[Music] [Applause] the united nations peacekeeping operations are deployed once the security council the un security council authorizes the deployment of the mission that happens and a resolution is passed that enables us to be the secretariat to pull together all the resources that we need that the council has authorized to go off and complete the specific tasks that they've assigned us so we go where they send us which means that it's ultimately a question of the political will of the international community in some ways that's the great strength of un peacekeeping that we represent the political will and the legitimacy of the international community when we deploy each mission has its own mandate that is designed by the council and and by us to try to address the specific issues that are happening on the ground in each particular situation so each mission is kind of its own universe in a way but they fall into three basic categories what we call chapter 6 chapter 7 and chapter 8. chapter 6 is sort of monitoring an observation sometimes we call it classical peacekeeping operations it tended to be missions that were authorized in the 1960s and 70s and 80s chapter 7 is more peace enforcement and chapter eight is in collaboration with other multilateral institutions that we authorize to perform the missions on our behalf peacekeepers themselves come from all over the world there are over 150 countries that either participate or have participated in peacekeeping and it breaks down into three basic categories of personnel military civilian and police now civilian is both international and national police can be both individual police officers or individual police monitors and formed police units which are kind of like riot police and militaries can be contingent personnel so sort of infantry battalion type things or other specialized units and all of this is designed by the council based on what the specific situation is on the ground so different mandates different chapters under which they're authorized by the council and different configurations but all designed to do the same thing which is to fulfill the tasks that are given to us by the security council to try to promote peace and security in the individual country that we are sent to now this has happened about 70 times in the course of the last seven decades or so where the council has authorized a peace operation to deploy we have forces and personnel from over 150 countries and the fact that we represent so much of the world is one of our great strengths that we don't only represent the political will of the international community but we physically are the manifestation of that will mandates end when its tasks are achieved or when it's decided that the mission is no longer needed most of the missions that have been authorized have closed most of the missions have closed successfully and the missions themselves perform a variety of tasks from protection of civilians to guaranteeing a political process or an electoral process to doing what it can to ensure human rights and to help to protect delivery of humanitarian assistance and a variety of other things as designated by the security council but the bottom line is that unp's keeping deploys when asked by the united nations security council to try to promote peace and security in a particular context using forces that are given to us or basically lent to us by the international community themselves it's a partnership and it's a partnership that helps to protect civilians in some of the world's most dangerous places you