The Implementation of the Action for Peacekeeping in Context

Abstract

With the launching of the Action for Peacekeeping and its culmination with the Declaration of Shared Commitments in 2018, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aimed to mobilize all partners and stakeholders to support United Nations peacekeeping, marking its seventieth anniversary and revitalizing a long process of reform which had started with previous Secretaries-General, and in its last phase by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. The purpose of this article is to look at the implementation of Commitment 5 of the Declaration of Shared Commitments to realize the objective of sequenced, prioritized and achievable mandates. To do so, this article looks at the process of endorsement and progressive implementation of the Declaration of Shared Commitments by the Security Council, starting with the examination of the conclusions of the High Level Independent Panel on Peacekeeping Operations (hippo report), the subsequent Secretary-General’s report under Secretary-General Ban’s tenure and the passing of the baton to Secretary-General Guterres who continued the process through the launching of the Action for Peacekeeping. The article looks at the definitions available to guide the implementation of sequenced and prioritized mandates and describes and assesses the mandate renewal process in the context of three specific field missions concentrating some of the most recent efforts of the Security Council to apply the principles of the Declaration of Shared Commitments.