Further information on UNEPS is available from the World Federalist Movement-Canada
UNEPS sample endorsements
This venture is of the greatest importance both to the UN as a responsible institution and to the millions as of yet unknown, innocent victims who might, in the future, be saved by this essential addition to the UN’s capacity to act on their behalf. There is one overwhelming argument for the United Nations Emergency Peace Service. It is desperately needed, and it is needed as soon as possible.
– Sir Brian Urquhart, Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs
The initiative for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service makes eminent sense as the UN is often hampered by its incapacity to respond rapidly to unfolding crises. This idea should now be pushed and supported widely.
– Jean-Marie Guéhenno, President, the International Crisis Group, former UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations
Sooner or later we will have to have a global emergency service for ever-multiplying crises in the world- the sooner, the better.
– Mary Kaldor, CBE, Professor of Global Governance, Department of International Development, Director of Civil Society and Human Security Research, The London School of Economics and Political Science
We now all agree ‘never again.’ An international tool-kit to halt mass atrocities and implement R2P should contain a UN Emergency Peace Service, which could help governments utter ‘no more Holocausts, Cambodias, and Rwandas’—and occasionally even mean it.
– Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
A UN Emergency Peace Service is an idea whose time has come. This highly credible proposal will allow the United Nations to bring succour to victims in a timely manner.
– Erna Paris, Author, The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice
UNEPS will no more prevent every international emergency or atrocity than a city police force prevents urban crimes or a fire brigade stops fires. But who would want to live in a city without a police force or fire brigade? It is past time for a systematic study and consideration of the UNEPS proposal.
– Michael W. Doyle, Columbia University, former special adviser to Secretary General Kofi Annan and chair of the UN Democracy Fund
This initiative directly responds to the widely recognized need to protect people caught in deadly conflicts. I pleaded on numerous occasions for the rapid deployment of specialized forces. Effective, trained and specialized standing forces would have been invaluable.
–Sadako Ogata, Former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
In these troubling times, with more than 65 million people displaced by conflict, atrocities and persecution, the idea of a UN Emergency Peace Service deserves serious consideration. Millions of lives and the future of the UN depends upon our collective ability to turn innovative ideas into meaningful practice. – Dr. Simon Adams, Executive Director, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Peacekeeping has been one of the most significant ‘inventions’ in the search for containing and resolving some of the world’s most violent conflicts. It has evolved over many decades to adapt to the complex challenges presented by the many civil wars we have suffered since 1945. Despite its faults, we should not underestimate its achievements. Neither should we be complacent about the challenges ahead in responding to the violent conflicts now destroying lives and communities. The proposed United Nations emergency peace service is a more comprehensive and legitimate model – combining military capability with enhanced conflict resolution and peacebuilding expertise. Such a creative credible and pragmatic innovation is now a top priority for all who want to live in a cosmopolitan world where all are secure.
–Tom Woodhouse, Professor of Conflict Resolution, University of Bradford, UK
Serious consideration should be given to developing a UN Emergency Peace Service, which can serve as a rapidly deployable police and political expeditionary service, which in the long term could lessen dependence on UN Peacekeeping Missions.
–The Stanley Foundation’s 50th Conference for Peace
Peter Langille thinks clearly about what a United Nations Emergency Peace Service might achieve, and how to get from here to there. That will be a long and rocky road, given the scarcity of resources and the usual obsessions about sovereignty, but he has given us a very useful road-map. – Gwynne Dyer, Author, military historian and independent journalist
A United Nations Emergency Peace Service should enable immediate deployment into a mission area once the Security Council mandates a deployment. As a new capacity for preventive deployment and better protection of innocent civilians, a UNEPS would be invaluable to the UN and vulnerable people world-wide. To ensure credibility and legitimacy, there must also be wider representation on a reformed Security Council.
– Lt Gen (Ret) Satish Nambiar, First Force Commander and Head of Mission UNPROFOR, member of the UN High Level Panel on “Threats, Challenges and Change”, and former Deputy Chief Indian Army.
The repeated experience of recent years, with conflicts and crises in so many countries, is that the establishment of a United Nations Emergency Peace Service is greatly overdue. The lack of a truly collective capability is a glaring limitation for the United Nations Organization and needs urgently to be rectified. Experience across the world, not least in the Middle East and sub- Saharan Africa, shows that a thoroughly professional standing force capable of a wide range of properly sanctioned rapid interventions could be of persistent value, not least in helping prevent crises escalating into major conflicts.
– Professor Paul Rogers, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford
The world desperately needs a rapid and effective capability to save lives and alleviate human suffering in conflict areas, a kind of UN 9-11 service. The United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS) proposal is at the intellectual forefront of thinking on creating such capabilities. This may seem like a bold step at present, but in the future the world will look back and wonder why it was not done earlier.
– Professor Walter Dorn, Canadian Forces College, President World-Federalist Movement – Canada, Past Chair Pugwash – Canada
If the objective is to protect people and prevent violence you send a legitimate credible UN presence to start a mission quickly- not wait for 4 to 6 months – then there is far less likelihood of people being murdered, or large scale massive ethnic cleansing. That suggests a dedicated UN mechanism including a range of services- military, police and civilian and capable of using force even when opposed to it – an entity that Peter Langille has called a UN Emergency Peace Service…
– Lloyd Axworthy, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General
The UNEPS initiative has the potential to become the most important step towards setting up the necessary hard core element for operationalizing the Responsibility to Protect in cooperation with regional rapid deployment capabilities, and thus, of the regime for effective prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity as part of the emerging encompassing global regime for conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
– Dr. Detlev Wolter, Author and former representative of Germany to the Special Committee of the UN General Assembly for Peacekeeping Operations and former Co-Chair of the Friends Group (34 UN member states) for Conflict Prevention
Many countries in the Global South are suspicious about any kind of international intervention. Historically, many were victims of unilateral interventionism due to colonialism and imperialism. At the same time, there is a growing consensus among countries of the Global South that human rights should be protected and promoted, and mass atrocities should be prevented and contained, by multilateral organizations, both regional and global. In this sense, a United Nations Emergency Peace Service – UNEPS, conceived by Dr. Peter Langille, is a very important proposal, and is consistent with the multilateral legitimacy and international legality that is expected and demanded from developing countries.
–Professor Gilberto M. A. Rodrigues, Federal University of ABC, São Paulo, Brazil, and Board of CRIES, Latin America and Caribbean civil society network in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The barbarism the world has witnessed…cannot be allowed to define our time. I believe a permanent, highly-trained UN Peacekeeping Force, capable of rapid deployment by the Security Council in emergency situations, has now become essential…A UN emergency peace service – what might be called an international “911” –would, if established, protect civilians and prevent regional conflicts from turning into wars. We must express our global citizenship by protecting the most vulnerable in the global community. This is a path to the culture of peace.
– Douglas Roche, Former Ambassador for Disarmament, Senator and Parliamentarian
With regard to practical tools–if you like the “tool of response”…there are many ideas on the table. But I believe one idea on the table that should be pursued more seriously and discussed within the United Nations, maybe a mandate if need be, is an idea which is being proposed by a very serious group of scholars and organizations. They call this the UN Emergency Peace Service. We can discuss this more fully later; I think this is something that should be debated more seriously so that where there is an actual genocide going on, at an early stage there will be the tool for response which does not depend on individual Member States deciding to send their men and women into harm’s way or not to do so.
– Olara Otunnu, Former UN Special Representative to the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict
Rather than await the next tragedy, together, we could take one confident step toward saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Together, we could help the UN prevent armed conflict and protect civilians at risk. Together, we could finally provide the Organization with a reliable mechanism for responding rapidly and effectively to diverse emergencies worldwide. Together, we could initiate a dedicated UN Emergency Peace Service. With sufficient support, such a service would complement efforts to overcome an increasingly divided, dangerous and heavily armed world. As a mechanism for enforcing international law, it would be a positive step toward ensuring a rules-based system; one that worked to promote common, human security. Gradually, it should also help to undermine the anarchy, the culture of impunity and the growing exclusivity characteristic of contemporary international relations. A UN Emergency Peace Service would be a permanent UN formation, maintained at high readiness with pre-trained, well-equipped personnel, available for immediate deployment once authorized by the UN Security Council. This service would be both multidimensional and multifunctional, composed of military, police and civilian elements, prepared for rapid deployment to diverse UN operations… I won’t go into all the details of this proposal today, but it is supported by a coalition of organizations and detailed in a wonderful book written by Dr. Peter Langille.
– Don Kraus, Former Executive Director, Citizens For Global Solutions
A United Nations Emergency Peace Service has the potential to improve the international community’s rapid response capabilities and thus, to help in preventing armed conflict. The vision of a ‘UN 911’ first responder recognizes that every second matters to protect civilians in the face of mass atrocities. UN officials, policy makers, and researchers, from generations old and new, should consider serious study of UNEPS.
– Patrick Quinton-Brown, MPhil Candidate at Oxford University, Editor at the St Antony’s International Review, and former Chairperson of the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect