20 November 2014 - True policing has never been offered to the South Sudanese people in over 50 years, UNMISS Police Commissioner Fred Yiga told the UN Security Council in New York today.

“Policing in the country has generally been done by armed groups whose ethos is that of a soldier in battle,” he said adding that South Sudan is largely a nomadic society and the policing methods require special skills, policies and equipment.

The UN is “holding the mantle” to ensure that the first time “good policing, true policing” is provided, Mr. Yiga said.

He stressed that South Sudan’s immediate and long-standing challenges need the attention of the Council.

Mr. Yiga was one of the heads of police components of UN missions selected to brief the Council for the first time ever.

Noting that the performance of UN Police (UNPOL) had clearly emerged as critical to peacekeeping missions, Mr. Yiga said it was vital for police contributing countries to take a closer look at training before deployment to ensure that the host nation’s needs are met.

“UN [policing] has seen an unprecedented growth in recent years,” said UN Peacekeeping Operations Chief Hervé Ladsous, who also briefed the Council on all aspects of UN policing.

Noting that UN police are now deployed from 91 Member States to 13 peacekeeping operations and four special political missions, Mr. Ladsous said UN Police were now dealing with “a new reality” including terrorism, organized crime, and corruption, because the nature of security and its traditional threats had evolved in recent years.

Discussing the image that police must embody to foster trust and provide assistance to host countries on rule of law, Mr. Ladsous explained that in some cases where there is less structure, UN Police also undertake interim police tasks, enforce the law, “support everything to do with reform” and sometimes even create national police.

“All of this ultimately calls into play the need for more sophisticated capacity,” Mr. Ladsous said, adding that to be able to deal with modern challenges, UN Police would need greater skills in areas like language skills.

On bridging the gender gap in UNPOL, he said the ambitious goal of having 20 per cent of women among all police has been far from complete.

“This is, after all, a reflection of national police,” he said. “While some are making great strides in gender, others are not. Obviously we are dependent on what Member States provide us and increasingly we are deploying units made up entirely of women.”

Following briefings by Mr. Ladsous and UNPOL chiefs from peacekeeping missions in South Sudan, Liberia and Central African Republic, the Security Council adopted its first-ever resolution focusing on the world body’s policing operations.

Council members stressed the invaluable contribution by UNPOL to peacekeeping, civilian protection and the rule of law, and pledged to give clear mandates as well as appropriate resources to UN police-related work.

The unanimously adopted resolution stressed the importance of close cooperation and coordination between UN Police Components and other elements of peacekeeping operations and special political missions.

Urging police-contributing countries to continue to contribute professional police personnel with the necessary skills equipment and experience to implement mission mandates, the resolution also highlighted the importance of building the capacity of the host state, and requested the Secretary-General to consider security sector reform, including reform of policing and other law enforcement institutions, in the overall strategic planning of UN peace operations.