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Use of Deadly Force by Peacekeepers When Carrying out Law Enforcement Operations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2019

Siobhán Wills
Siobhán Wills*
Affiliation:
University of Ulster.
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Extract

In this Article, I argue that there is inconsistency and confusion at the heart of UN policy on use of deadly force by peacekeepers and that this lack of clarity has resulted in deaths and injuries to people that pose no threat to UN forces or anybody else and have not engaged in any violent activities or indeed in any type of crime. Such deaths and injuries are likely to recur if the United Nations continues to use the same rules of engagement for law enforcement operations as it does for operations aimed at curtailing violence by parties to an armed conflict. The problem would be greatly mitigated if the United Nations were to formally commit to applying customary international human rights law standards on use of force in all circumstances except those to which international humanitarian law applies.

Type
“Aggressive” Peacekeeping in The Twenty-First Century
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 112 , 2018 , pp. 111 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © by The American Society of International Law 2019 

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References

1 Available at https://itstayswithyou.com/film.

2 UN Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council, Field Missions Mandate Table (Feb. 1, 2016), available at http://www.un.org/en/sc/inc/pages/pdf/mandate.xls.

3 T.D. Gill, R. Heinsch, R. Geiss, ILA Study Group, “The Conduct of Hostilities and International Humanitarian Law: Challenges of 21st Century Warfare”-Interim Report (2014); ICRC, Violence and the Use of Force (2015); ICRC, Advisory Service on International Humanitarian Law: The Use of Force in Law Enforcement Operations (2015).

4 UN Secretary-General's Bulletin, Observance by United Nations Forces of International Humanitarian Law, § 1.1, UN Doc ST/SGB/1999/13 (1999).

5 Id.

6 Daragh Murray, Practitioners’ Guide to Human Rights Law in Armed Conflict 262 (2016).

7 Nils Melzer, Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities Under International Humanitarian Law 32, 62 (2009).

8 Rights Up Front: A Plan of Action to Strengthen the UN's Role in Protecting People in Crises, at 3, para. 4 (July 9, 2013), available at http://www.innercitypress.com/sriban1rightsupfronticp.pdf.

9 Report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations on Uniting our Strengths for Peace: Politics, Partnership and People, para. 81(d)(iii), UN Doc. A/70/95–S/2015/446 (June 17, 2015).

10 Special Rapporteur, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Hum. Rts. Council, 25th Sess., Agenda Item 3, at paras. 58, 75, 145, UN Doc. A/HRC/26/36 (2014) (by Christof Heyns).

11 Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen, The Human Rights Treaty Obligations of Peacekeepers 323–33 (2012); Orakhelashvili, Alexander, The Impact of Peremptory Norms on the Interpretation and Application of United Nations Security Council Resolutions, 16 Eur. J. Int'l L. 59, 59 (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paust, Jordan J., The U.N. is Bound by Human Rights: Understanding the Full Reach of Human Rights, Remedies, and Nonimmunity, 51 Harv. Int'l. L.J. 1, 5 (2010)Google Scholar.

12 GA Res. 45/111, Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (1990).

13 UN Doc. MD/FGS/0220.0001 (May 2002).

14 GA Res. 45/111, supra note 12.

15 Special Rapporteur, Civil and Political Rights, Including the Question of Disappearances and Summary Executions, at 326, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.1 (2006).

16 A. Walter Dorn, Intelligence-Led Peacekeeping: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), 2006–07, 24 Intelligence & Nat'l Sec. 805, 814 (2009).

17 See It Stays with You, supra note 1.

18 Viewed by author, November 2016.

19 See It Stays with You, supra note 1.

20 Id.

21 Id.

22 Id.