Implementation

Monitoring and reporting on human rights and the protection of civilians can also play a role in raising awareness of the impact of military operations on civilians and in encouraging the parties to a conflict to take steps to strengthen the protection of civilians.

In some cases, the longer-term challenge is to build up the capacity of non-United Nations security forces, including national forces and institutions, to take on the task of effective protection of civilians once the international presence has been withdrawn.

In conclusion, my Office stands ready to assist the Council as it seeks to strengthen the protection of civilians threatened or affected by the effects of armed conflict. Every day around the world, human rights officers mandated by this Council make a vital contribution to protecting civilians, often working in very challenging conditions and with limited resources.

Human rights officers work closely with national authorities and civil society to support national judicial institutions and other accountability mechanisms.

Finally, I would welcome the opportunity to share information relating to this topic with the Council in future, including reports and recommendations arising from our human rights monitoring work on the ground, and to keep it apprised of evolving situations where civilians are at risk.

Effective monitoring and reporting of human rights violations and encouraging greater compliance with international human rights law require opportunities to engage directly with both State and non-State actors, as well as access by human rights officers to populations at risk. In that context, it remains of grave concern that human rights officers still cannot access large parts of Darfur for security reasons.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2010/579) paints a very bleak picture of the state of the protection of civilians. Any positive and encouraging developments are heavily outweighed by what is happening on the ground: the continuing and frequent failure of parties to conflict to observe their international legal obligations to protect civilians.

The Council's continued attention to access constraints is welcome. However, greater precision is needed in specifying the nature of the constraints and the actions to be taken to counter them. The Council must ensure enhanced accountability for grave instances of deliberate delays or denials of access for humanitarian operations, as well as situations involving attacks against humanitarian workers.

Secondly, the protection of civilians is a shared responsibility. Humanitarian workers and peacekeepers have distinct roles and responsibilities, but these need to be brought together in a coherent and strategic way.

In advance of mission drawdown, the Security Council should insist upon the articulation of benchmarks relating to the protection of civilians and on the establishment of a mechanism to measure and report progress against those benchmarks. Resolution 1923 (2010) on the situation in Chad provides useful examples in both these respects.