Delegation from the Dominion of Canada

Position Paper for the Security Council

The topics before the United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) are Protection of Civilians in Armed
Conflict and Women, Peace and Security. The Dominion of Canada emphasises the need for an
international effort to comply with the obligation of protecting all vulnerable groups in armed conflicts,
preventing civilians from harm, and practising a comprehensive and inclusive way of conflict resolution.

I. Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict

According to the UN Secretary-General’s report on the Protection of civilians in armed conflict of 2023,
civilian deaths rose between 2021 and 2022 by 53 per cent to 16,988 deaths across 12 armed conflicts.
Beyond primary physical harm to civilians in armed conflicts as “death, injury, enforced disappearance,
torture, rape and other suffering and loss”, the Secretary-General’s report draws attention to secondary
effects of armed conflicts as the destruction of critical infrastructure and the unavailability of food and
other essentials to live. The Global Humanitarian Overview 2024, published by the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), states that 20 per cent of all children live in or flee from
conflict. Considering the deteriorating situation of conflict-affected civilians, Canada points to the glaring
discrepancies that exist between reality and the humanitarian requirements in international law and
resolutions of different UN bodies.

The obligation to the protection of civilians in armed conflicts is grounded in universally binding treaties
of international humanitarian law (IHL), especially The Hague Regulations respecting the Laws and
Customs of War on Land (1907) and The Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War (1949), and in customary international law. Under Canada's presidency in 1999,
the SC introduced the protection of civilians into its agenda by adopting resolution 1265, the Council’s
first resolution on protecting civilians in armed conflict, followed by 13 specifying resolutions of the SC,
condemning the targeting of civilians and emphasising relevant principles of the IHL. Canada explicitly
applauds the comprehensive and integrated approach of the UN Department of Peace Operations
(DPO), focusing on threats to civilians in both the short- and long-term, including political, security and
socio-economic factors and gender dynamics, as presented in its policy on The Protection of Civilians
in United Nations Peacekeeping (2023). Because of the changing character of armed conflicts towards
more protracted, complex, and urbanised warfare posing even more risk to civilians, Canada signed
alongside 81 states the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the
Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (2022).
To fulfil its obligations under international law, Canada supports the prevention of and accountability for
attacks against civilians by promoting the work of the International Criminal Court, independent
investigative and fact-finding missions, and commissions of inquiry, for example, through its contribution
to the Joint Mission of the Ethiopian Human rights Commission and the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate human rights violations in the Tigray conflict and
to held perpetrators accountable. As measures for child protection during the conflict cycle and
peacekeeping, Canada launched 2017 The Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention
of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers at the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial Conference
endorsed by more than 100 UN Member States in cooperation with international Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) that are an integral part of the effort to protect civilians.

Canada urges the international community to intensify the effort to protect civilians in armed conflicts
as they are disproportionately impacted by conflict while especially protected by IHL. As such, Canada
calls on the remaining states to sign the Vancouver Principles and encourages especially conflict-
affected states to join the initiative and make use of the Implementation Guidance for the Vancouver
Principles to contribute to UN peacekeeping comprehensively. To ensure full accountability for
violations of human rights and the state’s obligation to the protection of civilians, Canada also invites
the remaining states to ratify the Rome Statute to strengthen the International Criminal Court’s ability
to prosecute war crimes against civilians globally and effectively. From Canada’s experience, nuanced
and context-specific action makes time-sensitive and disaggregated data, which is why Canada
supports NGOs such as the International NGO Safety Organization and urges other Member States to
promote the work of NGOs to gain a deeper understanding of the humanitarian dimension of conflict
dimensions. As the DPO’s policy of 2023 on the protection of civilians in UN peacekeeping argues in
favour of a comprehensive approach to peacekeeping, Canada also considers a comprehensive and
inclusive approach crucial and, therefore, recommends the prioritisation of the protection of civilians in
UN peacekeeping through specialized mandates for the protection of children and women and mission
drawdowns, transitions, and exit strategies for peacekeeping missions.

II. Women, Peace and Security

According to the report Women, Peace and Security 2020-2021 (2022), released by UN Women,
reports of sexual violence and forced displacement of women, children and older people in several
conflict-affected countries have increased over the last few years. The UN Secretary-General names in
his report to the SC on Conflict-related sexual violence (2023) sexual violence as part of the conflict
settings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti and South Sudan, as well as a means
of torture in Ukraine. In his report on Women and peace and security (2023), the Secretary-General
also states a decline in women’s representation in active UN-led or -co-led peace processes to only 16
per cent from 23 per cent in 2020 and only one of the 18 peace agreements signed in 2022 globally
was signed or witnessed by a representative of a women’s group or organization. Canada emphasises
the need for observation of the structural vulnerability of women in conflicts and the strengthening of
women’s representation and participation in conflict resolution.

Article 27 of the Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
(1949) protects especially women “against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault”.
Based on this fundamental condemnation of sexual violence against women in IHL, Women, Peace
and Security (WPS) as a thematic item was first put on the SC’s agenda in 2000, with the adoption of
SC resolution 1325 underlining for the first time in a SC resolution both concern over the vulnerability
of women in armed conflicts and the necessity of their involvement in conflict prevention, resolution and
peace-building initiatives. The subsequent nine SC resolutions expanded to either one of these two
aspects, such as SC resolution 1820 (2008), recognizing conflict-related sexual violence as a tactic of
war or resolution 1889 (2009), promoting the participation of women in post-conflict peacebuilding and
peace talks. The WPS agenda is also complemented comprehensively by the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) adopted in the UN General Assembly’s resolution A/RES/70/1 Transforming our world:
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015). Especially SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG
16 (inclusive governance and peace) aim at the end of violence against women as well as a
breakthrough against violence through the participation of women in transition processes. Canada and
its feminist foreign policy are fully committed to the WPS agenda. Therefore, Canada launched its first
National Action Plan on WPS in 2010, strengthening women’s human rights and participation in all
peace and security efforts. In order to enhance its prosecution, Canada played a pivotal role in including
sexual and gender-based crimes in the draft Statute for the International Criminal Court. As a
contribution to the realisation of SDG 16, Canada founded and is now leading the Elsie Initiative for
Women in Peace Operations during the Vancouver UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial Conference
(2017) to increase the meaningful participation of women in UN peacekeeping. Global Affairs Canada
also launched its Women, Peace and Security Awards Program to make women as powerful agents of
change in research and civil society leadership more visible.

Canada proposes to the other Member States that the UN institutions set an example of good practice,
establish a women’s quota for all UN-led or co-led peace processes, and encourage the active and
meaningful participation of women and women's organisations in all conflict-prevention and conflict-
resolution mechanisms and institutions. To achieve sustainable peacebuilding, the international
community should promote transitional justice by assisting the International Criminal Court in fact-
finding missions and excluding sexual violence from amnesty provisions in national law. Since only 108
UN Member States have adopted a National Action Plan on WPS, Canada encourages the remaining
states to establish a National Action Plan for a more comprehensive national implementation of the
WPS agenda and to join multilateral initiatives such as the Canadian-led Elsie Initiative as an
international effort to make UN peacekeeping more sustainably and inclusively.