Report sets rules for UN blue helmet missions

The United Nation’s peacekeeping operations are in deep trouble after 15 years in which the number of its blue helmets deployed has risen from 20,000 to 120,000.

The World Today
2 minute READ

Many are in places such as Darfur or South Sudan, where there is no peace to keep or even a political process to help steer. In Syria and Libya, escalating violence has forced even the smaller UN political missions to pull back. In some places – Mali for example – peacekeepers themselves are targeted and killed. In others their reputation is tarnished by the acts of the few, committing crimes such as sexual abuse.

A UN panel chaired by José Ramos-Horta, the former president of East Timor and Nobel peace laureate, has published a report on how the UN can better cope. As the need for peacekeeping is growing again, the world should take note.

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