The Human Rights Obligations of UN Peacekeepers

Abstract

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