Diplomacy and the protection of civilians

The protection of unarmed civilians in conflict situations is a moral and diplomatic challenge. Killed, wounded and displaced civilians cannot be treated as merely “collateral effects”. The issue requires the international community to take on its collective responsibility.

The growing importance of the subject has led the South Korean presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to hold a debate, at ministerial level, in which I took part on February 12.

As a starting point, we must keep in mind that prevention of conflicts is the best way to ensure the protections of civilians. A lot is said about the unacceptability of situations in which governments do not protect their own populations. Today, there is an international consensus about the need for coordinated efforts to face such circumstances. It must be recognised, however, that the international community has failed to take heed of fundamental issues for the protection of civilians, among which the following stand out:

1) The promotion of sustainable development with a focus on poverty eradication and on food security contributes to the promotion of peace. The lack of opportunities and perspectives is the seed of conflicts, encourages radicalism and weakens faith in institutions. It is regrettable that there are such high military expenditures, while the official development assistance goals agreed on in Monterrey in 2002 have still not been met;

2) We must fight to reduce the availability of instruments of violence, particularly weapons of mass destruction. This is indispensable to progress on disarmament and non-proliferation. The ease with which conventional weapons can be obtained, particularly through illegal trade, multiplies the damages caused by conflicts. The consequences for civilians of the indiscriminate use of technological innovations in the fight against insurgencies or terrorism, in turn, require a deeper debate;

3) We cannot forget the responsibility of the international community for the paralysation of the Israel-Palestine peace process and the failure of the Quartet in contributing to an agreement. The vulnerability of the civilian population in the occupied territories represents a situation of high risk; and

4) The paralysis in issues of international peace and security can be considered the most worrisome example of the stagnation of the global governance system. The UNSC, frozen in an obsolete configuration of power, is the forum that can authorise the use of force for the protection of civilians. A more legitimate and representative UNSC will dispose of better conditions to implement preventive measures and diplomatic strategies that can avoid radicalisation and solve conflicts.

We recognise that in some cases, the international community will not be able to prevent, by diplomatic means, armed conflicts causing massive violations of the civilian population’s human rights. Nevertheless, all peaceful means to minimise the impact on civilians must be exhausted. The military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq created a high number of civilian casualties, refugees and internally displaced persons. Northern Africa is experiencing the destabilising effect of the actions taken in Libya. These lessons cannot be ignored.

In the extreme situations in which the UNSC might authorise the use of force for the protection of civilians, it is necessary to ensure that military intervention is judicious, proportional, and strictly limited to the objectives established by the UN. In this context, we must ensure that:

a) the intervention is inserted in a diplomatic strategy for the resolution of the conflict;

b) a minimum of violence and instability is generated; and

c) the UN adopts and observes clear procedures for the monitoring and assessment of the manner in which its resolutions are interpreted and applied.

When military intervention is authorised, the responsibility to protect must be accompanied by responsibility while protecting. Multilateral efforts for the protection of civilians must be anchored in respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, including in the context of the fight against terrorism.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.