CiR2P Option 30 | Deploy peacekeepers
DISCUSSION:
Peacekeeping, in its traditional form, involves ‘blue-helmeted’ forces being engaged in the monitoring, supervision and verification of ceasefires and early-stage peace agreements. Peacekeeping missions are multilateral in character, generally operate under UN command (although regional organisations such as NATO or the AU have sometime lead individually or jointly with the UN), and should be authorised by the UN Security Council under Chapter VI of the UN Charter (authorisation is implicit because the Charter does not explicitly mention peacekeeping). All parties involved in the conflict are required to give their consent to the mission. Mission actors are expected to remain impartial and are not mandated to use lethal force unless in self-defence.
A more modern take on UN peacekeeping, termed ‘coercive protection’ or ‘peacekeeping plus’, involves UN military units (troops or police) being permitted though an expanded mandate to use lethal force not only to defend themselves but also to respond to peace ‘spoilers’ and to stop violence against civilians wherever they witness it (compared to simply watching and reporting). Such expanded mandates require Chapter VII authorization. Both traditional and modern operations, as suggested, are geared toward supporting established peace agreements or those under negotiation. Peacekeeping as a policy option becomes less relevant in situations where there is no peace agreement in sight – in other words, where the priority need is to create peace.
About 80 per cent of UN-led peace operations (encompassing peacekeeping and political and peacebuilding missions) are deployed in countries highly exposed to climate impacts. All the largest African missions are in climate hotspots, including South Sudan, Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Somalia. The impacts of climate change have several implications for peacekeeping missions. For example, slow onset events such as drought and rapid onset events such as floods, can cause food and water shortages, reduce economic opportunities, precipitate displacement, and stretch local and national government services with the potential to undermine their legitimacy. Local armed groups and peace ‘spoilers’ can exploit these situations, individually or in combination, to further their own interests. In addition, climate impacts can reduce the mobility and performance of peacekeepers.
UN peacekeepers have been involved in a variety of climate-related human protection activities. For example, UN missions in CAR (MINUSCA) and South Sudan (UNMISS), which are mandated to consider climate impacts in assessment and planning, have identified potential hot spots for resource-related violence and transhumance migration routes, and pre-emptively deployed military patrols to defuse tensions. However, such initiatives remain ad hoc – often dependent on the priorities of the mission leader and the availability of dedicated climate specialists. In another example, peacekeeping operations in Mali (MINUSMA) have supported climate-informed dialogue initiatives between farmers and herders to prevent violence on transhumance migration routes. Other peacekeeping operations have engaged in climate-informed Security Sector Reform, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, as well as securing critical environmental infrastructure such as water wells (UNAMID – Darfur).
To address some of these challenges and to build associated mission capacity, in December 2021, the UN Department of Peace Operations (DPO) joined the Climate Security Mechanism (see Chapter 3). Drawing on the UN-wide expertise on offer under the Climate Security Mechanism, the DPO plans to further integrate climate-related concerns into its mandated mission work, tools, and staff training, including by deploying climate security advisors to missions in climate hotspots (initially UNSOM – Somalia and UNAMI – Iraq).
Western governments could continue to advocate for UN peacekeeping missions to systematically integrate climate-related concerns and issues into their mission mandates and activities related to human protection (eg risk assessments and environmental peacebuilding).