Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki at the UN Security
Council meeting on the protection of civilians in armed
conflict.
Thank you, President. Let me start by thanking Mozambique for
convening this important debate and thank all our briefers,
today, for their powerful presentations.
The Secretary-General's latest report on the protection of
civilians presents a stark picture: a 72% increase in civilian
deaths in armed conflict from 2022 to 2023; 117 million people
experiencing conflict-related hunger; and a ten-fold increase in
persons with disabilities in Ukraine due to conflict.
The United Kingdom is also concerned about escalating violence in
El Fasher, Sudan, the deaths of civilians in Israel and Gaza, and
the shocking levels of conflict-related sexual violence in the
central Sahel and the DRC, among many other grave situations.
We should reverse these trends by taking a comprehensive approach
to protection. I wish to make three points today.
Firstly, warring parties must fully comply with international
humanitarian law and uphold their obligations to protect
civilians. They must respect the special rights, needs, and
vulnerabilities of children affected by conflict. We call on
states to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. This includes in
Sudan where the UK's atrocity monitoring work investigates
attacks against civilians and infrastructure, and monitors hate
speech and incitement of violence across the country.
Second, we urge all states to take practical steps to improve
international humanitarian law implementation, which in turn will
enhance protection. The UK is updating our voluntary report on
domestic implementation of IHL, with a strong focus on the
protection of civilians. We encourage others to undertake similar
exercises.
Third, the protection of civilians should always be prioritised
in peacekeeping missions. The UK is supporting peacekeepers with
training on preventing conflict-related sexual violence, and our
programming is increasing the participation of women in uniformed
roles and helping to address misinformation and disinformation
about missions. We call on member states to deepen their support
to peacekeepers to ensure that UN peacekeeping remains an
effective tool to protect civilians.
President, to conclude, I stress the importance of working to
prevent conflict. And I note that in his long list of events in
Ukraine, our Russian colleague forgot to mention the fact that
this all could have been avoided without the illegal invasion and
aggression against Ukraine.
We must invest in anticipating the risks, working in partnership
with national governments and local organisations to address the
drivers of conflict. Progress in this area would go some way to
ending the harm facing civilians around the world.
