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Peacekeeping and the Rule of Law: Challenges Posed by Intervention Brigades and Other Coercive Measures in Support of the Protection of Civilians

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Perspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention

Part of the book series: Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century ((HSIC))

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Abstract

Peacekeeping has evolved to embrace complex mission directives far beyond the monitoring and observation of a conflict. Contemporary UN peacekeepers are active and sometimes combative participants in fostering complex economic, social, and physical security. Since 1999, the Security Council has developed a specific mandate for the Protection of Civilians (POC) in peacekeeping missions. Like traditional peacekeeping before it, the effective implementation of POC mandates relies upon universally accepted operational rules and capacities. This chapter will present the challenges posed to established rule of law by Security Council-sanctioned intervention brigades and other coercive measures in implementing POC mandates, and assess the efficacy and future viability of these measures to operate within the scope and function of the rule of law.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The United Nations is widely credited as having “invented” peacekeeping with the deployment of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF I) in Suez, Egypt, in 1956, but the UN Special Committee for the Balkans (UNSCOB) and the UN Committee of Good Offices on Indonesia (UNCOG) were both created in 1947 and are generally regarded as an early form of UN peacekeeping. The creation of “international police forces”—considered by many to be an early form of peacekeeping—by the League of Nations (1919–1939) was a vital part of how the League conducted international peace and security (see Brockelbank 1926; Grigorescu 2005; Kennedy 1997).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York, NY, USA

    Trudy Fraser

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  1. Trudy Fraser
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Correspondence to Trudy Fraser .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Coventry, Coventry, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

    David Curran

  2. www.trudufraser.com, New York, New York, USA

    Trudy Fraser

  3. VA, Virginia, USA

    Larry Roeder

  4. and Armed Conflict, Global Action to Prevent War, New York, New York, USA

    Robert Zuber

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Fraser, T. (2015). Peacekeeping and the Rule of Law: Challenges Posed by Intervention Brigades and Other Coercive Measures in Support of the Protection of Civilians. In: Curran, D., Fraser, T., Roeder, L., Zuber, R. (eds) Perspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention. Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16372-7_5

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