United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit - Press Conference

The UN’s Chiefs of Police Summit kicked off in New York, bringing together senior Government and police officials to deliberate on the contribution of the UN Police to sustainable peace and development.

Speaking to journalists today (1 Sep) in New York, the Police Adviser and Director of the UN Police Division, Luís Carrilho, said “the Member States have been particularly interested in hearing about the United Nations police contributions to the Women Peace and Security Agenda, A4P+, including our work to protect civilians, advance political solutions, strengthen strategic and operational integration and increase accountability of, and to, peacekeepers, amongst others.”

The Police Commissioner of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), Bettina Patricia Boughani, told journalists that her forces “will support the Malian security forces for the security of election”, which was scheduled to be held on 27 February 2022, but should now happen by February 2024.

“Protection of civilian is also important in support always of the Malian authorities. Deployment of Malian security forces into the north and we participate also of restoration of state authorities”, said Boughani.

According to the Police Commissioner, the main tools for the UN Police in the country “are capacity building, advisory support, solo and joint patrols, and building and rehabilitation of Malian infrastructures.”

Violet Nasambu Lusala, the Police Commissioner of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), highlighted the “significant strides regarding gender parity responsiveness” in her forces.

Lusala said she was “proud to inform” that in the professional category 75 percent of the officers are women and in terms of Individual Police Officers (IPOs) the number is 36.7 percent.

Addressing the Summit earlier on Friday, the UN Secretary-General said the UN Police is a cornerstone of the UN's peacekeeping work as well as the vision contained in Our Common Agenda.

Credit
UN Photo/Loey Felipe