The summit has a theme Advancing Our Common Security: UN Police for a New EraIt begins with a video highlighting the mission of the United Nations Police Force (UNPOL) to promote security, protect human rights and support Member States.
UNPOL’s true mission is to “strengthen international peace and security by supporting Member States in conflict, post-conflict and other crisis situations”, while remaining at the forefront in preventing and addressing international threats facing the global community, including geopolitical conflicts, climate disasters, global. mistrust and the dark side of technology.
Therefore, this summit was used to further discuss and evaluate the role of UNPOL in supporting the UN Secretary-General. Action for Peace (A4P)the A New Agenda for Peaceand the digital transformation of peacekeeping operations, among others.
Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Policy, Guy Ryder said: “With the Future Summit taking place in September, this is a timely opportunity for Member States, [UN] and our strategic partners to consider how to exploit its full potential [UNPOL] to meet the most pressing challenges of today and tomorrow“ .
UNPOL’s challenges
During the opening session of the summit, the Permanent Representative of the United States Government for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, spoke. UNPOL’s challenges are “bigger than ever” and multidimensional.
“Our personnel on the ground, incl [UNPOL] are facing threats on multiple fronts from transnational organized crime, terrorism, armed groups and cybercrime, all of which play a role in slowing the pace,” she said. Lacroix said. “Our peace operations are also seeing growing challenges from hate speech, disinformation and misinformation, which are increasingly used as weapons of war.”
US Secretary-General Lacroix said the UN Police is working to promote political solutions and support sustainable peace as part of the Secretary-General’s A4P initiative, and detailed how officers assisted the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) national police with training on information gathering and public order management during the national election process.
Women wear uniforms
He also mentioned the implementation of projects in the DRC and South Sudan to benefit women in the military and police in peacekeeping missions by improving housing and building areas entertainment.
Additionally, he noted that UNPOL has done well in reducing gender inequality at senior levels but encouraged participants to introduce more women into senior positions.
Mr. Lacroix said: “As part of the Secretary-General’s new agenda for peace, we must continue to strengthen multilateral networks to address the challenges I just mentioned – these are not something a single country can do on its own.”
