UNITED NATIONS - Marking International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Monday said that peacekeeping must have the tools and rules it needs to adapt to the dangerous and challenging environments nowadays. In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, the secretary-general wrote that “too often, United Nations peace operations face a gap between our goals and the means we have to achieve them.”
He noted that peacekeepers, known also as the “blue helmets” for their iconic headgear, are themselves increasingly targeted by parties in conflicts and violent extremism. “Dealing with this near reality requires a serious strategic reform on our part, based on an analysis of the mandates and capacities of our missions and our partnerships with governments and others,” he said. Guterres noted that significant reforms in peacekeeping have already reduced costs and made deployments faster and more flexible.
Peacekeeping is already “cost-effective,” he said, noting that its budges is less than half of 1 percent of global military spending and shared by the 193 UN member states. (Xinhua)