Peacekeepers Peacekeeping

The concept of ‘peacekeepers’100 includes all members of any category of personnel sent on a

UN mission of peace: troops; military observers; civilian police; and civilian servants,

whether internationally or locally recruited.101 They all become part of the mission to help to

keep the peace, i.e. they are peacekeepers.102 The concept is, therefore, used to refer to the

personnel serving on any peacekeeping mission or operation. They are peace support

operations103 personnel, military or civilian.104 Civilian police and military observers are often

referred to as ‘experts on mission’.105

Special rules are, therefore, applicable to them. Indeed some rules specific to military contingents differ from those applicable to other categories of peacekeepers. For example, peacekeepers who are members of a military component are subjected to the criminal jurisdiction of their Troop-Contributing Country while those who are

98

Cassese A International Criminal Law 2 ed. (OUP New York 2008) 3. In peace operations there may be a mix of domestic and international law. Since such law provides for criminal liability of individuals, the conduct of peacekeepers may fall under actual international criminal law. See Rowe P ‘Maintaining Discipline in United Nations Peace Support Operations: The Legal Quagmire for Military Contingents’ 2000 (5) Journal of Conflict and Security Law 45-62.

99

It is now well documented that peacekeepers have been involved in sexual misconduct, smuggling, murder, torture, and even slavery. See Lineham R ‘Downwards Accountability and Consent in Comprehensive Assistance Missions’ 2007 (3) Policy Quarterly 14-21; Spees P ‘Gender Justice and Accountability in Peace Support Operations: Closing the Gaps’2004 (a Policy Briefing Paper by International Alert) 21.

100

Peacekeepers are also called ‘blue helmets’ or ‘blue berets’ because of the light blue colour of their hats or hard protective head covering. See Dorn AW Blue Sensors: Technology and Cooperative Monitoring for UN Peacekeepers - Cooperative Monitoring Centre Occasional Paper No. 36 (Canadian Forces College Toronto December 2004) 1; Van Rooyen Blue Helmets for Africa: India’s Peacekeeping in Africa – Occasional Paper No. 60 (AIIA Johannesburg 2010) 7.

101

This is the meaning assigned to the concept in the present thesis. For any other meaning and use in other documents, see Findlay T The Use of Force in UN Peace Operations (SIPRI/Oxford University Press Oxford 2002).

102

The UN peacekeepers are sometimes called ‘Blue Helmets’, ‘Blue Berets’ and even "Blue Caps" (civilian peacekeepers) because of the colour of their headgear. See Dorn AW op cit (n 100) 1.

103

Peacekeeping and peace support operations are ‘catch-all’ concepts. See Ngoma N ‘Peace Support Operations and Perpetual Human Failings: Are We All Human, or Are Some More Human than Others?’ 2005 (14) African Security Review 111-116, 111.

104

Spees P op cit (n 99) 10.

105

Miller AJ ‘Legal Aspects of Stopping Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in U.N. Peacekeeping Operations’2006 (39) Cornel International Law Journal 71- 99, 77. For the mandate of military observers, see Dorn AW op cit (n 100) 1.

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not can be hauled before the criminal jurisdictions of the Host State, save where the Special

Representative of the UN Secretary-General refuses to waive their immunity.106

As some writers define it,

Peacekeeping is the deployment of United Nations presence in the field, hitherto with the consent of all parties concerned, normally involving United Nations military and/or police personnel and frequently civilians as well. Peacekeeping is a technique that expands the possibilities for both the prevention of conflict and the making of peace.107

Strictly speaking, the scope of peacekeeping remains limited to the activities consented108 to

by the parties to the conflict.109 The UN requests the consent of the Host State, but, where

there is no government, the UN may still deploy the mission of peace.110 Consent has

constituted a constant feature in peacekeeping operations.111 Consent by the warring parties

allows the UN to conduct its activities on the ground freely.112

106

See paras 42 and 47 of the Model Status of Forces UN. Doc. A/45/594 of 9 October 1990.

107

Hough M, Du Plessis A and Kruys GPH (Eds) Peace Support Operations: Selected United Nations and African Documents (Institute for Strategic Studies University of Pretoria 2006) 21; Gumbi L ‘Peacekeeping: A Historical Background’ in Cilliers J and Mills G (Eds) Peacekeeping in Africa (Institute for Defence Policy and SA Institute of International Affairs 1995)27-47. In intrastate conflict it is sometimes only the consent of the legitimate government that is required. This puts the impartiality of the UN operation in doubt. See Tsangourias N ‘Consent, Neutrality/Impartiality and the Use of Force in Peacekeeping: Their Constitutional Dimension’ 2006 (11) Journal of Conflict and Security Law 465-482, 475 et passim. A peacekeeping mission can be sent where there is actually no peace to keep. See Goulding M ‘The United Nations and Conflict in Africa since the Cold War’1999 (98) African Affairs 155-166, 163.

108

Bouvier A ‘Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel: Presentation and analysis’ 1995 (309) International Review of the Red Cross 638-666; Gilligan M and Stedman SJ ‘Where Do the Peacekeepers Go?’ 2003 (5) International Studies Review 37-54; Porretto G & Vité S The Application of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law to International Organizations (Research Paper Series / Collection des travaux de recherché 2006 (1) Centre Universitaire de Droit International Humanitaire/ University Center for International Humanitarian Law 2006); Greenwood C ‘Historical Development and Legal Basis of International Humanitarian Law’ in Dieter Fleck (ed) The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law (Oxford University Press Oxford 2008)1-78; Dorn AW op cit (n 100) 7.

109

Peacekeeping has come to involve a diverse array of activities including: confidence-building measures; cease-fire monitoring; disarmament of combatants; election monitoring; and humanitarian relief distribution. See Ndulo M ‘The United Nations Responses to the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of women and Girls by Peacekeepers during Peacekeeping Missions’ 2008 (27) Berkeley Journal of International Law 126-160, 128.

110

Boutros-Ghali B ‘Empowering the United Nations’ 1992 (71) Foreign Affairs 89-102.

111

Tsangourias N ‘Consent, Neutrality/Impartiality and the Use of Force in Peacekeeping: Their Constitutional Dimension’ 2006 (11) Journal of Conflict and Security Law 465-482.

112

James A ‘The Dual Nature of UN Peacekeeping’ in Bourantonis D and Evriviades M (eds) A United Nation for the Twenty-First Century: Peace, Security and Development (Kluwer Law International The Hague 1996) 174; Petithomme M ‘Humanitarian Assistance and the Dilemmas of Force for Peace: The 1992-1994 Peacekeeping Operations in Somalia’ 2008 (7) Human Security Journal 32-45, 43; Ratner SR ‘Foreign Occupation and International Territorial Administration: The Challenges of Convergence’ 2005 (16) EJIL 695- 719, 698. Where the UN intervention is without consent, pursuant to UN SC resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the UN can be considered as an occupying power. See de Jonge B ‘The “Trembling Hand” of a One

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It is important to note, however, that any activities aimed at bringing peace or maintaining it

are considered as peacekeeping, in a general understanding.113 As one scholar has indicated,

‘Peacekeeping has become a synonym for almost any international activity aimed at

attenuating and resolving conflict that has potential or actual international consequences.’114

Traditional peacekeeping is distinguished from other UN missions of peace which involve

combat or enforcement powers.115 In such occurrences, the UN peace operations constitute a

means of enforcement action and the requirement of consent is, or may be, ignored.116 The

UN force is, therefore, deployed against the will of the host government and without its consent. In such a case, the action of the force can be justified on humanitarian basis.

Throughout this thesis, peacekeeping should be understood as including all peace support

operations, viz traditional peacekeeping, peace enforcement operations, and other peace-

related operations or missions such as humanitarian assistance. The study of crimes committed by peacekeepers includes all personnel who perform any activities pertaining to

peace operations. 117