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Essay: UN Peacekeeping: Preventing Genocide and Keeping the Peace

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  • Published: 1 April 2019*
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  • Tags: Genocide essays

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“UN peacekeeping”;

Peacekeeping: This role is undertaken by the United Nations and is held by the department of peacekeeping operations as a very unique and dynamic instrument that is developed by an organization as a way to help countries that are torn by conflict and to be able to create the condition of peace that is lasting.  Some peacekeepers monitor an observe the process in the post-conflict areas and helps the ex-combatants in the implementing of the peace agreements that they may have signed. Such assistance comes in different forms which may include confidence building, power sharing arrangements, in some cases electoral support and even the strengthening of the rule of law, the economy, and even the social development. The United Nations charter is the one that gives the United Nations Security Council the power and responsibility to take any collective action so that it can maintain international peace and security.

Due to this, the international community always looks up to the Security Council to authorize any peacekeeping operations. The United Nations itself conduct these operations; this is because there are a number of troops that a certain country gives to the UN when they need to intervene for peacekeeping missions all around the world. The UN does not have any armed forces that it commands, but it uses forces from its member states. The process of peacekeeping is a very long one because the security council first needs to approve that the situation that a certain state is in needs to be intervened and in order to create peace that is lacking in that state. After the approval of the creation of the mission then the department of peacekeeping operations begins to plan for the necessary elements, it is at this point that the senior leadership is selected and then the department start to seek for the contribution of troops from the member nation since there is no standing force for the UN.

After a cease-fire is declared the united nation is required to do the following activities to ensure that the peace kept and that there will be an agreement discussed. Conflict prevention and mediation is the first step after cease-fire is declared this step is very crucial because it ensures that the conflict is maintained and that there is no more conflict going on anywhere and that mediation begins by the both parties that are causing conflict. Peacemaking is the second activity the United Nation begins to make peace in the areas that were affected by the conflict and disarming people who have weapons, to ensure that the peace is maintained. This is done by the involvement of diplomatic actions by bringing the hostile parties to a negotiable agreement.

The United Nations need to rethink about how much time the process of peacekeeping takes to ensure that it takes minimal time for the troops to begin their mission of keeping peace. The UN needs to have already discussed with all its members about the number and size of the troops needed for any mission this will reduce the amount of time used in the diplomatic discussion and the time will be used in the peacekeeping mission. Ensuring that the process takes the minimum possible time will ensure that the conflict will not have exploded.

Intervening to halt Atrocities:  the need to prevent genocide and to ensure that the people who are responsible for those acts are punished has been the main concern of the international community since the end of the Second World War. This is where the Nazi regime killed more than 6 million people for reasons of what ethnicity, their sexuality or even other characteristics.

Genocide was defined as the acts that are committed with the intention to destroy in whole or even a part of a national ethical racial or even a religious group. Such acts are; killing members of the group, imposing some measure that intend to prevent any birth within a certain group, causing serious bodily and even mental harm to the members of a group. The convention that was created to prevent genocide confirmed that either it was committed during peace or even war it is a crime under the international law.

Atrocities like genocide do not happen overnight, knowing the signs that may lead to genocide are important because they will ensure that those horrors will never happen again. During the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, the UN secretary-general outlined a five-point action plan that might be used to intervene into such atrocities and prevent genocide from happening. Prevent armed conflict: disarming the people who are fighting will reduce the number of casualties because the peacekeepers will ensure that any group that has arms are taken away and arrested to provide sustainable peace. Protect the civilians through the UN peacekeepers: this should be the number one mandate that the peacekeepers ensure that the civilians are protected from any attack before the conflict is resolved and there is peace again. The use of judicial action to end impunity in order to deter people from even thinking of performing crimes against humanity those who are already responsible for such crimes need to face justice. Making sure that the people who are found guilty of crimes of atrocities are taken to court and charged, without any impunity involved in the case.

Set up early warning systems: the special adviser collects information on where there may be a risk of genocide, war crimes ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity. Through the special adviser, the secretary general is able to take action and be able to prevent those crimes from even happening. Take swift action including the use of military action: the Security Council is the one to decide when, where, and how they intervene military in domestic situations in order to prevent or respond to genocide or other mass atrocity crimes. This is in accordance with the United Nations Charter. An example of Libya when the international community moved in quickly to stop and prevent the government from killing its own citizens and this is when a coalition was created to prevent the killing of protestors against Gadhafi regime.

Several courts have been created to deal with cases that are related to crimes against humanity. The only problem that is facing these courts is gathering enough evidence to convict the people who have been accused of committing these crimes.

Justice is the only way that people feel that the government or even the international community have worked towards. The United Nations needs to create better cases against the people being accused this is because this people hide their track well and it will take very careful investigations to link them to the crimes they are being accused of, this will ensure that the people who have been affected by the crimes will get justice. The international community needs to discuss ensuring that the peacekeeping missions are always a success and that they help countries that are in entire need for assistance in peacekeeping. Making sure that the government involved giving the peacekeeping team all their support will ensure that they succeed and leave the country under the agreement and on peaceful terms.

Although it costs billions for the work of the peacekeeping forces to take place there should be more involvement by every member of the UN. This will make sure that it does not take a long process in initiating the peacekeeping mission to any country because the tea, will arrive when no one or even no peace cannot be salvaged. This is a very important group in the international community and that is why the UN formed it. Countries cannot take military action against their own citizen that the reason why the UN deploys the peacekeeping forces to keep peace when there are disagreements that erupt in fighting and chaos.  Although there are several reforms that can be implemented to ensure that the work being done by the peacekeepers pays off, the force does a great work to ensure that peace prevails in every situation they encounter while working with the United Nations. The earlier they respond to cries of help the better there should be a deployment team that is ready to work when they are called on duty instead of starting to create a completely new military team.

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