In an increasingly complex world, it is more crucial than ever to have a full picture of how international peacekeeping can be a force for good, but can also have potentially negative impacts on host communities. After thirteen years of presence in Haiti, the highly controversial United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti has now withdrawn. The UN's legacy in Haiti is not all negative, but it does include sexual scandals, the divisive use of force to 'clean up' difficult neighbourhoods as well as a cholera epidemic, brought inadvertently by Nepalese peacekeepers that killed more than 8,000 Haitians and infected more than 600,000. This book presents a unique multi-disciplinary analysis of the legacy of the mission for Haiti. It presents an innovative account of contemporary international peacekeeping law and practice, arguing for a new model of accountability, going beyond the outdated immunity mechanisms to foreground human rights.
Confronted with the practical legal aspects of Peace Support Operations (PSO) in their daily work, the two authors realized that there was an urgent need for the international community of military and civilian lawyers, law enforcement agencies, policy makers, legal advisers and military commanders dealing with these types of missions to have a guidebook analyzing, questioning and providing some solutions to the practical legal aspects intrinsic in them and which are often known only to those who have been serving in the field. It was therefore decided to create a tool to record and diffuse the know-how acquired by those who have been directly confronted with these issues, in the field and at headquarters. Among the cutting-edge topics practitioners explore in Peace Support Operations & Their Legal Implications are human trafficking and illegal immigration in theatres of PSO such as the Balkans, arrest and detention of suspects of serious breaches of the laws of war, the relationship and role sharing of civilian law enforcement agencies and peacekeepers, the use of non-lethal and other weapons (e.g. riot control agents), criminal liability for breaches of international law and Rules Of Engagement. Contributions of a more strategic nature deal further with the complexities of Status of Forces Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding, the extraterritorial applicability of human rights obligations, the application of the law of occupation to peacekeeping forces, their new role and the relative problems in peace-building. The main objective of this guidebook is to provide the basis for further discussion, suggesting what should be done next, and to constitute a problem-solving tool for those deployed in the field, often secluded from the external world and confronted with difficulties to be solved immediately, under the pressure of time. The idea is to show them the path undertaken by others who have been confronted with similar problems and to share the knowledge and fight the power. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.
The UN's record in peace operations is long, various, distinguished by both accomplishments and failures, and most importantly, innovative. Unfulfilled expectations and escalating violence in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia forced retrenchment upon UN peace operations_but at the same time, a new opportunity to enhance capacities, review strategies, redefine roles, and reaffirm responsibilities has opened up. Here, a dynamic group of leading diplomats, academics, and journalists combines forces with UN policymakers and leaders including current Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to explore how the international community can improve its practice in negotiating and implementing peace. They look at what works and what doesn't in UN peacemaking and peacekeeping, and then map out alternative futures for UN action in the 21st century.
This book critically examines the response of the United Nations (UN) to the problem of sexual exploitation in UN Peace Support Operations. It assesses the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Special Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (2003) (SGB) and its definition of sexual exploitation, which includes sexual relationships and prostitution. With reference to people affected by the policy (using the example of Bosnian women and UN peacekeepers), and taking account of both radical and ‘sex positive’ feminist perspectives, the book finds that the inclusion of consensual sexual relationships and prostitution in the definition of sexual exploitation is not tenable. The book argues that the SGB is overprotective, relies on negative gender and imperial stereotypes, and is out of step with international human rights norms and gender equality. It concludes that the SGB must be revised in consultation with those affected by it, namely local women and peacekeepers, and must fully respect their human rights and freedoms, particularly the right to privacy and sexuality rights.
Revised and updated, The Law and Practice of the United Nations provides an analysis of the main legal issues surrounding the United Nations' practice, including a thorough discussion of Chapter VII of the Charter and its interpretation.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of peace agreements from a legal perspective. The book describes and evaluates the development of contemporary peace agreement practice, and the documents which emerge. It sets out what is in essence an anatomy of peace agreement practice, and locates this practice with reference to the role of law. The last fifteen years have seen a proliferation of peace agreements. These peace agreements have been produced as a result of complex peace processes involving multi-party negotiations between the main protagonists of conflict, often with the involvement of international actors. They document attempts to end conflict, and this book argues that they play an underestimated role in a political process that centrally revolves around law. Understanding peace agreements is important to understanding contemporary peace processes. Law plays two key roles with respect to peace agreements: first, to the extent that peace agreements themselves form legal documents, law plays a role in the 'enforcement' or implementation of the peace agreement; second, international law has a relationship to peace agreement negotiation and content, in an enabling or regulatory capacity. The aim of the book is to evaluate the role which law plays both in enforcing peace agreements and through a normative framework which constrains the ways in which they operate. This evaluation reveals a deeper link between the legal status of peace agreements and their normative regulation as mutually shaping, in what is argued to be a developing lex pacificatoria - or law of the peace makers. This lex pacificatoria stands as an account of the way in which international law shapes and is shaped by peace agreements, in ways which impact on contemporary debates about the force of international law.
The Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations presents an innovative, authoritative, and accessible examination and critique of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronological analysis, designed to provide a comprehensive perspective that highlights the evolution of UN peacekeeping and offers a detailed picture of how the decisions of UN bureaucrats and national governments on the set-up and design of particular UN missions were, and remain, influenced by the impact of preceding operations. The volume will bring together leading scholars and senior practitioners in order to provide overviews and analyses of all 65 peacekeeping operations that have been carried out by the United Nations since 1948. As with all Oxford Handbooks, the volume will be agenda-setting in importance, providing the authoritative point of reference for all those working throughout international relations and beyond.
UN peace operations are increasingly asked to pursue stabilization mandates with lofty expectations of being able to stabilize conflict zones, achieve national reconciliation, and rebuild state legitimacy. This book investigates the relationship between UN stabilization mandates and the concept of ‘human security’. The book is divided into three parts. Part I outlines the emergence of stabilization and other trends in peacekeeping practice and outlines an analytical framework of human security. Part II applies the analytical framework to case studies of MINUSMA, MINUSCA, and UNMISS examining issues, such as human rights, empowerment, protection, and vulnerability. In Part III the book draws out several concerns that arise from stabilization mandates, including the militarisation of UN peace operations and the consequences under international humanitarian law, the risks of close cooperation with the host state and engagement in counter-terror activities, and the potential clash between peacebuilding activities and militarisation. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, policymakers and practitioners working on UN peacekeeping generally, and those specifically looking at stabilization, from the perspective of international relations, international law, peace and conflict studies, security studies and human rights.
