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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE ROLE OF DEPARTMENT OF PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS 
The UNDPKO. established as a separate department of the UN secretariat in 1992. is 
responsible for planning. Preparing, Managing, deploying, supporting and. on behalf of the 
Secretary General providing executive direction to all UN peacekeeping Operations. The official 
DPKO was created in 1992 when Boutros Boutros Ghali took office as Secretary General of the 
UN and DPKO's creation was one of his decisions. The role of the DPKO however, wasn't clarified 
until June 1992, when Boutros -Ghali issued a plan to strengthen the UN's capacity for preventive 
diplomacy and peacekeeping entitled 'An Agenda for Peace. 
Furthermore, the DPKO is split into two main offices: the office of operations and the 
office of mission support. However, a March 2007 UN General Assembly Resolution advocated 
that the department be assisted by a new department which will among other things handle 
logistics, thereby allowing the DPKO to concentrate on policy implementation(History of DPKO. 
Accessed 11/6/13). 
PEACEKEEPING PRINCIPLES 

Consent: peacekeepers should be deployed with the consent of the parties to the conflict. 

Impartiality: neutrality in the execution of their mandate. 

Restraint: in the use of force - Although force must be used in a restrained fashion if it may 
be employed only for self and mandate defense. 

Credibility: peace operations must be disciplined to show a high level of credibility or else 
they can be asked to quit. 

Legitimacy: operations must be seen as legitimate. This expresses the firm and fair exercise 
of the mandate, circumspect use of force, discipline of the peacekeepers and respects shown 
to the local population.

Promotion of National and Local Ownership: peacekeepers should promote national and 
local ownership of the peace process. 

The importance of the above mentioned principles and guidelines cannot be over 
emphasized knowing this has helped to clarify the nature and purpose of peacekeeping 
operations as well as strengthen best practices. (Bellamy & Williams 2010) 

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