The Human Rights Obligations of UN Peacekeepers

Autores

  • Conor Foley Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ)

Resumo

Abstract 
Over 100,000 UN peacekeeping personnel are deployed on missions with authority from the Security Council, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, to use force to protect civilians. Nevertheless, they have repeatedly failed to do so and yet there does not appear to be a single case where the UN has taken disciplinary action against senior staff for failing to act in line with a mission mandate in this regard. This article argues that the 'positive' and 'negative' obligations of international human rights law, protecting the right to life and physical integrity, provide the most appropriate guidance to the tactical use of force by UN peacekeeping soldiers. Mechanisms also need to be created to improve the accountability of UN missions to those that they are responsible for protecting.

Keywords 
International law, human rights, Protection of Civilians

Biografia do Autor

  • Conor Foley, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ)

    Conor Foley has worked on legal reform and protection issues in over twenty conflict and postconflict zones for a variety of UN and non-governmental human rights and humanitarian organizations. He is a Visiting Professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC Rio). His books include: Another system is possible: reforming Brazilian justice, (Brazilian Ministry of Justice: 2012), The Thin Blue Line: how humanitarianism went to war (Verso: 2010), A Guide to Property Law in Afghanistan (UNHCR: 2005) and Combating Torture: a manual for judges and Prosecutors (FCO, 2003).


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Publicado

2017-06-18

Edição

v. 1 n. 20 (2017)

Seção

Artigos