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operation, MINUSCA, has been tactical locations, undertake law nal peace. The Council also stres-
able to secure areas where relief enforcement operations, respond sed (resolution 2417) the primary
services could safely operate. Si- to physical threats, stop and de- responsibility of national autho-
milarly, in South Sudan, the crea- tain, conduct weapons searches rities in developing framewor-
tion of special protection sites for and participate in Mission-wi- ks on the civilian protection and
the population around UNMISS de POC mechanisms. Both DPO strongly condemned any violation
bases have provided physical pro- and DOS are actively monitoring of international law in this area.
tection also for the delivery of aid. both the pre-deployment training Civilian protection remains - and
From the outset of the UN pro- of individual PCCs and the actual will remain - a central and core
tection activities, the UN Police performance of officers in im- element of UN activities in the
- currently totaling over 12 thou- plementing protection functions. field. UN peacekeeping practice
sand personnel globally - have Similar training is being conducted however continues to evolve. This
been playing a crucial role. The by many international partners year, DPO/DOS have initiated the
2017 POC Guidelines for UN- both within the UN system and discussion of new approaches to
POL are covering the whole ran- beyond. CoESPU - supported by the effective implementation of this
ge of issues - from the definition the US Government – plays a very mandate. The revised POC Policy
and principles of protection, to important part in this regard and also aims to clarify and operatio-
the three tiers of POC (protection has developed unique modules nalize an integrated and com-
through dialogue and engage- dealing with the POC in Peace prehensive approach and help cry-
ment; provision of physical pro- Support Operations (PSO), whi- stalize the roles and expectations
tection and establishment of the ch are fully based on UN training of different Mission components,
overall protective environment), as materials. Being a strategic par- so that all stakeholders could de-
well as the police role within each tner of the United Nations in the liver on their mandates in a targe-
tier; POC tracking, monitoring and area of peacekeeping, the Center ted, systemic and decisive manner.
reporting. This fundamental do- is also regularly organizing special When adopted (which is expected
cument is supported by Standard training, including high-level cour- soon), the new UN POC Policy for
Operations Procedures, a sample ses for military police and civilian peacekeepers will no doubt serve
checklist for the FPU assessment personnel from various countries. as the main element for the im-
visits, user Manual and other es- One such a course – delivered portant international training fun-
sential guidance. Fundamentally, in French – was conducted in the ction performed by the CoESPU.
in these documents POC is defi- CoESPU facilities in Vincenza in
ned as “all necessary means, up February 2019. Active proponent
to and including the use of deadly of the POC concept, BG Giovan-
force, aimed at preventing or re- ni Pietro Barbano, CoESPM Di-
sponding to threats of physical vio- rector, invariably participates in
lence against civilians, within ca- the planning and conducts of the
pabilities and areas of operations, courses. Altogether, the Center of
without prejudice and responsi- Excellence remains a leading in-
bility of the host government”. ternational contributor in the area
Based on the above documents, of new concepts development
the DPO Police Division and the and addressing emerging ope-
Division of Policy Evaluation and rational gaps. Furthermore, the
Training, have developed exten- UN benefits from the participa-
sive modules for pre-deployment tion of highly trained Carabinieri
training of national FPUs, specia- officers in several UN operations.
lized teams and even individual The last comprehensive POC re-
police officers. All of them have to port issued by Secretary-Gene- Dimitry Titov
be prepared not only to monitor ral Guterres in May 2018, reaf- Rtd Assistant Secretary-General for
and advocate, but also pro-acti- firmed the centrality of protection Rule of Law and Security Sector
vely and robustly patrol, maintain for the Security Council’s main United Nations
an active presence at strategic and mandate in ensuring internatio-

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