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Table of Contents
1. Letter from the Chairs …………………………………..………………………..3

2. Introduction to the Committee …………………………………………………...4

3. Definitions ………………………………………………………………………….5

4. Topic Overview …………………………………………………………………....6

a. Topic Description …………………………………………………………..6
b. Historical Background …………………………………………………….6
c. Current Situation: The legal framework .………………………………..7

5. Major Players ………………………………………………………………….….9

6. Points to address ……………………………….……………….…………….....11

7. Further Reading ………………………………………………………………....11

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1. Letter from the Chairpersons

Dear delegates of the UN Security Council,

We are more than pleased to welcome you to IașiMUN’s UNSC Committee, which . It is both an
immense privilege and a great responsibility for us to take it upon ourselves to guide you through this
journey that we will be embarking on together for today’s world.

This Study Guide is meant to assist you in researching the topic, by providing you with instruments
that will help you become familiar with both UNSC’s purpose and the topic at hand. However, keep in mind
that this only serves as the basis upon which you will then undertake your own research. Moreover, we
strongly advise you to thoroughly read the Rules of Procedure in order to get more accustomed to how
MUNs run their course.

Our goal for the conference is to pass on to you the knowledge we have all gained so far from our
previous experiences and to make sure that we are able tocan every one of you to be aware of all the insights
of this topic, and to create a memorable committee experience. Should you have any questions, do not
hesitate to contact us. We are eager to meet you all, both as delegates and as people and to see you debating
during IașiMUN 2021.

Yours dearly,

Ingrid Pavel & Cătălin Panțiru

Chairpersons of IașiMUN’s United Nations Security Council

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2. Introduction to the committee

The United Nations is a global organisation that was founded in the year 1945, and today
encompasses 193 Member States. Over the years, it has grown to be the engine for governments to find
common ground and work upon solving pressing issues faced by the international community. Such
solutions are obtained after long negotiations that usually take place under the auspices of one of the main
organs of the United Nations: the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social
Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice as well as the Secretariat.

The Security Council held its first session on the 17th of January 1946. It was created with the task
of achieving one clear, but extremely daunting goal: to maintain international peace and security. Over the
course of the years, it has functioned by the same rules as highlighted in the UN Charter, despite numerous
attempts by some stakeholders to make certain changes related to controversial areas such as the status of
permanent members alongside their veto power. However, no such attempts have been successful to this date
and the Security Council continues to have 15 members, 5 permanent (the People’s Republic of China,
France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) and 10
non-permanent, elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

The Security Council has various paramount responsibilities that ensure the functionality of the
United Nations as a whole, from granting a nation the “Member State” status as well as approving changes
made to the UN Charter and recommending to the General Assembly the appointment of the
Secretary-General. Furthermore, in collaboration with the General Assembly, it is entrusted with electing the
judges of the International Court of Justice. Lastly, it is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding
resolutions.

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3. Definitions

peacekeeping = an action which comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting
peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces
the risk of renewed warfare.

Blue Helmets= UN peacekeepers (often referred to as Blue Berets or Blue Helmets because of their
light blue berets or helmets) which can include soldiers, police officers, and civilian personnel.

consent of the parties = An express agreement where all parties that have different claims come to a
middle ground. Peacekeeping operations cannot take place without the permission of the host country

impartiality = Impartiality (also called evenhandedness or fair-mindedness) is a principle of justice

holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or
preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons. The peacekeeping missions should
always be impartial i.e the troops should have support one side or another, but rather always be in defense
and be mediators of the conflict

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4. Topic Overview

a. Topic description

Designed to be one of the most important tools in the effort of achieving and maintaining
international peace and security, the peacekeepers’ activity began under UN authority in 1948 with the
deployment of an unarmed military observation team following the armistice between Israel and its Arab
neighbors. Since then, the Blue Helmets have participated in 71 peace operations, 13 of which are still going
on today.
75 years after their official creation under the UN Charter, the peacekeeping troops are at a high risk
of becoming victims themselves, attacks targeting UN military camps becoming more and more frequent
every year, mainly because they only have defensive rights. Because of that, military superpowers have
become reticent when it comes to sending peacekeeping troops in a conflict zone in which the country is not
involved, leaving the poorer states, but with larger population, or which are directly affected by the situation
(such as India and Chad), deal with the problem by themselves. This issue calls for immediate action, since
it affects every international conflict, current or prospective.

b. Historical Background

With the first operation starting in May 1948, in order to monitor the Armistice Agreement between
Israel and the neighbouring Arab states, the United Nations Peacekeeping programme has contributed to
establishing peace in over 50 completed missions, and is currently continuing to do so in other 12 current
conflict areas, in Europe, Africa and Asia.

During these seven decades, the conflicts to which peacekeeping has been applied and the
peacekeepers’ tasks have both changed dramatically. As a result, today’s peacekeepers are facing missions
that are either endless or doomed to fail.

The six oldest operations embody the first stage of peacekeeping. These missions were launched in
response to wars between countries over territory and can be described as classical peacekeeping. The
peacekeepers had to help countries involved in a territorial dispute gaining confidence that the other side
was not using a ceasefire to improve its military position. The idea was to buy a period of peace during
which the contested border could be demarcated. Because the conflict had been between disciplined military
forces, as long as the ceasefire held, there was little risk to the peacekeepers. These six missions have been
running for a combined total of over three centuries, but yet, they made almost no real contribution to peace.
In today’s context, wars over territory are rare, and the multi faced problems that the UN Member States
confront would make it unlikely for this type of peacekeeping missions to have a real impact.

The UN then became involved in sending peacekeepers to help countries recover from civil wars, the
so-called multidimensional operations. Those missions involved a number of complex tasks but were often
successful. Currently, these operations only run in Kosovo, and they have shrunk to the point where they are
only trying to professionalize the police.

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The third stage, protection and stabilization missions, is the most problematic. These operations are
supposed to deal with violent extremism. The UN’s six most recently launched missions belong to this stage.
They give the peacekeepers objectives they cannot achieve, and their efforts are more likely to make
extremism worse instead of reducing it. This stage consists of the six most recently launched operations, that
are all in sub-Saharan Africa. They will fail because, at the risk of sounding tautological, peacekeepers
cannot succeed if there is no peace to keep. For that reason, the UN has begun to refer to them as “peace
operations” instead of peacekeeping.

As a result of the increasing threats posed to the peacekeepers and length of the operations, wealthy
nations with the most capable armies were willing to provide soldiers for first stage operations because they
saw it as a way to help prevent a superpower confrontation during the Cold War. But as peacekeeping
evolved, this enthusiasm waned. The United States, for instance, provides only 0.04 percent of the total
number of UN troops and police. Additionally, peacekeeping operations are not popular among the public
eye of the richer countries, since governors have rarely been able to explain to voters why their soldiers
should be put at risk in some country few can find on a map. As a result, the third stage operations are now
mainly staffed by troops from poor countries that cannot afford to train or equip them to any significant
degree. If the United States cannot prevail against violent extremists in Afghanistan after trying to train and
equip the Afghan army for 18 years and counting, there is no chance that the available peacekeepers can in
Africa.

These issues request a change in the approach regarding peacekeeping missions all around the world,
which should root at the initiative of the already developed countries, especially the P5. After the starting
point, many questions arise, regarding the principles that have been taken into consideration for decades, and
lots of practical matters. But, until the powerful countries of the UN Security Council don’t have the
attention span, unity, or willingness to place a higher priority on peace than the pursuit of their own national
interests to make that happen, changes will be in vain.

c. Current situation: The legal framework

UN Charter
The foundational treaty of the United Nations, the charter establishes the purposes, governing
structure, and overall framework of the UN system, and it mandates the UN and its member states to
maintain international peace and security, and uphold international law.
With a total of 111 articles which represent the legal basis for all the activities undertaken in the United
Nations, this legal document includes the principles that are behind the peacekeeping operations of UN’s
blue helmets.
Between the purposes of the United Nations, the following are relevant for our topic: 1) to maintain
international peace and security, and to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of
threats to the peace; 2) to establish a system for the regulation of armaments through the Security Council;
3) investigate any dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or is probably to
endanger the maintenance of international peace and security1.
1
UN Charter

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UDHR
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights2 is by far the most important legal document in the
history of humankind. Even though de jure is not legally binding, this document is both the foundation for
all the international treaties signed in the 20th century in the matter of Human Rights and the generator of all
the premises that exist in the fundamental laws of most countries.

The detached troops of these missions have the obligation to respect the articles of this declaration
without any right to derogation, and all their actions should not overlap with the interests foreseen by this
declaration.

The Geneva Convention3

The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, more
commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention is one of the four treaties of the Geneva
Conventions. Adopted in August of 1950, the Fourth Geneva Convention was the first one to deal with
humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone.
The United Nations Security Council adopted a report in 1993 from the Secretary-General and a
which concluded that the convention became part of the customary international law, thus making them
binding on non-signatories to the Conventions.
This convention has an essential role in the activity of the blue helmets, as its provision regarding the
status and treatment of protected persons, and the ones related to the general protection of populations
against certain consequences of war are guiding legal principles for the activity of these troops.

Peacekeeping Mandates4
The peacekeeping troops cannot take initiative without a mandate coming from the United Nations
Security Council. To prevent the escalation of different conflicts and to preserve international peace, the
missions of peacekeeping troops have diversified.
However, there are general directions that have remained constant regarding the circumstances in
which a mission can take place. Thus, the UNSC can mandate the blue helmets to take action when there is a
significant risk for a conflict across borders to escalate, to keep a stable ceasefire, to provide significant
support in the negotiation process of peace agreements, and to prevent the destabilisation of the process to a
stable governance.
With a wide range of specific set of challenges, UN peacekeepers are often mandated to play an
essential role in the security sector reform and other rule of law-related activities, disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, electoral assistance, and promotions of social and
economic recovery and development.
Aside from the aforementioned, certain thematic tasks assigned to UN peace operations. The legal
foundation for this assignment are the following resolutions from of the UNSC:

2
UDHR
3
Fourth Geneva Convention
4
Peacekeeping mandates

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● Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) on children and armed conflict;

● Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security;
● Security Council resolution 1674 (2006) on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

5. Major Players
The top 5 providers of assessed contributions to United Nations Peacekeeping operations for
2020-2021 are:

United States (27.89%)

The United States is the single largest financial contributor to United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping
activities. Congress authorizes and appropriates U.S. contributions, and it has an ongoing interest in ensuring
such funding is used as efficiently and effectively as possible. The United States, as a permanent member of
the U.N. Security Council, plays a key role in establishing, renewing, and funding U.N. peacekeeping
operations.
The United Nations currently operates 13 U.N. peacekeeping missions worldwide, with more than
80,000 military, police, and civilian personnel from over 100 countries. The Security Council adopts a
resolution to establish each operation and specifies how it will be funded. Historically, the Council has
authorized the U.N. General Assembly to create a separate assessed account for each operation to be
supported by member states contributions. In recent years, due to concerns about budget shortfalls, the
Generally Assembly has temporarily allowed peacekeeping funding to be pooled for increased financial
flexibility.

China (15.21%)

China’s involvement in United Nations peacekeeping is one of its better-known investments in the
multilateral system. But its contributions to blue helmet missions remain limited, and Beijing has taken a
cautious approach to expanding its commitments. In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping impressed other
leaders at the U.N. General Assembly with an offer of 8,000 troops to reinforce the organization’s
operations. As of June 30 of this year, there are 2,534 Chinese soldiers and police deployed with the U.N.
This is 500 hundred fewer than when Xi made his pledge, and only just enough to secure its place among the
top ten U.N. personnel contributors.
Although China first seconded military observers to a U.N. mission in 1990, it only began to deploy
significant numbers of personnel to blue helmet missions on a regular basis at the start of this century. Its
initial contributions tended to involve specialized units including police, engineers, and field hospitals. It
deployed a full infantry battalion with the U.N. for the first time in 2015, in South Sudan, but has not sent
any other large contingent on another mission to date. In the wake of Xi’s 2015 pledge, however, U.N.
officials have worked with their Chinese counterparts to prepare a wider array of rapid reaction capabilities,
including helicopters. China has opened a logistics base in Djibouti, in part to support its peacekeepers in
Africa.

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Japan (8.56%)
Japan's first substantial participation in a UN peacekeeping operation was in 1989, when 27 electoral
observers were dispatched to the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia. Then
in 1992, the enactment of the International Peace Cooperation Law enabled Japan to send not only its
civilian personnel but also its Self-Defense Forces personnel to UN peacekeeping operations. Based on that
law, Japan participated in peacekeeping operations in Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, El Salvador and
Timor-Leste, and since 1996 has been dispatching a Self-Defense Forces contingent to the United Nations
Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is deployed on the Golan Heights.
In addition to these field activities, Japan takes an active part in discussions in the United Nations to
improve the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations. With regard to the issue of the safety of peacekeepers,
Japan strongly maintained that necessary measures should be taken for significant improvement, and Japan's
initiative resulted in the adoption in 1994 of the "Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated
Personnel," which Japan was the second to ratify. Japan has been actively urging other countries which have
not yet done so to become a party to the convention.

Germany (6.09%)
Germany contributes civilian personnel, police officers and soldiers to UN peace missions. At
present, its personnel are involved in seven peacekeeping missions and two special political missions. In
terms of personnel, Germany’s commitment is focused on the UN peace missions in Mali (MINUSMA),
which seeks to support the peace and reconciliation process in the country and to stabilise the region beyond
Mali itself. Germany’s engagement in these UN missions is therefore part of a coordinated peacekeeping
approach. Furthermore, Germany is involved in missions mandated by the UN, as well as in NATO, EU and
OSCE missions.
Besides contributing personnel to UN peace missions, Germany also supports the UN’s extensive
engagement in many places by conducting bilateral capacity-building and stabilisation measures and
deploying mobile training teams. As the fourth-largest contributor to the relevant UN budget after the US,
China and Japan, Germany is also a crucial source of funding for peace missions and is currently
contributing 6.09 percent of the budget.

United Kingdom (5.79%)

The UK plays a central role on the Security Council, and is the country responsible for drafting
resolutions on peacekeeping, the protection of civilians, the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and
country-cases such as Somalia, Darfur and Cyprus. In addition to this involvement in high-level
decision-making, the UK is a major financial donor to peacekeeping operations. The fifth largest contributor,
the UK provides 6.68% of the UN’s overall budget for peacekeeping.
With respect to troop contributions however, the UK arguably falls short. The UK provided only 286
troops (most of whom serve in Cyprus, a long-term and relatively quiet mission, and of which only 18 are
women), 5 police officers and no military advisors, as well little military equipment. This places the UK
50th amongst peacekeeping contributors; a small country like Fiji provides more than double the personnel
that the UK does, while a fellow permanent member of the Security Council, China, gives 2,183 personnel.
The UK has recently announced plans to nearly double this contribution with a deployment of 370 troops to
Somalia and South Sudan. This is welcome news, however the total number of troops deployed remains
relatively small.

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6. Points to address

● Which one of the three approaches has been the most efficient? Is that solution still applicable in
today’s context?
● Should the developed Member States be mandated to contribute to ensuring the necessary amount of
troops? If so, where is the line going to be drawn when establishing whether a country is developed
enough or not?
● Should any changes regarding the principle of the UN Peacekeeping take place, especially when
dealing with terrorist actions?
● How can we ensure that well-intended actions, such as consolidating a country’s army, are not later
used against its own citizens or international partners?

7. Further Reading

● What Are the Limits to the Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping?

● Improving Security Council Practice in Mission Settings
● The Three Principles of UN Peacekeeping

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