Actions taken:
As part of its active involvement in UN peacekeeping operations, Uruguay continues to provide and strengthen capacity-building for its national armed forces on a wide range of topics, including the protection of civilians and the response to sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict.
The training is provided by the National Peace Operations Training Institute of Uruguay (ENOPU), which operates under the Ministry of National Defence. It has a long track record in delivering instruction and has served as the training centre for international courses.
Uruguay’s involvement in peacekeeping operations dates back to the early years of the UN. In 1952, it contributed with the deployment of military observers to Kashmir on the border between India and Pakistan. In the following decades, Uruguayan troops were deployed as part of peacekeeping missions in Cambodia (UNTAC), Mozambique (ONUMOZ) and Angola (UNAVEM III), and later in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO, formerly MONUC) and in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Currently, Uruguayan troops are taking part in peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the Golan Heights (UNDOF), India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Colombia and Egypt (MFO). Uruguay is actively involved in six of the UN’s fifteen current peacekeeping missions. It ranks among the top 20 contributors of military personnel and is the biggest contributor in terms of troops as a proportion of its population.