By Purusottam P Khatri
Kathmandu, Mar. 3: The number of Nepali women soldiers participating in the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions has not increased significantly over the years.
Although the Nepali Army (NA) has pledged to increase the number of women soldiers as required by the UN, the participation is not encouraging enough due to various reasons, according to the Nepali Army Headquarters.
The NA currently has 5,128 personnel in 12 missions around the world, and only 187 (nearly 3 per cent) of them are women.
In the last fiscal, participation of women soldiers in the peacekeeping mission stood at 202. Of the total now deployed women soldiers, 25 were observers as of January 29, 2021.
The UN had been instructing the troops contributing countries (TCC) to send at least 7 per cent women soldiers in peacekeeping missions by 2020, but the NA has failed to meet this requirement.
The NA had sent women soldiers in the peacekeeping mission for the first time in 1993.
The Army’s first UN peace mission deployment was made in 1958 in Lebanon as the United Nations Observer Group with just five military observers. The NA officially began sending its formal contingent only from 1974 in Egypt.
Since then, only 1,528 women soldiers have been sent in the mission. “We have some technical difficulties to abide by the UN instruction as the NA has only 5 per cent women soldiers,” NA Spokesperson Brigadier General Shantosh Ballave Poudyal told The Rising Nepal. “We have been gradually raising the number of female soldiers in the missions.”
He claimed that not just Nepal but even European countries are struggling to immediately comply with the UN instruction due to their traditional structures.
Another reason for not increasing women’s participation in the mission is the requirement of minimum six years’ service in the organisation for officers and nine years for lower ranks, according to Poudyal.
The UN has instructed increasing female participation in peacekeeping missions pointing that women can display their capabilities if there was right environment, and deeming that doing so would play a big role in women’s empowerment.
Poudyal said, “Women’s participation can also prevent complexities arising during peacekeeping.”
The NA has already felt that women soldiers can play a greater role in building up relationship with commoners in the countries of their mission. The women have also been effective in community programmes, including health camps, during the missions.
According to the NA, it has currently been deploying its UN Peace troops in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Central African Republic, Mali, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Western Sahara and Abyei as the UnitedNations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which is a contested region between the Republic of Sudan and South Sudan.
In 43 UN missions, 134,890 NA personnel have participated over the years, according to Poudyal.
Nepal has also made commitment to contributing up to 10,000 peacekeepers to the UN.
– The Rising Nepal
