Croatia has proposed to the United Nations the introduction of a major novelty for the prevention of conflict and preservation of peace - civilian peace operations, the Vecernji List daily reported on Friday.

Unlike the existing military missions, imposed by the Security Council, civilian missions would be voluntary and any country that believes that it is sliding into unrest or that it has security problems could seek that kind of help, which would be closely tied to financial assistance by international financial organisations such as the World Bank, which has shown significant interest in the proposal.

The so-called light footprint operations, as well as other novelties, such as the proposal that each country should make a strategy for preservation of peace and that they should be reviewed before other countries, were presented at a session of the Peace-Building Commission, an advisory body of the Security Council, to which Croatia was elected and which it presides over this year.

The body was established in 2005 with the idea of bringing together representatives from the UN’s different main bodies and most important groups to consider more complex topics from various perspectives – economic, social and the perspective of peace and security.

In 2025 the UN will review its peace operations to see what could be improved.

According to Croatia’s proposal, civilian operations for the prevention of conflict and preservation of peace would consist of a relatively small number of civilians, including people dealing with the political aspects of crises, human rights observers and specialists in consolidation of the rule of law.

Missions of this kind would be established exclusively at the request of individual countries, unlike military missions, which are imposed by the Security Council, the daily says.