THE United Nations security council has unanimously adopted a resolution authorising new steps to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers face justice.

Nearly 1,100 peacekeepers from countries around the world have lost their lives in the line of duty and thousands of others have been injured since 1948, according to UN peacekeeping department figures. 

Yet the rate of prosecution for killings and other criminal acts against peacekeepers “has remained very low,” the resolution says.

Sponsored by Pakistan and Denmark and cosponsored by more than 150 countries, Tuesday’s resolution seeks to fill gaps in ensuring accountability. 

It authorises secretary-general Antonio Guterres to ensure that, following future attacks, facts are collected and to support investigations and prosecutions of all violent acts.

Danish UN ambassador Christina Lassen said the resolution signalled to more than 50,000 personnel serving in peacekeeping missions from Lebanon and Cyprus to South Sudan and the Central African Republic that “attacks against them will not be met with silence or impunity.

“To the perpetrators of any crimes, wherever and whoever they are,” she stressed, “it sends a firm message that the international community is watching, that crimes will not go unpunished, that accountability and justice will be pursued and will be upheld.”

Pakistani UN ambassador Asim Ahmad described the resolution as “a strong expression of the council’s political will to stand by the peacekeepers.”

A previous resolution aimed at strengthening accountability for crimes committed against peacekeepers was adopted by the security council in 2021.

The UN peacekeeping department pointed to “significant progress” since then, with an increase in national investigations and the number of alleged perpetrators identified, detained or both. 

It pointed to 103 individuals being convicted since 2020 for a range of offences related to the killing of 35 peacekeepers and two UN experts in the Central African Republic, Congo, Lebanon and Mali.