PEACEKEEPING FORCES AND OPERATIONS !!
Hello friends,
This topic, which I am going to discuss today, is different in many manners from other topics i have been writing since long. It’s about one of the organ of the United Nations. We all know about United Nations. Right?
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established on 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation and peace throughout the world. It has many organs which operate with coordination to achieve these goals. The most powerful and prominent organ of UN is the Security Council. Its main function is to decide certain resolutions for peace and security. And how does it do that? It's done by sending peacekeeping force to the regions of conflicts. And what is this peacekeeping force is all about? Yes, I am going to discuss this topic today, may not be in a comprehensive way but briefly.
WHAT ARE THE PEACEKEEPING FORCES?
Peacekeeping forces are the forces which are sent to the regions of conflict between two or more parties. These are sent under the flag of United Nations after passing the resolution in Security Council. Peacekeeping forces have been proved the most effective tool in the hands of UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult path from CONFLICT TO PEACE.
CONDITIONS TO BE SENT?
Peacekeeping Forces can’t be sent by UN at its own. There are some prerequisite conditions to send these forces. Some of them are listed under:
1. There should be consent of the parties between which conflicts have been arisen. In most of the cases there are two parties involved but sometimes more than two parties can be there. So consent of all involved parties is indispensable.
2. Peacekeeping forces are neutral regarding their operations. There is and should be the highest possible level of IMPARTIALITY.
3. There should be no use of forces at first instant except in self-defense.
ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS
The most prominent function of Peacekeeping Forces has already been mentioned. Other functions have been enlisted under:
1. Conflict prevention and mediation
2. Peacemaking
3. Peace enforcement
4. Maintain security and facilitate political process
5. Protect civilians and support organization of elections
6. Protect and promote Human rights
7. Restoring rule of law
By looking all these functions, we can say that these forces have a very wide range of functions to be performed. These forces are sent to very physical as well as socially challenging conditions. So they have to do their functions keeping in mind all the dimensions and then perform. It affects the rate of their success. So, sometimes they achieve their goals and sometimes they don’t. Many a times it happens that two parties resume the fight between them and in that case peacekeeping forces may have to retreat. So success rate is not uniform. Still it has done tremendous job in conflict torn countries in Africa and Latin America.
PAST AND PRESENT OPERATIONS
Peacekeeping operations had started during the late 1940s and early 1950s. First operations were in Israel and India-Pakistan. Since then many peacekeeping forces have been deployed in many regions. In starting years, nature of operations was not of armed nature. It was merely of observatory in nature. But after 1956(Mission Suez Canal) , missions have been transformed and now arms are also involved but it has been ensured that no possible use of arms is there except in some unavoidable situations like self defense and so on. PRESENTLY there are 16 regions where peacekeeping forces have been deployed all over the globe. You can check out these regions from the image attached here.
As from the picture it can be concluded that most of the operations at present time are in
Asia and Africa continent. Try to find out the reasons for this.
These missions have been successfully playing their role all over the globe from Haiti to morocco, from Cuba to Congo, from Mali to Sudan. These missions have been sent more than hundred times to different regions. These peacekeeping forces work not only with countries involved but with organizations (NATO, EU etc.) also.
WHO PARTICIPATES?
Member countries of UN participate in these missions by sending troops and equipments. Troops and police as well as equipment are generously provided by Member States.
Funding has been done by UN agencies who work in these fields and by
member countries also. Picture shown here is about countries which participate
and send troops for various missions. Many Asian countries like India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh are leading amongst them.
We have discussed many aspects related to peacekeeping operations. Though they are doing tremendous work to establish peace and rule of law to the conflict torn regions, still there is a lot of scope to improve their operations. It was an era of cold war when conflicts were of different nature. In the present scenario nature of conflicts has been changed. It has taken a turn of socio-economic and religious turn. So, there is a need of reformation regarding the working of these operations in a changed environment so that true purpose of missions can be accomplished and a peaceful world can be created to live with harmony and happiness.
This topic, which I am going to discuss today, is different in many manners from other topics i have been writing since long. It’s about one of the organ of the United Nations. We all know about United Nations. Right?
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established on 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation and peace throughout the world. It has many organs which operate with coordination to achieve these goals. The most powerful and prominent organ of UN is the Security Council. Its main function is to decide certain resolutions for peace and security. And how does it do that? It's done by sending peacekeeping force to the regions of conflicts. And what is this peacekeeping force is all about? Yes, I am going to discuss this topic today, may not be in a comprehensive way but briefly.
WHAT ARE THE PEACEKEEPING FORCES?
Peacekeeping forces are the forces which are sent to the regions of conflict between two or more parties. These are sent under the flag of United Nations after passing the resolution in Security Council. Peacekeeping forces have been proved the most effective tool in the hands of UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult path from CONFLICT TO PEACE.
CONDITIONS TO BE SENT?
Peacekeeping Forces can’t be sent by UN at its own. There are some prerequisite conditions to send these forces. Some of them are listed under:
1. There should be consent of the parties between which conflicts have been arisen. In most of the cases there are two parties involved but sometimes more than two parties can be there. So consent of all involved parties is indispensable.
2. Peacekeeping forces are neutral regarding their operations. There is and should be the highest possible level of IMPARTIALITY.
3. There should be no use of forces at first instant except in self-defense.
ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS
The most prominent function of Peacekeeping Forces has already been mentioned. Other functions have been enlisted under:
1. Conflict prevention and mediation
2. Peacemaking
3. Peace enforcement
4. Maintain security and facilitate political process
5. Protect civilians and support organization of elections
6. Protect and promote Human rights
7. Restoring rule of law
By looking all these functions, we can say that these forces have a very wide range of functions to be performed. These forces are sent to very physical as well as socially challenging conditions. So they have to do their functions keeping in mind all the dimensions and then perform. It affects the rate of their success. So, sometimes they achieve their goals and sometimes they don’t. Many a times it happens that two parties resume the fight between them and in that case peacekeeping forces may have to retreat. So success rate is not uniform. Still it has done tremendous job in conflict torn countries in Africa and Latin America.
PAST AND PRESENT OPERATIONS
Peacekeeping operations had started during the late 1940s and early 1950s. First operations were in Israel and India-Pakistan. Since then many peacekeeping forces have been deployed in many regions. In starting years, nature of operations was not of armed nature. It was merely of observatory in nature. But after 1956(Mission Suez Canal) , missions have been transformed and now arms are also involved but it has been ensured that no possible use of arms is there except in some unavoidable situations like self defense and so on. PRESENTLY there are 16 regions where peacekeeping forces have been deployed all over the globe. You can check out these regions from the image attached here.
These missions have been successfully playing their role all over the globe from Haiti to morocco, from Cuba to Congo, from Mali to Sudan. These missions have been sent more than hundred times to different regions. These peacekeeping forces work not only with countries involved but with organizations (NATO, EU etc.) also.
WHO PARTICIPATES?
Member countries of UN participate in these missions by sending troops and equipments. Troops and police as well as equipment are generously provided by Member States.
We have discussed many aspects related to peacekeeping operations. Though they are doing tremendous work to establish peace and rule of law to the conflict torn regions, still there is a lot of scope to improve their operations. It was an era of cold war when conflicts were of different nature. In the present scenario nature of conflicts has been changed. It has taken a turn of socio-economic and religious turn. So, there is a need of reformation regarding the working of these operations in a changed environment so that true purpose of missions can be accomplished and a peaceful world can be created to live with harmony and happiness.
SOURCES TO KNOW MORE ABOUT: 1. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
2. Do some Google.
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