The report of the Secretary-General on United Nations policing outlines how the environment in which the United Nations police operates has been altered by changing conflict dynamics. The United Nations police now engages in United Nations peace operations and post-conflict and other crisis situations across the entire peace and security spectrum, from conflict prevention and management to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and peace sustainment. It is often the breakdown of law and order that triggers United Nations deployment and, conversely the establishment or re-establishment of policing and other rule of law functions that allows United Nations peace operations to downsize and eventually withdraw.
It also contains the Secretary-General's response to the external review of the functions, structure and capacity of the Police Division of 31 May 2016. Notably, it sets out my vision as to how to ensure that the United Nations police is ready to respond effectively to the challenges of the twenty-first century and contains 14 key recommendations. The report constitutes the second report on the United Nations police, the first (A/66/615) having been submitted to the General Assembly in December 2011 in response to a request by the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (see A/65/19, para. 78).
