Declared UN Peacekeeping Operations and Peace-building Missions

Below you will find links to official UN sites for the 16 declared Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs) as well as links to political and peace-building missions. The site will be kept as up to date as possible with news and special reports. Links to what the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security has identified as conflict areas can be found above and also on the left hand menu.

UN Peacekeeping Operations

Background Links

• UNPKO Home
• Statistics and Map of allocations for PKOs
• Operational Definitions: Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding, Peacemaking
• Fourth Committee of the General Assembly on Political and Decolonization Matters--59th Session 2004
• Global Policy Forum's Web Page for UN Standing Force
• International Civilian Police Web Page Unassociated with the UN

Links to PKO Reform

• The Brahimi Report, August 2000. Click on 'full report' on the bottom navigation menu. (main working document of findings for PKO reform)
• Best Practices Searching for Standard Operating Procedures to Eradicate Abuse
• Recommendations of the Independent Panel on PKOs
• Summary of the Independent Panel on PKOs
• Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping
• US Congressional Action on UN Reform including PKO Reform

• UNMIS Sudan
• ONUB Burundi
• UNOCI Cote d'Ivoire
• UNMIL Liberia
• MONUL Democratic Republic of the Congo
• UNMEE Ethiopia and Eritrea
• UNAMSIL Sierra Leone
• MINURSO Western Sahara
• MINUSTAH Haiti
• UNMOGIP India/Pakistan
• UNFICYP Cyprus
• UNOMIG Georgia (Mandate Expired July 31, 2005. Extended until January 2006)
• UNMIK Kosovo
• UNDOF Golan Heights
• UNIFIL Lebanon (Mandate Expired July 31, 2005. Extended until January 2006)
• UNTSO Middle East

UN Political and Peace-building Missions

Background Links

• UN Political and Peace-Building Missions Home
• Statistics and Map for Political and Peacebuilding Missions
• Operational Definitions: Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding, Peacemaking
• UN Framework Team for Conflict Prevention
• Engaging Civil Society on the Responsibility to Protect A project of the World Federalist Movement: Institute for Global Policy
• The Rule of Law Project at the US Institute of Peace

UN "Framework Team" For Conflict Prevention

(Created in 1995 to Facilitate Political and Peace-building Activities)

• DDA Department for Disarmament Affair
• DESA UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs
• DPA UN Department for Politial Affairs
• DPKO UN Department for Peace Keeping Operations
• FAO UN Food and Agriculture Organization
• ILO UN International Labour Organization
• OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• UNESCO UN Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• UNFPA UN Population Fund
• UNHABITAT UN Human Settlements Programme
• UNIFEM UN Development Fund for Women
• UNICEF UN Children's Emergency Fund
• WFP World Food Programme
• IMF International Monetary Fund
• UNHCR UN High Commissioner for Refugees
• WHO World Health Organization
• WB World Bank
• UNDP UN Development Programme
• OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affiars
• UNDCP UN Drug Control and Crime Prevention Programme
• UNEP (UN Environmental Programme) and UNODC (UN Office on Drugs and Crime) participate on a case-by-case basis
• DPI (Department of Public Information) and the Executive Office of the Secretary-General participate as observers.

Political and Peace-building Missions

• UNAMA UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
• BONUCA UN Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic
• Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the Great Lakes Region
• UNOGBIS UN Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau
• UNSCO Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East
• UNPOS UN Political Office for Somalia
• UNTOP UN Tajikistan Office of Peace-building
• Office of the Special Representative of the Secreatry General for West Africa
• UNAMI UN Assistance Mission for Iraq
• UNOTIL UN Office in Timor-Leste

Operational Definitions: Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding, Peacemaking

William J. Durch, Victoria K. Holt, Caroline R. Earle, Moira K. Shanahan. "The Brahimi Report and the Future of Peacekeeping Operations." The Henry L. Stimson Center. 2003. .pdf p. 30

United Nations peace operations entail three principal activities: conflict prevention and peacemaking; peacekeeping; and peacebuilding. Long-term conflict prevention addresses the structural sources of conflict in order to build a solid foundation for peace. Where those foundations are crumbling, conflict prevention attempts to reinforce them, usually in the form of a diplomatic initiative. Such preventive action is, by definition, a low -profile activity; when successful, it may even go unnoticed altogether.

Peacemaking addresses conflicts in progress, attempting to bring them to a halt, using the tools of diplomacy and mediation. Peacemakers may be envoys of governments, groups of states, regional organizations or the United Nations, or they may be unofficial and non-governmental groups, as was the case, for example, in the negotiations leading up to a peace accord for Mozambique. Peacemaking may even be the work of a prominent personality, working independently.

Peacekeeping is a 50-year plus enterprise that has evolved rapidly in the past decade from a traditional, primarily military model of observing ceasefires and force separations after inter-state wars to one that incorporates a complex model of many elements, military and civilian, working together to build peace in the dangerous aftermath of civil wars.

Peacebuilding is a term of more recent origin that, as used in the present report, defines activities undertaken on the far side of conflict to reassemble the foundations of peace and provide the tools for building on those foundations something that is more than just the absence of war. Thus, peacebuilding includes but is not limited to reintegrating former combatants into civilian society, strengthening the rule of law (for example, through training and restructuring of local police, and judicial and penal reform); improving respect for human rights through the monitoring, education and investigation of past and existing abuses; providing technical assistance for democratic development (including electoral assistance and support for free media); and promoting conflict resolution and reconciliation techniques. (Source: A/55/305-S/2000/809, paras 10-14.)