(2009-11) What Role for the United Nations in Haiti?
Summary — A USIP Peace Briefing by Robert Maguire on MINUSTAH's future after its October 2009 mandate renewal: the mission's evolving stabilization role, Latin American leadership, and the conditions for eventual transition from peacekeeping.
Key Findings
- MINUSTAH was the sixth UN mission in Haiti since 1995, with 6,940 troops and 2,211 police under Brazilian command. The mission's role had shifted from gang confrontation to stabilization, election support, and capacity backstopping. Panelists warned premature drawdown would unravel security gains before the Haitian National Police could stand alone. Latin American troop contributors held a distinctive stake in the mission's success.
Full Description
Following the UN Security Council's October 13, 2009 one-year extension of MINUSTAH's mandate, USIP convened a panel with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Haiti's ambassador to Washington, and regional experts on the mission's future. This November 2009 Peace Briefing distills that discussion: MINUSTAH, the sixth UN mission in Haiti since 1995 and under Brazilian command with 6,940 troops and 2,211 police, had shifted from confronting gangs toward consolidating stability, supporting elections, and backstopping government capacity, with Bill Clinton's appointment as UN special envoy adding political weight. Panelists weighed Latin America's stake in the mission, benchmarks toward an eventual drawdown, and the risk that premature withdrawal would unravel security gains before Haitian institutions, especially the national police, could stand on their own. The briefing frames the pre-earthquake debate on peacekeeping transition whose assumptions the January 2010 disaster would overturn.
Notes
USIP Peace Briefing; original publisher PDF recovered from Wayback (direct file capture)