Peacekeeper Abuse, Immunity and Impunity: The Need for Effective Criminal and Civil Accountability on International Peace Operations

It is common in international relations for individuals operating in foreign countries to be exempt from the laws and courts of those countries for their services on international missions. Examples include state diplomats, officials of international organisations, and military and civilian personnel under international agreements or individual contracts. The focus of this paper is on such immunities in relation to United Nations peacekeeping – particularly on the accountability systems where military or civilian peacekeepers commit crimes (for example: sexual exploitation of children, trafficking in women, rape, murder, negligent killing, or major fraud) in the already-battered localities of their service. It seems trite to say that inadequate accountability (and especially impunity) on peace operations threatens the integrity, core values and purposes of peacekeeping. The heart of the international mandate is generally about restoring international peace and security – not adding to the problems, committing crimes and being unaccountable. Of course, the issues involve personal ethics, training and discipline. But as in all legal systems, public accountability is critical to credibility. Actually, the noble goals and language in a Security Council resolution may well mask simple and sober realities. What can one expect from the deployment of tens of thousands of predominantly male military and civilian personnel into vulnerable domestic populations? There should be no suggestion that the issues are limited to ‘inadequately trained troops’, as diverse examples show in Cambodia, East Timor, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Congo and Iraq.