India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Asoke Mukerji called for prioritising an early reform of the Security Council.
Rising casualties among peacekeepers and civilians during UN operations has led to India expressing strong dismay at the lack of accountability and transparency by the UN Security Council in framing of peacekeeping mandates.
At a debate on peacekeeping operations in the UN General Assembly, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Asoke Mukerji said, "We are dismayed at the opaque manner in which the Security Council continues mandate peace operations, without any accountability or transparency."
Mr Mukerji said the human costs of "this failing" are evident in both the rising number of casualties among UN peacekeepers, as well as an alarming growth in the number of civilians, now reaching 60 million, whose lives are being disrupted by the conflicts that an "ineffective Security Council is powerless" to resolve.
In the report titled 'The report of the United Nations Peace Operations: Implementation of the recommendations of the High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations', the Secretary General has recommended that sustained dialogue between the Council, the Secretariat and contributors is essential for shared understanding of appropriate responses and their implications for the mandate and conduct of a peace operation.
Mr Mukerji said India strongly supports the Secretary General's statement that this dialogue should begin before the establishment of the mission.
He called for prioritising an early reform of the Security Council during the current 70th session of the Assembly "in order to bring hope to these millions of ordinary men, women and children."
Mr Mukerji added that the report also rightly recognised that "a United Nations peace operation is not designed or equipped to impose political solutions through sustained use of force".
"We endorse this recommendation, as UN peacekeepers are not deployable for targeted offensive action against armed militias, non-state actors and terrorists," Mr Mukerji said.
India is the largest cumulative troop contributor to UN peace operations, with over 185,000 troops having served in 48 of the 69 missions mandated so far.
India has repeatedly called for the Security Council to consult troop contributing countries before drawing up peacekeeping mandates given that troops now have to function is increasingly difficult and hostile conflict situations across the world's hot-spots.