UN Peacekeeping/UNEPS
To find out more about Global Action’s UN Peacekeeping/UNEPS project, please click here.
Despite the need at times to move quickly to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity, the United Nations has no reliable capacity to respond promptly, even if halting a catastrophe would save hundreds of thousands of lives. The genocide in Rwanda illustrates this incapacity, as have massive killings of innocent civilians in Cambodia, East Timor, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and elsewhere.
The time has come for a standing United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) to ensure that the next humanitarian disaster can be prevented.
Such a service could have prevented many of the atrocities that have killed millions of civilians, wounded millions more, forced tens of millions from their homes, destroyed entire economies, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars. Of course such a service would not be a panacea for security problems in general; it would be designed to complement-not replace-other national, regional, and United Nations efforts. Yet an emergency service could provide immediate, full protection in some crises and serve as an advance peace service that would prepare the way for subsequent additional help, if needed, in larger conflicts-a vital function that is not provided by any existing agency. Such a service could also help address extreme environmental and natural disasters as an emergency resort.