Perspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention: Expanding Stakeholders and Regional Arrangements

195 Pages·2015·3.09 MB·English

by  David Curran

Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century
Series Editor: Larry Winter Roeder, Jr.
David Curran
Trudy Fraser
Larry Roeder
Robert Zuber E ditors
Perspectives on
Peacekeeping
and Atrocity
Prevention
Expanding Stakeholders and Regional
Arrangements
Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century
Editor
Larry Winter Roeder Jr.
MS, Former Policy Adviser on Disaster Management, IO/SHA,
US Department of State, South Riding, USA
Failed nation states and confl icts threaten global economic security in the 21st
century. There are also over 43.7 million refugees and internally displaced persons
around the world in 2012, and over the last decade about 258 million people have
been affected by natural disasters worldwide. Millions suffer every year from
human rights and civil rights violations, everything from elder abuse in disasters to
prisoners in solitary confi nement. In addition, armed non-state actors conduct both
acts of terrorism and traditional rebellions. Although governments, the UN and
other international organizations play important roles dealing with these issues,
increasingly NGOs (private, non-profi ts that are managerially independent of
governments conduct) conduct both operations to save lives and develop strategies
to change the status quo. Drawing on the expertise of practitioners from around the
globe, this series is dedicated to the hard work of civil society at large and the NGO
community in particular. It will help civil society be more effective and illustrate
best practices from its perspective.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11580
David Curran • Trudy Fraser
Larry Roeder • Robert Zuber
Editors
Perspectives on Peacekeeping
and Atrocity Prevention
Expanding Stakeholders
and Regional Arrangements
Editors
David Curran Trudy Fraser
University of Coventry www.trudyfraser.com
Coventry , UK New York , NY , USA
Larry Roeder Robert Zuber
VA , USA Global Action to Prevent War
and Armed Confl ict
New York , NY , USA
ISSN 2198-9958 ISSN 2198-9966 (electronic)
Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century
ISBN 978-3-319-16371-0 ISBN 978-3-319-16372-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-16372-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944086
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
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Introduction to the Series

Illustration: Larry Roeder managing patrol in the Sinai
D rawing on the expertise of policy practitioners and academics from around the
globe, this series is dedicated to the hard work of civil society at large and the non-
government organizations (NGO—defi ned here as private, non-profi ts that are man-
agerially independent of governments) community in particular. The series examines
techniques of diplomacy and negotiation for NGOs involved in confl ict resolution,
economic development, or natural and man-made disasters.
v
vi Introduction to the Series
Previous volumes in the series have introduced historical concepts of peacekeep-
ing, including the 1935 creation by the League of Nations of an international police
force—known as ‘SAARFORCE’—in support of fair and free elections in the terri-
tory of the Saar Basin (present day Saarland region of Germany). Other titles in the
series have examined new tools for peace such as the use of Deeds of Commitment
by armed non-state actors and have investigated signifi cant new challenges such as
sexual orientation and gender identifi cation in humanitarian emergencies. A forth-
coming book in the series will examine the impact of the Arab Spring on the Sinai
Bedouin and its unintended consequences for political action, violence, economic
development, and cultural sensitivity, especially for marginalized populations.
T he present volume—P erspectives on Peacekeeping and Atrocity Prevention:
Expanding Stakeholders and Regional Arrangements —seeks to illustrate and inves-
tigate the complexities of international peace and security and provides recommen-
dations for how governments, international organizations, civil society, and
NGOs—each of which can be crucial stakeholders to peace and security—can each
play complimentary and collaborative roles in meeting the challenges of contempo-
rary peace and security in traditional peacekeeping but also in economic develop-
ment and other sectors also essential to fostering a peaceful world.
Failed states and intra-state confl ict and instability represent some of the greatest
threats to international peace and security in the twenty-fi rst century. Ethnic groups
increasingly seek independence or autonomy—such as the Kurds of Iraq and many
Bedu of the Sinai Peninsula—but the Arab Spring has demonstrated that the fi ght
for democracy can also bring violence and chaos. There are currently over 43.7 mil-
lion refugees and internally displaced persons around the world, and over the last
decade approximately a quarter of a billion people were affected or displaced by
natural disasters, sometimes in areas of pre-existing confl ict where the natural phe-
nomena further hinders an already destabilized governance of public order. Millions
suffer every year from human rights and civil rights violations including but not
limited to elder abuse during natural disasters, the victimization of women and chil-
dren during crises, prisoners denied judicial process and left in solitary confi ne-
ment, and the continued threat of violence to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
trans, and intersex (LGBTI) community. Violations of international humanitarian
law (IHL) abound, and while some armed non-state actors sign Deeds of
Commitment to abide by international norms of behaviors, others do not and are
complicit in human rights and civil rights abuses, and atrocity crimes.
G overnments, the United Nations and other international and regional organiza-
tions, civil society, and NGOs can each play a crucial role in meeting these violations,
but there is the need for much greater synergy and for better coordinated strategies
between these stakeholders if these violations are to be mitigated and future lives
saved. Any such synergy and coordination requires that we at least begin discussions
pertaining to a general defi nition of an internationally recognized atrocity crime; and
that we determine who is responsible for acting in the event that the defi nition is met.
For example, the systematic mutilation of girl’s and women’s sexual organs—female
genital mutilation (FMG)—is considered an atrocity crime by some advocates and
scholars, but falls short of such a defi nition by others and there is no clear bottom-line
on who is correct. IHL operates on a strict division between international armed
Introduction to the Series vii
confl ict and domestic violence, but there is an increasing body of literature that would
challenge this justifi cation. Is there room to consider a new international organiza-
tion—one that does not require the Security Council to authorize intervention—that
could regularly intervene as a police and ambulance service to rescue innocent civil-
ians in sudden onset crises (domestic or international) such as the Yazidi ethnic
minority group during the latest onset of violence in Iraq? Other international orga-
nizations have already taken unilateral action to save lives; but does such unilateral-
ism, even if well-meaning, undermine the rule of international law or the moral
authority of the United Nations? As Series Editor, I am not specifi cally recommend-
ing that a new agency be created; but I do believe that questions of determination and
responsibility are suffi ciently important to require unbiased examination.
In every confl ict where there is a peacekeeping operation—from the very fi rst mul-
tilateral operation in SAARLAND during the period of the League of Nations to
today’s varied programs, not all of which are run directly by the United Nations, such
as the Multinational Forces and Observers (MFO)—there is a (sometimes back-
ground) population of civil society stakeholders also working to support an enduring
peace. As Series Editor, I encourage NGOs in particular but also all civil society actors
to become familiar with the United Nations Resident Representative in their fi eld, and
to cooperate with the United Nations in meeting their mandates. In confl icts where
there are peacekeeping operations between true combatants, NGOs should retain neu-
trality; but introduce themselves as well in order to avoid confusion, as well as to keep
in the mind the larger context of peace, which includes soft-diplomacy, public health,
and economic development. Peacekeepers and civil society can play mutually sup-
portive and collaborative roles in meeting the challenges of contemporary peace and
security, as was the case during the 2008 crisis in Myanmar caused by Cyclone Nargis
when the United States Air Force provided logistical assistance to NGOs by fl ying in
supplies free of charge, and satellite- based information, thus signifi cantly reducing the
cost of relief for the NGOs. Due to political tensions, the military aircraft supporting
NGOs were allowed to land but the crew could not disembark. The solution to distri-
bution came by partnering with local and regional NGOs. Similarly, and despite some
NGOs being opposed in principle to collaboration with the military, such partnerships
also proved essential during the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Of course, every crisis is different, but in every situation it is imperative that
calmness and creativity be at the core of operations and contradictory mandates or
logistical overlaps between governments, international organizations, and civil soci-
ety not e xacerbate the crisis—as was the case during the 2004 Tsunami crisis when
US and other forces operated in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Cooperation,
however, is different than formal partnering and the fi eld-based security implica-
tions of civil society association with peacekeeping operations cannot easily be dis-
missed. In this respect, communication is essential in every crisis. It is my hope, as
Series Editor, that this volume will provoke fresh thinking and contribute to an
improved relationship between the UN, other International Organizations, and civil
society, which will in turn contribute to improved atrocity crime prevention.
Larry Roeder

Foreword
E xamining and strengthening the United Nations’ capacity to prevent and respond
to genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity (atrocity
crimes) has never been more important. As the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser
on the Prevention of Genocide, the position I was appointed to in 2012, I head an
offi ce that works to advance national and international efforts to protect populations
from atrocity crimes, including through implementation of the Responsibility to
Protect principle.
T he United Nations Offi ce on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to
Protect has two main tasks. First, we act as a mechanism of early warning to the
Secretary-General and, through him, to the Security Council, on situations where
there is a potential risk of genocide and other atrocity crimes. Where we identify
concerns, we provide targeted recommendations on how the United Nations system
can respond to these concerns to protect populations. Our assessment of situations
is based on the Offi ce’s Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes, which my
Offi ce has developed for this purpose.
Risk factors for atrocity crimes include armed confl ict or other forms of instabil-
ity; serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including
persistent patterns of discrimination; economic deprivation and related disparities;
weaknesses in State structures; motives or incentives to commit atrocity crimes,
including the presence of an exclusionary ideology; the absence of mitigating fac-
tors and the presence of actors with the capacity to engage in such crimes.
S econdly, we work with Member States, regional organizations, United Nations
colleagues, and civil society to strengthen national and regional capacity to protect
populations and increase resilience to atrocity crimes. This means having State
structures and institutions that are functioning and legitimate, respect human rights
and the rule of law, deliver services equitably, and can address or defuse sources of
tension before they escalate. At its core, my Offi ce works to promote a culture of
prevention in a global system that still focuses more on responding to crises than
preventing them.
ix