About UN Peacekeeping Forces 

• The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces are employed by the UN to maintain or re-establish peace in an area of armed conflict. 
• The UN may engage in conflicts between states as well as in struggles within states. The UN acts as an impartial third party in order to prepare the ground for a settlement of the issues that have provoked armed conflict. 
• The UN Peacekeeping Forces may only be employed when both parties to a conflict accept their presence. 
• The Peacekeeping Forces are subordinate to the leadership of the United Nations. They are normally deployed as a consequence of a UN Security Council decision. However, on occasion, the initiative has been taken by the General Assembly. 
• Operational control belongs to the Secretary-General and his secretariat.

Two kinds

• There are two kinds of peacekeeping operations – unarmed observer groups and lightly-armed military forces. The latter are only allowed to employ their weapons for self-defence. 
• The observer groups are concerned with gathering information for the UN about actual conditions prevailing in an area. 
• The military forces are entrusted with more extended tasks, such as keeping the parties to a conflict apart and maintaining order in an area.
• The first UN peacekeeping mission was a team of observers deployed to the Middle East in 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 

Why in News?

• Indian Army (IA) has been contributing personnel to other countries to help in peacekeeping under the UN peacekeeping missions since 1950. At present 5,404 Indian peacekeepers are deployed in eight UN Missions. 

Reference:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1795544