Defence Forces Review 2008

Defence Forces Review 2008
(5) Encourage wide consultative and networking processes among non-governmental
organizations, the UN system, and national governments to shape and implement a
successful strategy 38 .
The creation of a United Nations Emergency Peace Service will produce enough true benefits
for all countries to demonstrate that, when it comes to stopping genocide and crimes against
humanity, “the collective interest is the national interest. 39 ” The proposed UN service could
curtail violence in divided societies, deflect venomous attacks between those of different
identities and religious traditions, end a culture of impunity, encourage the concentration of
scarce resources on meeting human needs rather than on harming one’s neighbors, and bring
an energizing focus to the meaning of common, human security. It could produce monumental
benefits in lives saved, mothers and daughters protected against grievous violations, families
still able to live at home, time and money never spent to kill and destroy, tolerance maintained,
laws upheld, and communities at peace. By acting together we can enliven that spark of
human solidarity that lives, too often hidden, within people everywhere on earth. Finally, we
can give genuine meaning to “Never again”.
A United Nations Emergency Peace Service:
Proposal Update
Dr. Robert Zuber
The preceding essay by then rapporteur Robert Johansen represents a critically important
stage in the evolution of the project for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS),
a standing, individually-recruited, service-integrated, complimentary capacity under a unified
command structure that can respond rapidly and effectively to crimes against humanity and
other humanitarian disasters. From its inception, UNEPS has been designed as a ‘first-in,
first-out’ service that works in tandem with existing UN and regional operations. With its
2006 publication, Johansen’s essay made clear the intent of our core UNEPS secretariat team
to provide concrete, feasible, training and operational suggestions to the diplomatic, military
and policy communities. Our goal, then as now, is to magnify the potential of UNEPS to
compliment, strengthen and even minimize the need for complex, expensive, longer-term UN
and regional peacekeeping operations.
Since 2006, the proposal has continued to evolve as early supporters such as Lt. General Satish
Nambiar, former UN special advisor for the Prevention of Genocide Juan Mendez, and other
prominent individuals have pushed the secretariat to address remaining gaps. At the same
time, researchers such as Peter Langille of Canada, Hussein Solomon of South Africa, and
Kavitha Suthanthiraraj in New York have sought the best responses to important technical and
political challenges posed by diplomats and military and civil society leaders. We welcome
such challenges as they help ensure that our proposal is politically and technically feasible.
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