Peacekeeping is proven to be one of the most effective tools in assisting countries in inter and intra conflicts, yet appointing these missions are not an easy task (UN Peacekeeping, 2015). With such a role comes great responsibility. The Security Council adopts resolutions and decides the mission’s mandate while deploying peacekeepers where and when they are needed to help states transition from conflict to peace (UN Peacekeeping, 2015). This position helps enforcement decisions on large international issues, and they are also effective in assisting countries in inter and intra conflicts (UN Peacekeeping, 2015). It is essential that all member states of the United Nations elect non-permanent members to the Security Council who will reflect the peacekeeping values that the UN projects in order to protect the livelihoods of citizens across the globe from crimes against humanity…
Canada used to be one of the greatest contributors towards the United Nations and peacekeeping; they have fallen far from that position as their involvement continues to decline. Canada was once first in terms of world contribution out of the 193 countries in the UN, but as of recent, Canada has dropped to 65th. Furthermore, there are only 34 Canadian military personnel worldwide that are actively participating in peacekeeping missions; this is an all-time low for Canada. There was once about 3300 Canadian military personnel participating at one time, and Canada’s involvement in recent peacekeeping missions has been minimal. At a time where UN peacekeeping missions are at an all-time high and efforts from countries are critical, Canada continues to help nominally, only donating as much as $250 million annually.…
Whenever genocide occurs many lives are lost and massive tolls become unbelievably unimaginable and for what cause…
Following the Second World War, Canada has made various efforts to improve its peacekeeping reputation; beginning with them joining the United Nations (UN) after its creation in 1945 they were mostly successful (“Canada and the United Nations.”). However, not all of their efforts have been successful; they have also made some mistakes along the way. Canada’s efforts within the last 60 years include the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United Nations Mission for Rwanda from 1993 to 1996 and United Nations Operation in Somalia in 1992. One of Canada’s first and most successful efforts to improve its peacekeeping reputation was their peacekeeping mission during the Suez Crisis that occurred in October 1956 (“Suez Crisis.”). The Suez Crisis was a battle…
The Rwandan genocide was a one hundred day slaughter of the Tutsi population. There were a number of factors leading up to this event and why nobody stopped the killings include worldly indifference, lack of information, fear of intervention, and the absence of resources and knowledge for help. In April 6th, 1994, an airplane holding President Habyarimana was shot down killing him and the rest of it’s passengers. Habyarimana was of the Hutu population and the Hutus believed that a member of the Tutsi population had to do with this killing.…
The UN believed that it was not responsible to help with the genocide because it was an internal affair within and the UN helps with international affairs between countries. They could’ve stopped the genocide but were told to stand down as they didn’t want it to look like they were taking sides. The UN should have went ahead and helped put a stop to this horrible thing that…
In many cases every country wants the U.S. to take the lead and confront all things that happen around the globe. The U.S. is just but one country, although we have political power and a “stable” financial backing, I believe the members of the Security Council U.N. should have come together and push forward to stop the atrocities. They knew what was happening, and it’s sad to say, but what was said in the in the video if they were European whites the U.N. would have acted more quickly to the genocide. Any one of the NATO countries could have come forward and said, hey let’s get involved and stop what’s going on, so to just solely thinking the U.S. should have taken the lead to me is doesn’t work well.…
The decision to intervene in another countries affairs is much more difficult than we would like to believe it is, in our minds if someone needs help we should help them however intervention has many political implications. The UN’s definition of genocide is “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” (6), to define something as a genocide it must also fit into the eight stages of genocide defined by the UN. These eight stages are: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and finally denial (8). These eight stages must be met to classify a genocide, in 1994 it is important to consider who had what information when during the genocide. Kofi Annan, the head of peacekeeping, had enough information to sound the alarm about the events in Rwanda to the UN, however he was “overly passive” (9) and admitted years later in an apology from the UN that he could have and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support…
A genocide in Sudan has been occurring for a while now, it started on February 26, 2003 and it is still happening to this day. The “Darfur Genocide” refers the Janjaweed militia in Sudan that, “systematically destroy Darfurians by burning villages, looting economic resources, polluting water sources, and murdering, raping, and torturing civilians”(“Darfur…
Rwanda Genocide is the act of killing people of a particular ethnic group, or nation, attempting to wipe them out completely. “Killing members of the group or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,” (How do you define genocide?) are few of the many things that the Hutus did to the Tutsi people. Preventing all genocide should be a duty and a need for a global response.…
The United States has seemed to taken the role of the “World Police.” This responsibility seems to have started after World War II and continues on to this day, even though the feeling of responsibility seems to be dwindling with each generation of Americans. There are plenty of reasons why the United States should back off from this role that should be the responsibility of the United Nations. However, there are many reasons why the United States shouldn’t step down, but even more reasons why they can’t. While the United States is often portrayed as the world’s law enforcement, they have the approval and assistance from many of their allies including England, France, Australia, etc.…
The sad part was that instead of the UN helping fix this conflict and save thousands of lives they decided to withdraw most of their troops and leave most of the civilians to defend themselves. This event infuriates me because even the UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said in an interview with the PBS program…
Catch: From 1956-1992 Canada was the the United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Force largest and single contributor,but dramatically decreased after 1992. Canada in 2011, was 57th of the 193 UN member states. Background Information: A peacekeeping nation, is a country that strives on helping developing countries, and countries in crisis. Also, a peacekeeping nation is one that doesn’t discriminate, maintains peace in its own country, and helps the United Nations (UN) by contributing money and soldiers that maintain peace without any use of violence.…
The failure of the UN to act upon the reports of genocide in Rwanda caused an innumerable amounts of killing and anarchy. The problems started with the Belgium’s discrimination between the two populations. Going as far as to hire scientists to prove the Tutsi superiority, they only enabled the already present racism between the two groups. Then the Hutu population decided to act. After the president was shot down, supposedly by Hutu extremists, the anarchy began.…
Peacekeeping missions were originally designed to keep the peace rather than create peace initially. One of the three main principles of peacekeeping is consent of parties. When peace agreement already exists and is to be enforced it shows parties are willing to negotiate. Another important fact to consider is that UN has limited resources, these resources come from member nations who often, as seen in Rwanda, will not be supportive if there is a high chance of failure. When the guns have already fallen the peacekeepers can better utilise resources to support structures that rebuild societies in such a way that prevents further escalation of violence.…