Good afternoon. Thank you to the governments of Rwanda, Italy, and the Netherlands for hosting today’s gathering, and to the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, which has been a tireless advocate for issues of civilian protection.

When I began working on civilian protection in the early 1990s at the U.S. Department of Defense, I was one of just two people in our office on peacekeeping. Now, there are presidential summits focused exclusively on peacekeeping while demand for peacekeeping has remained high, and increasingly, roles and expectations have changed. Civilian protection is now a routine priority objective or mandated task.

As is so often the case, our normative goals outstrip capacity to implement those goals. Our work now –– and the purpose of the Kigali Principles –– is to move toward practical realization of civilian protection on the ground. The United States proudly stands with the 36 other countries that have endorsed the Kigali Principles, and we call on others to join us.

These principles include steps to strengthen civilian protection, such as calling on troop and police contributing countries to empower commanders of peacekeeping contingents to use force at their discretion, so they can, for example, act to repel an attack on civilians instead of waiting precious hours for guidance from their capitals.

Peacekeepers and countries that provide peacekeeping training and equipment also have a responsibility to realize the Kigali Principles. And we can all help elevate the principles by making support for them a key factor in selecting sector and contingent commanders, along with nominees for mission leadership.

The United Nations can also prioritize the deployment of units that have demonstrated the will -- and the means -- to implement protection mandates. That is what the United States seeks to do with our capacity-building support for peacekeepers.

Of course, we must hold contingents accountable for underperformance, or worse, for egregious failures to protect civilians. In these cases, repatriation and replacement must be on the table.

Finally, we need to push at the political level for member states to accept the implications of civilian protection mandates such that not just mission leaders but the U.N. system fully supports the courage of individual peacekeepers where they dare to say no to a state’s efforts to violate its responsibility to protect.

Over the last decade, the international community vastly increased the demands placed on peacekeepers. We often ask them to do more with less in ever more challenging environments. So we owe it to them, and the communities they serve, to make peacekeeping a more effective instrument for protection. Thank you.