The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday approved a resolution designed to help the world body better identify and prosecute people who attack UN peacekeepers.
The vote on the text sponsored by Pakistan comes after a string of deadly attacks in recent months on UN peacekeeping troops around the world.
Since early March seven such blue helmets with the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon have been killed.
In December six peacekeeping soldiers from Bangladesh died in a drone attack on a besieged city in South Sudan.
“Across several missions, attacks against United Nations peacekeepers have increased in number and sophistication. Peacekeepers are being targeted, often with little accountability,” said Pakistan’s UN ambassador, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad.
“This draft resolution seeks to move the Council beyond statements condemning these attacks,” he added.
The resolution won support from all 15 members of the council and was backed by more than 150 UN member countries.
The text says that in the event of an attack, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should promptly gather records of what happened and share them with host state countries as they probe the incident.
To facilitate UN investigations the secretary-general should also appoint a senior official to coordinate the probes and support possible criminal proceedings with the countries involved in such attacks, the text says.
Since 1948 some 4,500 UN peacekeepers from 134 countries have died while on duty, according to UN figures. Most died in accidents or because of illness but 1,150 died from what the United Nations calls “malicious acts.”
