Evolution Of Peacekeeping

The evolution of the mandates of U.N. Peacekeeping Forces

“The Purposes of the United Nations are: To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.”

(As provided by article 1 paragraph 1 of the U.N. Charter, adopted in San Francisco in 1945)

It is with this goal in mind that the United Nations Security Council (hereafter “the Security

Council”)

Moreover, the Security Council usually gives the force the authorization to use “all necessary means” to defend itself, the civilians or the humanitarian convoys. The Haitian case is interesting because the peacekeeping force was already on the ground when the earthquake of January 2010 occurred. What is interesting here is that the mandate of the force was extended to include support to the immediate recovery, reconstruction and stability efforts. This extended role was also granted Chapter 7 powers in order for the force to protect the civilian population from gender violence, gang violence, organized crime and child trafficking, which rates exploded after the earthquake.

We will address quickly the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The MONUC is a multidisciplinary staff of personnel specializing in the fields of human rights, humanitarian affairs, medical support, political affairs, and administrative support. It was tasked with observing the cease-fire and the disengagement of forces, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian relief, and assisting with the protection of human rights. Its role was then extended to state-building,

Indeed, the

Security council was released from the constraints of the Cold war as it had ended whereas it had been somewhat blocked since the U.N. had been set up. Another cause is the role of human rights.

While they were absolutely not taken into account before, they became the first and main purpose of these operations. As a consequence, the concept of “responsibility to protect” appeared. It was also another conception of security: a vision in which it would seem rational to build a state and to protect civilians in order to prevent the war from starting again. It was a more comprehensive approach to international security.

It is always difficult to categorize in a simple way such difficult matters. Indeed, in the following examples, the forces play a traditional military role but also help the civilians either with humanitarian relief or by assisting the refugees and the displaced. This is why I call these forces hybrid forces.

Firstly, we can talk about UNPROFOR, the force that was set up in the early 1990s in