Major General (ret) Patrick Cammaert has a distinguished military career in both The Netherlands with the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and the United Nations, where he served as Sector Commander in Cambodia (UNTAC), as Assistant Chief of Staff in Bosnia/Herzegovina (UNPROFOR), as Force Commander in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), as Military Advisor to the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO), and as General Officer Commanding the Eastern Division in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC).

Since his retirement from the military in 2007, he has been an effective expert advocate with regard to issues such as leadership in crisis circumstances, international peace and security, civil-military cooperation in peace support operations, peacekeeping, and security sector reform. Major General Cammaert has advised the senior management of UN Department for Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO), UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN WOMEN on strategic planning issues such as Integrated Training Development, the protection of civilians under immediate threat of physical violence and sexual violence in armed conflict. He was the lead consultant for the drafting and implementation of scenario based training on sexual violence in armed conflict and was a member of the Advisory Board of the DPKO/OCHA Protection of Civilians Study. His responsibilities have included carrying out fact finding/assessment and evaluation missions to several UN Missions such as in DRC, Libanon, Sudan, Haiti, Liberia and Chad and as Special Envoy to Sri Lanka for the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict. He is a regular senior mentor at UN Senior Leadership Courses organized by GPOI and by ITS UN DPKO, at GPOI/CCMR Contingent Commanders Courses and at Intensive Orientation Courses for UN Force Commanders. He is a regular speaker on issues as the use of force in UN peacekeeping operations, mandates, ROEs and sexual violence.

In 2008, Major General Cammaert was awarded the Carnegie-Wateler Peace Prize in the Peace Palace in The Hague. He serves as a member of the advisory board of the Mukomeze Foundation, which helps women and girls who survived rape and other forms of sexual violence in Rwanda.