Creating a U.N. Emergency Capacity: The United Nations Emergency Peace Service

Introduction

In order to address ever-increasing needs for the international community to respond rapidly and effectively to emerging crises, the United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) was proposed as a permanent emergency response service designed to complement, not replace existing peace operations. UNEPS would have first in - first out capabilities, designed to supplement the UN's capacity to provide stability, peace, and relief in deadly emergencies.

UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz

According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office in 2008, as of September 2008, about 77,000 troops and military observers were deployed to existing UN peacekeeping operations.  There was an overall gap of 18,000 personnel, or about 20 percent, below the authorized level of approximately 95,000 in total peacekeeping forces.

UNEPS will initially involve as many as 18,000 personnel, individually recruited from many different countries, expertly trained, and able to demonstrate skills in conflict resolution, law enforcement, humanitarian assistance, and other peacekeeping capabilities.  All UNEPS personnel will receive comprehensive, expert training in peacekeeping with an emphasis on human rights and gender issues.  This ensures that missions would not fail due to a lack of skills, equipment, cohesiveness, experience in resolving conflicts, or gender, national or religious imbalance. The service would have special expertise in conflict resolution, environmental crisis response and emergency medical relief. Its military component would have two complete mission headquarters with military, police and civilian staff, technical reconnaissance units, light armored reconnaissance squadrons, motorized light infantry, armored infantry, a helicopter squadron, an engineer battalion and a logistics battalion.  Although initially engaging in rapid response activities, the UNEPS will complement existing UN and regional peacekeeping operations, serving as another tool to support efforts to end genocide and crimes against humanity.

The need for UNEPS was best explained by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He compared his job of building support and raising funds for each new UN peacekeeping mission to that of a volunteer fire chief who is forced to raise funds, find volunteers and secure a fire truck for each new fire. "The core challenge to the Security Council and to the UN as a whole in the next century," he declared, is "to forge unity behind the principle that massive and systematic violations of human rights -- wherever they may take place -- should not be allowed to stand."

UN Photo/Olivia Grey Pritchard

In Darfur, the Sudanese government has effectively prevented the UN from deploying peacekeeping forces, which has contributed to the unraveling of the May 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement. If the international community had UNEPS in its arsenal during negotiation of the peace accord, the deployment of a UNEPS mission to Darfur could have been included in the Darfur Peace Agreement. By the time national peacekeepers were ready to replace UNEPS, the situation on the ground would have stabilized or, at minimum, become more manageable.

UNEPS would help prevent early stage crises escalating into national or regional disasters. It is a timely and important step in providing the world community with the international emergency service it desperately needs in order to fulfill its "responsibility to protect."

According to Global Action to Prevent War, the UN Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) is being designed by a global partnership of NGOs, government representatives and UN officials as a standing, individually recruited, service integrated, gender mainstreamed service that can provide rapid response to outbreaks of genocide, crimes against humanity, and other humanitarian disasters.

UNEPS Brochure PDF

Talking Points

The need for rapid response
UNEPS will be immediately available to respond to a crisis with a 48-72 hour period.  Currently, "rapid deployment" is defined as 30 days for a "traditional" peacekeeping mission (where all parties agree to allow in peacekeepers) and 90 days for "complex" missions (where spoilers attempt to derail a peace agreement). This delay not only proves fatal for civilians whose lives depend on fragile accords, but also for the strength of the accords themselves.  Currently the United Nations does not possess the capacity to respond promptly to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity.

A better tool for the international community
The United Nations Emergency Peace Service will be equipped:
- To take action in face of serious threats to human security and human rights;
- To offer secure emergency services to meet critical human needs;
- To assist in the establishment of institutions to maintain law and order;
- To initiate peacebuilding processes with focused incentives; and
- To restore hope for local people that their society and economy have a future.

Rapid response to crises is cost-effective
- The amount of money saved on post-conflict reconstruction will exceed the startup and operational costs of the UNEPS. According to the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the international community could have saved nearly $130 billion of the $200 billion it spent on managing conflicts in the 1990s by focusing on conflict prevention rather than post conflict reconstruction.
- A 2006 General Accounting office (GAO) study concluded that UN peacekeeping is eight times less expensive than funding a U.S. force -- the UN is half as expensive and the U.S. only pays a quarter of the costs of a UN mission.
- According to a 2007 RAND publication, the United States is spending some $4.5 billion per month to support its military operations in Iraq. This is about the same as the United Nations will spend to run all 18 peacekeeping of its current peacekeeping missions for a year.

The importance of UNEPS support
Supporting the creation of a rapid deployment force enhances security of the United States. Fragile states provide breeding grounds for terrorism and international crime; preventing destabilizing events is in the interest of the United States and the rest of the world. No Congressional effort to reform the United Nations is complete unless Congress explores ways to enhance the U.N.'s ability to effectively prevent and respond to natural disasters, violent conflict, and humanitarian emergencies. Sharing innovative solutions and inspiring international teamwork is the American way. 

Support for a permanent peacekeeping force by the public is increasing. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, a recent poll showed 66 percent of the population in 21 different countries agreed that the UN should have a permanent peacekeeping force.   Kenya had the highest level of support with 85 percent and an impressive 72 percent of the American public were in favor of such a force.  In addition to increasing support for the UNEPS, the U.S. public support of the work of the United Nations has increased.  According to a 2009 WPO poll, 60 percent of Americans agreed with the statement, "When dealing with international problems, the United States should be more willing to make decisions within the United Nations."  The public perceives the UN to be a conduit for global change, and it is imperative that the United States government is responsive to these opinions. 

Next Steps

• Identify interested parties throughout the world interested in promoting standing peacekeeping capacities at the UN.
• Secure broad agreement on the principles, composition, and financing of a UNEPS.
• Encourage dialogue among NGOs, the UN system, and national governments to ensureformal adoption of UNEPS and related peacekeeping capacities.
•   Expand and develop a well-organized network of support that utilizes promotional materials, endorsements, and a speakers’ bureau to spread awareness.

Global partners include representatives of South Africa, Spain, Japan, India, Australia, Canada and Brazil.  Additional partners include:

• Global Action to Prevent War
• Human Rights WatchCentre for International Political Studies , Pretoria
• Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Sydney
• World Federalist Movement- Institute for Global Policy
• Save Darfur
• Refugees International
• Center for American Progress 
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Presbyterian Church, USA

For more information, please contact Abigail Long, Programs Coordinator, at Citizens for Global Solutions, at 202-546-3950 x105 or along@globalsolutions.org or Don Kraus, CEO, at Citizens for Global Solutions, dkraus@globalsolutions.org (202) 330-4103.