Special Lecture on “United Nations Peacekeeping Missions” by Lt. Gen Iqbal Singh at the Department of Defence and National Security Studies, PU
Chandigarh:
Special Lecture on “United Nations Peacekeeping Missions” by Lt. Gen Iqbal Singh at the Department of Defence and National Security Studies, Panjab University
Special Lecture on “United Nations Peacekeeping Missions” by Lt. Gen Iqbal Singh at the Department of Defence and National Security Studies, Panjab University
The Department of Defence and National Security Studies Panjab University, Chandigarh organised a special lecture on the theme “United Nations Peacekeeping Missions” by Lt. Gen. Iqbal Singh on 1st July 2019 in the Department.
Lt. Gen Iqbal Singh, who himself have served in peacekeeping operations in Syria from 2012 to 2015, started the lecture with the definition of Peace Keeping. He said that Peace Keeping refers to activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. About peacekeepers, he said that United Nation Peace keepers provide security, political and peace building support to help countries make the difficult, early transition from conflict to peace. He also mentioned the saying of Prime minister Narendra Modi, that “Traditional Peacekeeping Mission should be adequately equipped to deal with new international security environment and evolving nature of Conflicts”.He discussed in detail about the Peacekeeping operations, Peace-making, Peace enforcement and Post conflict reconstruction. He also discussed mandatory laws related to peacekeeping by United Nation and Challenges which are faced by the peacekeeping forces in mission areas. While explaining peace keeping operations, he said that peacekeeping operations are deployed on the basis of mandates from the UNSC. Their
tasks differ from situation to situation. Diplomats would continue to work toward comprehensive and lasting peace, or the implementation of an agreed upon peace. For peacekeeping operations, consent of the parties is very important. On both side peacekeeper have to build confidence and should not be partial. About post conflict reconstruction he said that this is intended to develop economic and social cooperation meant to mend relations between the belligerents. Social, political and economic infrastructure would ideally prevent potential violence and conflict in the
future and help to contribute to a lasting and robust peace. Explaining the peace enforcement, he said that peace enforcement meant to act with or
without the consent of the belligerents in order to ensure any treaty or ceasefire mandated by United Nation Security Council. While explaining Peacekeeping Lt Gen. also talk about Challenges to Contemporary
Peacekeeping and factors required for the success of peace keeping operations. He said that evolution of nature and methods of Peacekeeping are very important. He highlighted that Mozambique, Burundi, El Salvador, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste were successful Missions. He said that partially successful and failed missions paved way for reforms and protection of civilians and weaker sections are prime concerns of
every peacekeeping operation. He talked about various reports which talked about reforms, like Brahimi report, Capstone Doctrine, New Horizon Paper, Cruz and Horta Reports.
On peacekeeping operations he said that these operations consists of military, police and civilian personnel, who work to deliver security and early peace building support. United Nation Peacekeeping operations are deployed on the basis of mandates from the United Nation Security Council.
By focussing on the mandatory laws of United Nation, the General said that these are the guideline to maintain credible presence in mission area and use its best efforts to maintain the peace. While talking about peace support operations he emphasis that these operations are designed to help establish liberal democracy with the local flavours by respecting the ethos and traditions of the local.
While discussing the Challenges to contemporary Peacekeeping he said that protection of civilians and weaker sections is the prime concern. There are lots of Challenges which peacekeeping forces face in the mission areas. These are Abductions, carjacking and firing on UNDOF peacekeepers. Other Challenges they face are Miss Information campaign, false accusation and Road block. There are also humanitarian crisis. So, it is very difficult to operate and carryout the tasks. He also insisted that every day peace keeping is going to be bigger challenges and united nation sometime not give that much assistance to them, which they actually require. So, forces sometimes manage to live in mission areas on their own expenditure.
The lecture was attended by members of various faculty members, serving and retired armed forces officers pursuing various courses in the department, research scholars and students. The lecture was followed by a questions and answers session with the audience.
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