UN Peacekeeping during Health Crises: Covid-19 and Expansion of Mission Mandates

Abstract

The United Nations peacekeeping missions are increasingly being deployed in highly complex environments, working towards realizing global peace and security. The missions face numerous challenges, ranging from being socio-economic to political in nature. It is a known fact that peacekeepers, in different contexts, have been working in vulnerable environments also when considering the health-related situation in the mission areas. The role of peacekeepers during any health crises, therefore, calls for indepth exploration. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for contextualizing peacekeeping amid health crises is receiving utmost attention. This essay looks at this challenge, notably during the outbreaks of HIV/AIDS, Cholera, Ebola, and the ongoing pandemic (i.e., Covid-19). It briefly analyzes the impacts of these outbreaks and the role played by the peacekeepers during such difficult times. The essay also explores the need for ‘transformation’ of peacekeeping missions to counter the challenges posed by health crises. It highlights how globalization has contributed to the diseases becoming ‘globalized’, and therefore there is an urgent need for exploration and adoption of policies concerning this issue. The essay also suggests some of the potential measures that may equip the peacekeeping missions to effectively fulfil their mandated tasks. It also points towards the gaps in the literature, exploration of which may contribute towards realizing health crises within the broader roles of the peacekeeping mandates.