Coalition to create all-female units for some UN operations

All-female units are to be created by the Government in a significant development in Ireland’s involvement in United Nations peacekeeping.

The units will be embedded in UN peacekeeping operations where gender-based violence has occurred.

The disclosure was made yesterday by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney when he opened an exhibition, UN60, in Collins Barracks in Dublin marking the 60th anniversary of Ireland's membership of the international body.

The exhibition tells the story of both Defence Forces and Garda Síochána participation in UN peacekeeping operations, which started when soldiers were first deployed in Lebanon in 1958, three years after Ireland joined the world body.

Since then, said Mr Coveney, Irish men and women had notched up “a staggering 64,000 tours of duty” with the UN.

“There is no other country on the planet that has unbroken service in terms of peace support and peacekeeping missions of a length that our little country has,” said Mr Coveney. “And I think that we should take great pride in that.”

Some 500 personnel are currently serving overseas in 16 locations. Since 1958, 87 peacekeepers – 86 soldiers and one garda – have died while on UN service.

International institute

The Minister said that following the recent publication of the White Paper on defence, which seeks to map a defence policy framework for the next 10 years, what he termed “initial scoping” had been done on setting up the International Institute for Peace and Leadership at the Defence Forces training centre in the Curragh envisaged in the White Paper.

A “very significant investment in that project [would be made] next year”, he said

He added: “It is proposed also to explore further options for gender-focused measures in UN operations, particularly in relation to the deployment of female personnel.”

Request from UN

Departing from his prepared speech, Mr Coveney said he had had discussions with the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

The Minister added: “What we have in mind is to respond to a request from the United Nations to be able to embed female-only units in other larger peacekeeping operations in different parts of the world where gender-based violence is a major part of conflict, and in support of conflict management in post-conflict situations where, unfortunately for all sorts of reasons, whether it be tradition or religion, women can do things that men cannot do, with suffering populations who are trying to rebuild their lives after conflict.”

Ireland has become a leader within the UN in having a gender-conscious approach to peacekeeping, largely through the work of the UN Training School Ireland, which the Defence Forces run in the Curragh.

Defence Forces personnel have had a major input, along with colleagues from Scandinavia, into evolving UN policy on gender-conscious peacekeeping and intelligence gathering.

The UN currently has three all-female police units, working in Haiti, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

All-female military units would build on this experience and it is understand policy discussions involving the departments of Foreign Affairs and Justice, together with the Garda and Defence Forces, have been initiated.