Branca: Responsibility regimes for international peace operations

Eleonora Branca (Università degli Studi Roma Tre - Law) has published Responsibility regimes for international peace operations (Editoriale scientifica 2023). Here's the abstract:

The occurrence of harmful conducts in peace operations to the detriment of the local population, which in some cases amounted to serious violations of international law, have generated a growing demand for justice by aggrieved individuals. This has led to our main research question, which looks at the legal consequences under international law of harmful conduct carried out by States and international organisations in peace operations. The study submits that the variety of actors and the complex legal interplays between them calls into question a plurality of responsibility. The term ‘responsibility regimes’ is used here to refer to three concepts generally associated with the legal notion of responsibility, namely international responsibility, accountability, and liability. The research will address the three responsibility regimes in turn, and will unfold around two main issues: i) the allocation of responsibility and ii) the remedies available under the three responsibility regimes.

International responsibility can be defined as the legal relationship that arises from the breach of an international obligation, attributable to a State or to an international organisation, in the absence of circumstances precluding wrongfulness.

The concept of accountability has a twofold meaning: on the one hand, it is understood as the duty of an entity to give account of the exercise of its powers vis à vis others, as it is the case of monitoring and reporting activities of international organizations; one the other hand, accountability implyies the possibility for other actors to hold to account an entity for the exercise of its powers against certain standards, as in the case of compliance mechanisms. In peace operations, reference can be made to the UNMIK Ombudsperson, UN HRAP, EULEX HRRP or the UN Trust Fund for Victims of SEA, to cite a few.

Liability is characterised by the obligation to pay compensation for the damage caused, regardless of whether the conduct causing the harm is internationally wrongful. In peace operations, the liability regime characterises the functioning of claims systems established by States and international organizations to settle third-party claims.

This thorough examination shows how the three responsibility regimes come into question, highlight their strengths and weaknesses in responding to the individual quest for justice vis à vis wrongful acts carried out by States and international organizations in peace operations. The hypothesis is made that the responsibility gap can be progressively closed by enhancing the functioning of each responsibility regime, whereby they would mutually complement and reinforce each other to provide a credible answer to victims of wrongful act carried out by States and international organizations in peace operations.

Buitelaar: Assisting International Justice: Cooperation Between UN Peace Operations and the International Criminal Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Tom Buitelaar (Leiden Univ. - Institute of Security and Global Affairs) has published Assisting International Justice: Cooperation Between UN Peace Operations and the International Criminal Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Oxford Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:

Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) - as the only permanent international court that addresses crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes - has important potential to end impunity and find justice for victims of atrocities, it is dependent on others for almost all aspects of its functioning. The Court has frequently relied on the peacekeeping operations that the UN deploys in the field and, over the past two decades, UN peacekeepers have provided logistical assistance and security to Court investigators, shared large amounts of information, and have even been involved in the arrest of Court suspects. But their track record has been inconsistent: they have sometimes refused to take action against people accused of war crimes and have found it difficult to balance their impartiality with court prosecutions. Despite the empirical importance of this phenomenon, we know preciously little about the circumstances under which it occurs.

In Assisting International Justice, Buitelaar reveals the conditions under which UN peacekeepers address impunity in their mission areas. He presents an original single-country case study of assistance provided by the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a plausibility probe of other peace operations in ICC situation countries. Relying on new empirical material, including over 130 interviews of key decision-makers, and comprehensive archival research, this scholarly volume explores how the UN navigates the terrain of conflict mediation and punitive accountability and demonstrates the collaborative but contingent relationship between the UN and the ICC.

Roundtable: The MONUSCO Intervention Brigade at Ten

On Ocotber 25, 2023, the International Law at Westminster group will host, in person and online, a roundtable on "The MONUSCO Intervention Brigade at Ten." Details are here.

Oksamytna: Advocacy and Change in International Organizations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping

Kseniya Oksamytna (City, Univ. of London - International Politics) has published Advocacy and Change in International Organizations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping (Oxford Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:

How do international organizations change? Many organizations expand into new areas or abandon programmes of work. Advocacy and Change in International Organizations argues that they do so not only at the collective direction of member states. Advocacy is a crucial but overlooked source of change in international organizations. Different actors can advocate for change: national diplomats, international bureaucrats, external experts, or civil society activists. They can use one of three advocacy strategies: social pressure, persuasion, and 'authority talk'. The success of each strategy depends on the presence of favourable conditions related to characteristics of advocates, targets, issues, and context. Institutionalization of new issues in international organizations as a multi-stage process, often accompanied by contestation.

This book demonstrates how the advocacy-focused framework explains the origins of three workstreams of contemporary UN peacekeeping operations: communication, protection, and reconstruction. The issue of strategic communications was promoted by UN officials through the strategy of persuasion. Protection of civilians emerged due to a partially successful social influence campaign by a coalition of elected Security Council members and a subsequent (and successful) persuasion efforts by Canada. Quick impact projects entered peacekeepers' practice as the result of 'authority talk' by an expert panel. The three issues illustrate the diversity of pathways to change in international organizations, representing the top-down, bottom-up, and outside-in pathways. Moreover, they have achieved different degrees of institutionalization in UN's policies, structures, and frameworks: protection of civilians is the most institutionalized, as evidenced by measures to hold peacekeepers accountable for non-implementation, while quick impact projects are the least institutionalized.

Kjeksrud: Using Force to Protect Civilians: Successes and Failures of United Nations Peace Operations in Africa

Stian Kjeksrud (Norwegian Defence Univ.) has published Using Force to Protect Civilians: Successes and Failures of United Nations Peace Operations in Africa (Oxford Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:

Using Force to Protect Civilians offers the first comprehensive analysis of United Nations military protection operations across time and UN missions, drawing on a novel dataset that covers 200 operations from ten UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the book finds that Blue Helmets succeed as often as they fail when they employ force to protect, indicating that they can wield force effectively - under the right conditions - to achieve this priority task. Stian Kjeksrud shows that effective UN military protection operations must rest on a deep understanding of perpetrators' motivation and modus operandi for attacking civilians, facilitating tailored military responses to stop or reduce physical threats in a timely manner. Adding to existing knowledge about the conflict-reducing effect of the presence of uniformed UN personnel, he also finds that specific actions matter more than the simple presence of Blue Helmets in large numbers. While protecting civilians is a priority task for military peacekeepers, we have limited knowledge about how they fare across time and in different UN missions when they use force to protect. We also remain largely ignorant of the conditions leading to successful outcomes when they intervene militarily to protect civilians from violence. Using Force to Protect Civilians addresses both of these knowledge gaps, and provides the building blocks for a theory of the utility of force to protect civilians in UN peace operations.

Bourgeois & Labuda: When May UN Peacekeepers Use Lethal Force to Protect Civilians? Reconciling Threats to Civilians, Imminence, and the Right to Life

Hanna Bourgeois (KU Leuven) & Patryk I. Labuda (Univ. of Amsterdam) have posted When May UN Peacekeepers Use Lethal Force to Protect Civilians? Reconciling Threats to Civilians, Imminence, and the Right to Life (Journal of Conflict and Security Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

UN Security Council now regularly deploys peacekeeping missions with robust mandates to protect civilians and encourages their proactive implementation, including by using force. While this turn to robust civilian protection is usually celebrated, the legal parameters of using force are rarely scrutinised, with scholarship focused on self-defence and UN policy to justify mandate implementation. By analysing the relationship between peacekeeping mandates and international law in light of the shift from defensive to proactive peacekeeping, this article argues that the legality of using force for civilian protection purposes must be reconciled not only with Security Council resolutions but also with human rights law, which imposes strict temporal conditions for lawful deprivations of the right to life outside the conduct of hostilities. Drawing on the UN’s current practice of protecting civilians in hostile environments, this article attempts to reconcile proactive civilian-oriented peacekeeping with the concept of imminence as understood in human rights law.

Richmond: The Grand Design: The Evolution of the International Peace Architecture

Oliver P. Richmond (Univ. of Manchester - International Relations) has published The Grand Design: The Evolution of the International Peace Architecture (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

The guiding principle of peacemaking and peacebuilding over the past quarter century has been "liberal peace": the promotion of democracy, capitalism, law, and respect for human rights. These components represent a historic effort to prevent a reoccurrence of the nationalism, fascism, and economic collapse that led to the World Wars as well as many later conflicts. Ultimately, this strategy has been somewhat successful in reducing war between countries, but it has failed to produce legitimate and sustainable forms of peace at the domestic level. The goals of peacebuilding have changed over time and place, but they have always been built around compromise via processes of intervention aimed at supporting "progress" in conflict-affected countries. They have simultaneously promoted changes in the regional and global order.

As Oliver P. Richmond argues in this book, the concept of peace has evolved continuously through several eras: from the imperial era, through the states-system, liberal, and current neoliberal eras of states and markets. It holds the prospect of developing further through the emerging "digital" era of transnational networks, new technologies, and heightened mobility. Yet, as recent studies have shown, only a minority of modern peace agreements survive for more than a few years and many peace agreements and peacebuilding missions have become intractable, blocked, or frozen. This casts a shadow on the legitimacy, stability, and effectiveness of the overall international peace architecture, reflecting significant problems in the evolution of an often violently contested international and domestic order.

This book examines the development of the international peace architecture, a "grand design" comprising various subsequent attempts to develop a peaceful international order. Richmond examines six main theoretical-historical stages in this process often addressed through peacekeeping and international mediation, including the balance of power mechanism of the 19th Century, liberal internationalism after World War I, and the expansion of rights and decolonization after World War II. It also includes liberal peacebuilding after the end of the Cold War, neoliberal statebuilding during the 2000s, and an as yet unresolved current "digital" stage. They have produced a substantial, though fragile, international peace architecture. However, it is always entangled with, and hindered by, blockages and a more substantial counter-peace framework. The Grand Design provides a sweeping look at the troubled history of peace processes, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding, and their effects on the evolution of international order. It also considers what the next stage may bring.

Dayal: Incredible Commitments: How UN Peacekeeping Failures Shape Peace Processes

Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal (Fordham Univ. - Political Science) has published Incredible Commitments: How UN Peacekeeping Failures Shape Peace Processes (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

Why do warring parties turn to United Nations peacekeeping and peacemaking even when they think it will fail? Dayal asks why UN peacekeeping survived its early catastrophes in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans, and how this survival should make us reconsider how peacekeeping works. She makes two key arguments: first, she argues the UN's central role in peacemaking and peacekeeping worldwide means UN interventions have structural consequences – what the UN does in one conflict can shift the strategies, outcomes, and options available to negotiating parties in other conflicts. Second, drawing on interviews, archival research, and process-traced peace negotiations in Rwanda and Guatemala, Dayal argues warring parties turn to the UN even when they have little faith in peacekeepers' ability to uphold peace agreements – and even little actual interest in peace – because its involvement in negotiation processes provides vital, unique tactical, symbolic, and post-conflict reconstruction benefits only the UN can offer.

Conference: Partnered Operations and International Law

On September 24, 2021, Sapienza Università di Roma, in coooperation with the Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict of the American Society of International Law and the Interest Group on Peace and Security of the European Society of Internatonal Law, will hold a conference on "Partnered Operations and International Law" in Rome. Program and registration information are here.

Freedman, Lemay-Hébert, & Wills: The Law and Practice of Peacekeeping: Foregrounding Human Rights

Rosa Freedman (Univ. of Reading), Nicolas Lemay-Hébert (Australian National Univ.), & Siobhán Wills (Ulster Univ.) have published The Law and Practice of Peacekeeping: Foregrounding Human Rights (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

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.

Ekanayake: Regulating the Use of Force by United Nations Peace Support Operations: Balancing Promises and Outcomes

Charuka Ekanayake has published Regulating the Use of Force by United Nations Peace Support Operations: Balancing Promises and Outcomes (Routledge 2021). Here's the abstract:

This Book attempts to deduce regulatory standards that can close the gaps between the Promises made and the Outcomes secured by the United Nations in relation to its use of force. It explores two broad questions in this regard: why the contemporary legal framework relevant to the regulation of force during Armed Conflict cannot close the gaps between the said Promises and Outcomes and how the ‘Unified Use of Force Rule’ formulated herein, achieves this. This is the first book to coherently analyse the moral as well as legal aspects relevant to UN use of force.

UN peace operations are rapidly changing. Deployed peacekeepers are now required to use force in pursuance of numerous objectives such as self-defence, protecting civilians, and carrying out targeted offensive operations. As a result, questions about when, where, and how to use force have now become central to peacekeeping. While UN peace operations have managed to avoid catastrophes of the magnitude of Rwanda and Srebrenica for over two decades, crucial gaps still exist between what the UN promises on the use of force front, and what it achieves. Current conflict zones such as the Central African Republic, Eastern Congo, and Mali stand testament to this. This book searches for answers to these issues and identifies how an innovative mix of the relevant legal and moral rules can produce regulatory standards that can allow the UN to keep their promises. The discussion covers analytical ground that must be traversed ‘behind the scenes’ of UN deployment, well before the first troops set foot on a battlefield. The analysis ultimately produces a ‘Unified Use of Force Rule’, that can either be completely or partially used as a model set of Rules of Engagement by UN forces.

de Guttry, Post, & Venturini: The 1998-2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia War and Its Aftermath in International Legal Perspective - From the 2000 Algiers Agreements to the 2018 Peace Agreement

Andrea de Guttry (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Harry Post (Université Catholique de Lille), & Gabriella Venturini (Università degli Studi di Milano) have published The 1998-2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia War and Its Aftermath in International Legal Perspective - From the 2000 Algiers Agreements to the 2018 Peace Agreement (Asser Press 2021, 2d ed.). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This book centres on the war that raged between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000, a war that caused great loss of life and tremendous devastation. It analyses the war in great detail from an international legal perspective: the nature and the state of the boundary conflict preceding the actual armed conflict, the military actions themselves, the role of the UN peacekeeping mission, the responsibility for the multitude of explosive remnants of the war left behind. Ample attention is paid to the decisions of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission and the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

This study is not limited to the war and the period immediately following it, it also examines its more extended aftermath prolonging the analysis as far as the more recent improvement in the relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia, away from a situation of ‘no war, no peace’ that prevailed after the armed conflict ended. The analysis of the war and its aftermath is not only in terms of international legal issues, it has been placed in a wider than strictly legal perspective.

Maus: United Nations Peace Operations and Human Rights: Normativity and Compliance

Sylvia Maus has published United Nations Peace Operations and Human Rights: Normativity and Compliance (Brill | Nijhoff 2020). Here's the abstract:

In United Nations Peace Operations and Human Rights: Normativity and Compliance Sylvia Maus offers a comprehensive account of the human rights obligations of United Nations peace operations with a dual focus on the applicability and the content of UN peace operations’ human rights obligations. Selected case studies show a triad of human rights gaps: a protection gap, an accountability gap and a remedy gap.

Going further than purely legal studies on the subject, Maus makes use of international relations theory and addresses considerations of reputation and legitimacy as reasons for (non-)compliance with human rights by the UN. Based on this interdisciplinary approach, she convincingly proposes ways for enhancing human rights compliance in UN peace operations.

Sebode: Peace-Keeping der 5. Generation? Die Afghanistanmission der Vereinten Nationen und ihre Bedeutung für deren Friedenssicherungspraxis

Ana Catarina Sebode has published Peace-Keeping der 5. Generation? Die Afghanistanmission der Vereinten Nationen und ihre Bedeutung für deren Friedenssicherungspraxis (Mohr Siebeck 2020). Here's the abstract:

Über ein Jahrzehnt währte die Afghanistanmission der Vereinten Nationen, bestehend aus den Missionskomponenten ISAF und UNAMA. Sie hat die Praxis des sog. Peace-Keeping der Vereinten Nationen maßgeblich geprägt. Ana Catarina Sebode bettet die Mission in den Kontext des Peace-Keeping ein und zeigt ihre Bedeutung für die Rolle des Sicherheitsrates im Friedenssicherungssystem der Charta der Vereinten Nationen auf. Sie beantwortet die Frage, ob die Afghanistanmission im bestehenden völkerrechtlich etablierten Generationengefüge des Peace-Keeping aufgeht, oder ob sie Teil einer neuen Generation der Friedenssicherung ist. Das besondere Engagement der NATO, die von 2003 bis 2014 die Führung über die militärische Missionskomponente ISAF innehatte, wird dabei kritisch gewürdigt. So entsteht ein Gesamtbild der Vor- und Nachteile des arbeitsteiligen Peace-Keeping zwischen den Vereinten Nationen, ihren Mitgliedstaaten und regionalen Partnern wie der NATO im kriegsgeplagten Land am Hindukusch.

Doss: A Peacekeeper in Africa: Learning from UN Interventions in Other People’s Wars

Alan Doss has published A Peacekeeper in Africa: Learning from UN Interventions in Other People’s Wars (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2020). Here's the abstract:

Alan Doss offers a rare window into the real world of UN peacekeeping missions in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Doss's story is one of presidents and prelates, warlords and warriors, heroes and villains, achievements and disappointments—and innocent people caught in the midst of deadly violence. As he shares his front-line experiences, he reflects on the reasons for successes and failures and on the qualities that leaders need to successfully guide efforts to rebuild peace and prosperity in devastated societies. Not least, he also considers the UN's future role in conflict prevention and peacekeeping in a climate of increasing resistance to intervention in "other people's wars."

Nedeski & Boutin: The Continuing Saga of State Responsibility for the Conduct of Peacekeeping Forces: Recent Practice of Dutch and Belgian Courts

Nataša Nedeski (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) & Berenice Boutin (T.M.C. Asser Instituut) have posted The Continuing Saga of State Responsibility for the Conduct of Peacekeeping Forces: Recent Practice of Dutch and Belgian Courts (Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In this contribution we reflect on two recent high-stakes cases before domestic courts on state responsibility for the actions and omissions of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces. Both cases are the result of efforts by surviving relatives of, respectively, victims of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and victims of the Srebrenica genocide in 1995, to obtain reparation from troop-contributing states for the harm caused by UN peacekeeping troops’ failure to protect civilians. While the facts of both cases display some striking similarities, the courts reached opposite conclusions, with the Dutch Court holding the Netherlands responsible, and the Belgium Court rejecting any responsibility of the Belgium state. We critically review the two cases, and analyse in particular the approach of each court regarding attribution of conduct, paying particular attention to the specific factual circumstances of transition and withdrawal in both cases, and to the issue of attribution of legal omissions. We further present observations as to the question of shared responsibility in the context of peacekeeping operations.

Labuda: UN Peacekeeping as Intervention by Invitation. Host State Consent and the Use of Force in Security Council-mandated Stabilization Operations

Patryk I. Labuda (Tufts Univ. - Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) has posted UN Peacekeeping as Intervention by Invitation. Host State Consent and the Use of Force in Security Council-mandated Stabilization Operations (Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Contemporary UN peacekeeping missions often have Chapter VII mandates and wide authorizations to use force, notably to protect civilians. Since 2010, however, the Security Council has created a new generation of stabilization missions to support host governments. Peacekeepers in these missions are expected not only to protect civilians but also to combat armed groups, sometimes jointly with state security forces. While this may seem like just the next step in the UN’s gradual drift from traditional to robust peacekeeping, this article argues that stabilization constitutes a more radical departure from conventional doctrines on the use of force by peacekeepers. In fact, stabilization should be understood as a distinct form of UN-mandated intervention by invitation.

Bove, Ruffa, & Ruggeri: Composing Peace: Mission Composition in UN Peacekeeping

Vincenzo Bove (Univ. of Warwick), Chiara Ruffa (Uppsala Univ.), & Andrea Ruggeri (Univ. of Oxford) have published Composing Peace: Mission Composition in UN Peacekeeping (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

Composing Peace: Mission Composition in UN Peacekeeping is about mission composition in peacekeeping operations and asks how diversity of mission composition influences the ability of a peace mission to keep the peace. This book focuses on four types of mission composition—diversity among peacekeepers, within the mission leadership, between mission leaders and peacekeepers, and between peacekeepers and locals. It is the first book to explore mission composition and its consequences, unpacking a concept hitherto unexplored and empirically combining quantitative and qualitative methods. It makes an important contribution to the fields of peace research, security studies, and international relations at large.

Murati UN Territorial Administration and Human Rights: The Mission in Kosovo

Gjylbehare Bella Murati (Haxhi Zeka Univ.) has published UN Territorial Administration and Human Rights: The Mission in Kosovo (Routledge 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book offers an original and insightful analysis of the human rights inadequacies that arise in the practice of UN territorial administration by analysing and assessing the practice of UNMIK. It provides arguments based on law and principles to support the thesis that a comprehensive legal framework governing the activities of the UN mission is a crucial prerequisite for its proper functioning. This is complemented by a discussion of several emerging issues surrounding the UN activity on the ground, namely, its legislative, judicial, and executive power.

The author offers an extensive and well-documented analysis of the UN’s capacity as a surrogate state administration to respond to the needs of the governed population and, above all, protect its fundamental rights. Based on her findings, Murati concludes that only a comprehensive mandate can serve the long term interests of the international community’s objective to efficiently promote, protect, and fulfil human rights in a war-torn society.

UN Territorial Administration and Human Rights provides a detailed critical legal analysis of one of the major UN administrations of territory after the Cold War, namely, the UN administration of Kosovo from 1999 to 2008. The analysis in this book will be beneficial to international law and international relations scholars and students, as well as policymakers and persons working for international organisations. The analysis and the lessons learned through this study shed light on the challenges entailed in governing territories and rebuilding state institutions while upholding the rule of law and ensuring respect for human rights.

Call for Papers: Partnered Operations and International Law

The ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security, the ASIL Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict, and the Department of Legal and Economic Studies - Law School - of Sapienza University of Rome have issued a call for papers for a conference on "Partnered Operations and International Law," which will take place at Sapienza University of Rome, Law School, on October 23, 2020. The deadline is March 31, 2020. The call is here.