World Climate Conference UN Police ensures security at COP23

Bonn · In the negotiation zones of the climate conference ends the sovereignty of the German police. Here, the UN cops are in charge. Yet, they need a little bit of support.

With their blue uniforms and their golden police badges, the officers of the United Nations are easily spotted. German uniforms are not around. According to GA information, German police officers are not even allowed to carry guns on conference grounds. At the entrance to the Bula zone, where delegates from 193 countries negotiate, the sovereignty of the German police ends. During the climate conference, the 90,000 square meters between WCCB, UN campus and the area behind the Deutsche Welle, are extraterritorial territory of the UN.

„It’s like we relocated a part of our headquarters in New York to Bonn“, says head of security Kevin O’Hanlon, who is in charge of this assignment. The 51-year-old Irishman heads the security department of the UN in Vienna and brought 85 officers with him to Bonn. The UN Corps is very international. More than 30 nationalities are represented in the team, from UN headquarters in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Nairobi, Santiago de Chile, Beirut, Bangkok and The Hague. „Our team ensures the security around the clock“, says O’Hanlon, for whom this is the eighth climate conference. A quarter of the team is female and there is one German UN police officer among the squad.

One part of the task is to control the entrances to the conference grounds. The UN police officers also guard the doors of the conference rooms and are in charge of personal safety and bodyguard tasks. Yet, the UN officers need a little bit of support. They are assisted by a private security firm with 250 employees at the conference. But they are being supervised by the police. To make the assignment of the UN Corps possible, a bilateral contract between the United Nations and Germany was necessary, says the head of security. That contract determines the terms and conditions of the assignment and pegs the extraterritorial area. Basically, like an embassy which got a bit too big.

O’Hanlon was in touch with the Bonn Police Marshall Helmut Pfau for a year and met with him approximately 20 times in Bonn. Together the security concept was developed. This concept involves UN cops handing over culprits to German colleagues when they broke German laws. There were no arrests made in Bonn, and no other incidents were recorded. In the past, for example, people have been charged with burglary. In the Bonn zone and all other parts of the conference grounds, the German police were in charge.

1,300 officers were on duty, says spokesperson Robert Scholten. Goods deliveries at the conference also get checked by the German police. And there is a German officer as connecting cop on duty in the operation centre of the UN police, in constant contact with the Bonn collegues. He is the only German uniform in the UN area. But nobody is envious of the UN uniform style. „We are very happy with our outfits“, says Scholten. But is is nonetheless nice to see others, for a change.

Original text: Andreas Dyck

Translation: Mareike Graepel

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