75 years of United Nations, 72 years of UN Peacekeeping
By: Un Peacekeeping
Tags: United Nations, History, Un75, Peacekeeping, General Assembly

This year, as we mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, we reflect on the history of peacekeeping and the positive impact peacekeepers have had on the communities they serve.

Over the past seven decades, more than 1 million men and women have served under the UN flag in more than 70 peacekeeping operations. Peacekeepers have long been the best chance for peace for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Their service and sacrifice — frequently under harsh and dangerous conditions– has made the Blue Helmet a symbol of hope for millions of people.

The UN flag, January, 1955. (UN Photo/AK)

Today, close to 100,000 peacekeepers are serving in 13 operations around the world. At every hour of every day, peacekeepers are conducting operational activities and patrols to protect civilians, prevent conflict, uphold the rule of law, build local capacities, empower women and protect human rights.

Over the last several months, peacekeepers have continued to perform these critical duties while confronting another global threat to peace and security — the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the additional operational challenges and health risks that the virus presents, peacekeepers continue to protect the most vulnerable and deliver on their mandates while supporting the local fight against the virus.

Since the first mission in 1948, generations of peacekeepers have established a legacy of service and sacrifice as they have helped countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. The below photo essay captures this long history, as peacekeepers continue to ensure peace and stability through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

In 1948, the Security Council established the first group of military observers — the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) — to supervise implementation of the Israel-Arab Armistice Agreements. UNTSO Military Observers remain in the Middle East to monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating and assist other United Nations peacekeeping operations in the region.

Major Crute, of Australia serving with UNTSO as a UN Military Observer. (UN Photo/JG)

Major Lohaec of the French Army, a field observer with UNTSO, conferring with a group of Lebanese officers, on the Arab front at Al Malakiya in 1948. (UN Photo/LM)

UN Emergency Force (UNEF) peacekeepers from India conduct patrols to ensure stability along the Demarcation Line in Egypt, June 1958. (UN Photo/H)

From the early days of UN peacekeeping to today’s multidimensional peace operations, Ethiopia has played an important role in the Organization’s efforts to advance world peace.. Here, Ethiopian peacekeepers prepare to depart for the Republic of the Congo in July 1960. (UN Photo/J)

Ireland remains one of the longest-serving peacekeeping nations in the world,. Here, members of an Irish battalion leave for UN service in the Republic of the Congo, July 1960. (UN Photo)

Ensuring the protection of civilians is a core mandate of UN peacekeeping. Irish soldiers with the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) escort Turkish Cypriots from an area in Famagusta, which had recently been under fire, April 1964. (UN Photo/BZ)

Canadian UNFICYP soldiers on patrol in Kyrenia, Cyprus, 1964. (UN Photo/BZ)

A UNFICYP peacekeeper escorts an elderly Greek woman across the bridge in Ayios Theodoros, Cyprus, April 1964. (UN Photo/BZ)

India has a long tradition of sending women on UN peacekeeping missions. In 1960, women serving in the Indian Armed Forces Medical Services were interviewed by UN Radio before being deployed to the Republic of the Congo. (UN Photo/PNS)

Medical staff of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) treats the wound of a Syrian child in a village in the Golan Heights, 1974. (UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata)

Mine action remains a key priority of peace operations. The process allows peacekeepers to carry out patrols, helps humanitarian agencies deliver assistance and enables ordinary citizens to go about their lives safely.

UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) peacekeepers from Bangladesh teach a Cambodian army soldier how to deactivate mines, January 1992. Cambodia now contributes deminers to UN peace operations in Africa. (UN Photo/J Bleibtreu)

Peace operations provide essential support for electoral processes and civil society. Here, UNTAC Military Observers from France and the United Kingdom distribute radios donated by Japanese non-governmental organizations. UNTAC used radio messages to convey information on Cambodia’s election for a constituent assembly, October 1993. (UN Photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran)

A Cambodian voter receives her ballot from an UNTAC electoral staff member in Kompong Chhnang, May 1993. (UN Photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran)

Peacekeepers frequently conduct Quick Impact Projects — small-scale, low cost projects — to respond to immediate needs in local communities. Here, a Japanese soldier serving with UNTAC halts traffic, while an UNTAC engineering battalion from his nation grades the highway, making it safe for civilian use, January 1993. (UN Photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran)

Peacekeeping missions are made up of military, police and civilian personnel from different countries that come together to implement the mission mandate. Here, soldiers from Ghana and China work in the Central Sector of the demilitarized zone along the Iraq-Kuwait border in May 1991. (UN Photo/John Isaac)

Civilian peacekeepers play a critical role in carrying out many of the mandated tasks of peacekeeping operations. In support of the Namibian elections, a UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) worker checks the validity of the ballots during the counting process, November 1989. (UN Photo/Milton Grant)

A billboard celebrates Namibia’s independence. UNTAG was established to supervise the electoral process to ensure free and fair elections, November 1989. (UN Photo/UNTAG)

Peace operations provide essential support to host countries making the transition from conflict to peace. In Kosovo, UNMIK peacekeepers work to uphold the rule of law and ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for civilians, October 1999. (UN Photo/UNMIK)

Members of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) Portuguese contingent patrol the Becora district of Dili, accompanied by a group of local children, March 2000. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

An UNTAET peacekeeper plays with a young child in Hera, March 2000. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Peacekeepers make benches and desks for a school outside Dili, East Timor, March 2000. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants is a key activity of peace operations. DDR seeks to support ex-combatants and those associated with armed groups by helping them reintegrate as civilians into society and become active participants in the peace process.

A DDR officer of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) explains the process to Rwandan ex-combatants ready to voluntarily demobilize and return back home, September 2002. (UN Photo/Yasmina Bouziane)

Members of the military component of MONUC distribute information leaflets on the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation, reintegration programme throughout the stronghold areas of the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda, July 2008. (UN Photo/Marie Frechon)

Nepalese peacekeepers serving with the UN Operation in Burundi are seen here arriving in the town of Isale to check on security and the local population in December 2004. (UN Photo/Martine Perret)

Peacekeepers frequently conduct security operations in dangerous and challenging environments. Here, peacekeepers from Uruguay patrol Lake Albert to prevent the illegal flow of arms between Uganda and DR Congo, October 2006. (UN Photo/Martine Perret)

A team of Chinese deminers of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) work along the Blue Line in south Lebanon, November 2017. (UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz)

An Air Force squadron from Senegal has been serving with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) since November 2015. It helps to provide security throughout the Central African Republic, with a tactical aviation unit to support the ground troops. (UN Photo/Herve Serefio)

Women peacekeepers are an essential component of peace operations. In 2007, India became the first country to deploy an all-women contingent to a UN peacekeeping mission. This Formed Police Unit in Liberia provided 24-hour guard duty and conducted night patrols in the capital Monrovia and helped to build the capacity of the Liberian police. (UN Photo/Christopher Herwig)

A Brazilian peacekeeper serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) rescues a child from his flooded home in the Cite Soleil neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, October 2007. (UN Photo/Marco Dormino)

Egyptian peacekeepers with the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) distribute water and flour to the local population in North Darfur, September 2011. (UN Photo/Albert González Farran)

A Chadian peacekeeper of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) gives water to local children while patrolling the streets of Kidal, December 2016. (Sylvain Liechti/MINUSMA)

Two boys chat with UNAMID peacekeepers from Ethiopia in the volatile Gereida area of South Darfur in July 2012. (UN Photo/Albert González Farran)

A female peacekeeper from Burkina Faso on patrol in Mali. MINUSMA peacekeepers conduct essential security duties to protect humanitarian convoys, military operations and civilian populations, May 2018. (MINUSMA/Harandane Dicko)

Exuberant graduates from the Haitian Police Academy show their appreciation for one of their UN Police instructors. In addition to providing basic training for cadets, the UN Police gives more specialized training for serving officers and provides on-the-job mentoring at police stations throughout the country, February 2009. (UN Photo/Marco Dormino).

A Rwandan police officer of MINUSMA speaks with civilians during a patrol in the northern town of Gao, May 2014. (UN Photo/Marco Dormino).

A UNAMID peacekeeper, a police officer from Indonesia, interacts with women in a water point in Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons, North Darfur, during a patrol, August 2012. (UN Photo/Albert González Farran).

UNAMID’s police component in West Darfur conducts a training session on baking Tanzanian cakes, known as mandazi, for 30 displaced women from the Abu Zar camp for internally displaced persons. This is part of the police component’s efforts to build the capacity of local populations across Darfur by training them in a range of small scale “livelihood” activities, July 2015. (UN Photo/Muntasir Sharafdin)

A Lieutenant Colonel from South Africa commands a unit in the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), assigned to patrol dangerous areas of North Kivu to protect civilians and prevent attacks by armed groups in the region. (UN/ MONUSCO).

A Togolese member of MINUSMA’s aero-medical evacuation team supports the evacuation of a seriously injured civilian from Gao. (UN Photo/MINUSMA)

Nepalese peacekeepers serving with MONUSCO offer medical treatment, along with medication, food and other items to children at an orphanage in the Mutwanga community, 2018. (UN Photo/Michael Ali)

In 2019, Rwandan peacekeepers of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) joined school children in Malakal to mark the International Day of the Girl. Here, a Rwandan helicopter pilot, told the young girls, “I’m here to encourage you to dream, and to work from today on your dreams because they can and will come true, just like mine did.” (UN Photo/UNMISS)

Bangladesh, long one of the largest contributors to peacekeeping, deployed women pilots for the first time in 2017 when they sent Flight Lieutenants Nayma Haque and Tamanna-E-Lutfi to serve with MONUSCO. (UN Photo/MONUSCO)

In the Central African Republic a UN police commander (UNPOL) from Cameroon works with her MINUSCA colleagues to provide classes on sexual education and preventing gender-based violence to local schoolchildren, 2017. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Italian and Malaysian peacekeepers serving with UNIFIL partnered with a local youth group to organize a month-long educational therapy treatment programme for children with learning disabilities in the Al Bassma Center in Qana, south-western Lebanon, 2018. (UN/UNIFIL)

The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) of MONUSCO held an explosive hazard session for the students of a school in Mavivi in Northeast Beni, February, 2020. (MONUSCO/Michael Ali)

Peacekeeping During COVID-19

Despite the additional challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, peacekeepers continue to protect and support the communities they serve.

UNIFIL Indonesian peacekeepers conduct mixed-gender patrols along the Blue Line in south Lebanon, April 2020. (UN/Pasqual Gorriz)

Mongolian peacekeepers serving with UNMISS provide a secure escort to local women collecting firewood despite difficult conditions. In addition to their precautions against the spread of COVID-19, peacekeepers also braved the threats of heavy rains, flooding and snakes to protect civilians. (UN/UNMISS)

Amidst COVID-19, MONUSCO peacekeepers continue to carry out key disarmament, demobilization and reintegration activities in the D.R. Congo. The Moroccan contingent recently oversaw the surrender of a group of combatants from an armed group in the region. (UN/MONUSCO)

In Lebanon, UNIFIL peacekeepers are fighting both the health and economic impacts of COVID-19. Between carrying out their core duties, Italian peacekeepers also helped upgrade a municipal milk processing and storage facility in Aytarun. The new machinery enhances productivity and makes local cooperatives more competitive. (UN/UNIFIL)

Margret Modong Joshua, a Gender Affairs Officer with UNMISS, has dedicated the past 14 years of her life to gender equality. “An integral part of my role as a Gender Affairs Officer is to build trust and confidence among South Sudanese women across the board by fostering dialogue, listening to their common concerns and linking them to ongoing peace processes,” says Margret.

In the Central African Republic, MINUSCA peacekeepers prepare students to safely resume lessons by raising awareness on mitigation measures against the virus. (UN/MINUSCA)

A psychologist of the MINUSCA Pakistani Women’s Engagement Team helps children through art therapy, an effective non-verbal action to reduce anger and increase self-esteem, especially for children who have suffered trauma. (UN/MINUSCA)

As the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Helmets remain committed to ensuring peace and security for some of the world’s most vulnerable, while upholding peacekeeping’s legacy of service and sacrifice.