones, from Darfur to Goma to Sderot, demand our 
concern when threatened by armed conflict.  But the 
situations in which civilians are imperiled radically differ 
and accordingly this resolution, in addition to recognizing 
the importance of reparations programs, addresses a wide 
range of actions to be taken to strengthen the protection of 
civilians.  I would like to highlight four. 
 
First, we must continue to develop the means to ensure that 
the Security Council has prompt access to accurate and 
objective information on the threats to civilians in armed 
conflict, impediments to humanitarian access, and alleged 
violations of international humanitarian, human rights and 
refugee law. 
 
Second, we must reinforce tools to hold accountable those who 
flout the laws of war. The Security Council must be prepared 
to impose sanctions on those who violate international 
humanitarian law, whether by freezing assets, banning 
international travel, or restricting the flow of goods and 
arms.  We must recognize that ending impunity for violations 
of international law is essential to establish accountability 
and promote reconciliation through credible and effective 
national courts when possible, or through international or 
hybrid tribunals when necessary.  Those responsible must be 
held to account. 
 
Third, we need to support the capacity of host governments 
emerging from conflict to rebuild their national 
infrastructure and institutions to protect and provide for 
the security of their citizens. 
 
Fourth, members of the Security Council, troop and police 
contributors and the Secretariat need to forge a shared 
understanding of what protection of civilians entails in 
peacekeeping contexts and what is required to operationalize 
it effectively. The Secretariat needs mission-wide strategies 
for the protection of civilians, involving military, police 
and civilian components and coupled with political and public 
pressure.  Peacekeepers need to be prepared, trained and 
equipped to employ force effectively, as and when required, 
in accordance with their mandates.  While peacekeepers cannot 
protect every civilian from violence, they need to become as 
effective as possible.  It is very timely that DPKO and OCHA 
have recently completed an in-depth study on "Protecting 
civilians in the context of UN peacekeeping operations."  We 
look forward to early discussions on the issues it raises, 
including in the forthcoming session of the General 
Assembly's Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. 
 
In conclusion, Mr. President, we have tools and mechanisms to 
protect civilians in armed conflict.  We still have 
considerable work to do to improve them, to develop new ones, 
and to summon the will to use them more consistently. We must 
also consider additional measures to enhance the safety and 
security of UN personnel undertaking this vital work.   All 
of this we must do, concurrent with our efforts to prevent, 
halt and end the armed conflicts themselves. 
 
Thank you. 
 
End building blocks. 
CLINTON