Monday, 19 January 2015

Peacekeeping and the dialogue with European NGOs

The EU member states are in the process of drafting a common position paper on the reform of the UN peace operations. Today there was a discussion with the peace building NGO community, as part of the preparation of the paper.

Many things were said, some of them a bit off-track. But it was clear that the European NGOs operating in countries where the UN deploys a peacekeeping mission would like to see an enhanced dialogue between them and the peacekeepers. They all remarked that many of the soldiers coming from different parts of the world are not trained to meaningfully engage in a partnership with civilian voluntary organizations coming from Europe. And this is a major source of misunderstandings and frustration. 

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