Police chiefs and government leaders convened at UN Headquarters on Thursday for the opening session of UNCOPS 2024.

The summit, themed Advancing our Common Security: UN Policing for a New Era, began with a video highlighting the UN Police’s (UNPOL) mission to promote security, protect human rights, and support Member States.

UNPOL’s true mission is to “enhance international peace and security by supporting Member States in conflict, post-conflict and other crisis situations”, all while standing at the forefront of preventing and addressing international threats global communities face including geopolitical conflicts, climate catastrophes, global mistrust, and the dark side of technology.

Therefore, this summit is being used to discuss and further evaluate UNPOL’s role in supporting the UN Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping (A4P), the New Agenda for Peace, and the digital transformation of peacekeeping, among others.

Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Policy, Guy Ryder said, “With the summit of the future taking place in September, this is a timely occasion for Member States, the [UN] and our strategic partners to consider how to harness the full potential of the [UNPOL] to meet the most pressing challenges of today and of tomorrow.”

UNPOL’s challenges

During the summit’s opening session, USG for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix said UNPOL’s challenges are “greater than ever” and multidimensional.

“Our personnel on the ground, including [UNPOL] are facing threats on many fronts from terrorist transnational organized criminals, armed groups and cyber criminals, all with a stake in preventing pace,” Msr. Lacroix said. “Our peace operations are also seeing growing challenges from hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, which are increasingly used as weapons of war.”

USG Lacroix said UN Police was working on advancing political solutions and supporting sustainable peace as part of the SG’s A4P initiative, detailing how officers have assisted the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) national police with training on information collection and public order management during a national electoral process.

Women in uniform

He also mentioned the implementation of projects in the DRC and South Sudan that benefited women military and police within peacekeeping missions by improving their living accommodations and building recreational areas.

Additionally, he noted that UNPOL was doing well in reducing gender parity at senior levels but encouraged participants to present more women for senior roles.

“As part of the Secretary General's new agenda for peace, we must continue to strengthen network multilateralism addressing the challenges that I just mentioned it's not something the United Nations a single country as a single piece operation can do alone,” Mr. Lacroix said.