The Holy See has made the plea during a open debate meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) entitled "Protection of Civilians in the Context of Peacekeeping Operations."
Speaking before the UNSC, the Vatican's UN ambassador, Archbishop Bernardito Auza also warned that civilians are increasingly being targeted in conflict or being used as weapons of war.
He reported the share of civilians deaths, as a proportion of armed conflict-related fatalities, has risen from five-per-cent in the 1900s to more than 90-per-cent in the 1990s.
Speaking of the role of UN peacekeepers, Archbishop Auza warned against withdrawing peacekeeping personnel too soon and he also highlight a preventative function to "realistically stop latent conflicts from exploding".
He said: "While my delegation considers the protection of civilians a positive evolution of UN peacekeeping mandates, paradoxically, it also points to the disturbing fact that more and more civilians are being targeted during armed conflict and indeed used as weapons of war.
"My delegation thus believes that in all cases where mass atrocities and other forms of attacks against defenceless civilian populations are being perpetrated or are most likely to happen, the protection of civilians in armed conflict must be a critical component of peacekeeping mission mandates.
"It would be one of the primary yardsticks with which to measure the success or failure of a peacekeeping mission. Every peacekeeping operation should be, at the end of the day, all about saving lives."
Archbishop Auza also praised the efforts of the UN's Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) for making a substantial contribution to help ease tensions.
He added: "Without ignoring the disturbing allegations of crimes committed by some peacekeepers and without underestimating the danger that the Country could still fall back to violence, MINUSCA has contributed substantially to calming down the situation, to assisting the displaced and those victimised, and to maintaining an atmosphere that is conducive to the pacification of the population, the regular functioning of the institutions and the return to normal life.
The multidimensional mandate of MINUSCA overall augurs well for the reconstruction and institutional capacity building efforts that underpin durable peace and sustainable development in the Country."