The UN Security Council, at the initiative of Mexico, adopted on Wednesday a resolution for the use of blue helmets in the fight against the flow of illicit small arms and the control of arms embargoes.
Despite the opposition from Russia, India and China, who abstained, the resolution was adopted by 12 of the 15 members of the Security Council.
The text asks to study “how peace operations could help national authorities to combat trafficking and the illicit diversion of weapons by violating embargoes.”
The resolution also encourages peacekeeping missions to “reinforce the host country’s capacities, at its request, in data collection and training to combat the illicit traffic of arms.”
“The objective is to stop the diversion of weapons that fuel conflicts and in return strengthen the international legal order, political dialogue and negotiation of the parties,” declared Mexico’s ambassador to the UN, Juan Ramon de la Fuente Ramirez.
For Russia, which has the right to veto in the Security Council, “putting all arms embargoes in the same bag (…) does not generate any added value and compromises the work of the Security Council” to resolve conflicts, he declared. Moscow’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy.
China also criticized “a one-size-fits-all approach”, including all peace operations and arms embargoes, while India recalled that it is “one of the most important contributors of troops to peace operations.”
“Peacekeeping operations should not be used as a means to implement arms embargoes. That means not only an important addition to current work, but it will also affect operational efficiency and could even eventually place peacekeepers. in danger, “said Madhu Sudan of the Indian diplomatic mission.
The UN currently has about 100,000 peacekeepers in a score of peace operations around the world.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx