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Who Needs Peacekeepers?
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Have you ever had an argument with someone at school? Maybe it started between the two of you at lunch or in the schoolyard. At first, you yelled at each other. Later, you may have pushed and shoved each other. |
Your friends thought you were right and took your side. Other students took the other side. Suddenly, schoolmates became enemies and a simple disagreement turned into a major conflict.
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When people are angry, it's almost impossible to work things out without the help of some calmer people. These people can be called peacekeepers. In school, the peacekeeper may be a friend, a teacher or another classmate; at home, it may be a brother or a sister or a parent or relative. No matter who acts as a peacekeeper, the goal is always the same: keep the fighters away from each other, find out what happened and try to find a solution.
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| What is UN Peacekeeping? |
Now imagine the world as a big schoolyard. What happens in schoolyards also happens in the world, between people or countries. Groups of people and whole nations may fight and yell at each other. If they don’t calm down, war may start. Countries may fight over boundaries, or natural resources like land, water or energy, or the right to fish in a certain place. Sometimes wars begin because some groups of people feel they are not being treated fairly and as equals by other groups. Before you know it, people are killing one another with all sorts of weapons.
The fighting may be by soldiers, or just by groups of people with weapons. The people who suffer most are innocent people caught in the middle. When this happens, there is no older relative or teacher or parent to calm things down like in your school or in your families. Things then can get really dangerous.
A group of countries came together to form the United Nations over fifty years ago to try and protect future generations from the dangers of war. Right from the beginning, the United Nations recognized that, just like your school, the world needed peacekeepers too. Its early leaders developed the idea of bringing together a group of people from all over the world to help countries stop fighting and settle their arguments peacefully. In 1948, UN peacekeeping was born when the first peacekeepers were sent to the Middle East to calm down the situation there. Since then, UN peacekeepers have been sent on 49 different missions around the world.
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Unlike regular soldiers, these soldiers of peace are neutral. They wear the blue UN helmets and do not take sides. They come on behalf of the whole world to help out. |
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Soldiers are not the only people who go on peacekeeping missions. Peacekeepers are also civilians such as doctors, nurses, pilots, engineers and others. Their jobs include aiding refugees to return home and delivering food, water and shelter to people who have been made hungry, thirsty and homeless by war. In some places, they even help organize elections. These activities also help in keeping the peace.
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Why UN Peacekeeping Is Important
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Think about the schoolyard again. Almost every day, classmates argue. Without someone to stop these arguments, they could grow into serious fights and people could get hurt, even other kids who weren’t involved in the original argument.
In the same way, there are conflicts every day in different regions of the globe. A fight might start in one place, but it can grow out of control and lead to big wars in which many people get hurt. Peacekeepers can help limit the damage caused by such conflicts.
Peacekeeping is difficult, and often dangerous. It takes a lot of courage. Sometimes, peacekeepers themselves are attacked by those opposed to peace. Many risk their lives to help former enemies work together and give peace a chance.
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Activities
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1. Vocabulary - Look at the list of words. Try and explain their meaning in your own words. Can you find a word that means the opposite of each of those words?
Disagreement - conflict - neutral - compromise |
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2. How are UN 'soldiers of peace' different from ordinary soldiers?
3. Think of a conflict you have been in. What are some of the differences between personal conflicts and international conflicts? Can you compare them with any real wars you know about?
4. 4. How do UN peacekeepers help victims of war? Why would anybody attack a peacekeeper?
5. Being a member of a peacekeeping operation is very difficult and dangerous. To help you better understand how difficult it is to be a peacekeeper, think of a conflict between two people or two groups that you have witnessed or read about. In groups of three, create a short play to show the conflict and what you would have done to keep the peace.
Follow this steps for help:
i. Start with this basic question: what happened?
ii. Explore what the two people who are fighting think of the situation. Write down what each one might say.
iii. What would a neutral third person have to do or tell them to stop their fight?
Perform the play for your class.
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