Legal regimes applicable to United Nations peace operations

Abstract

This study sets out to examine the legal framework of public international law, as well as the municipal law regimes governing United Nations peace operations. The method applied in the study is legal dogmatics. The study does not try to prove any predefined hypothesis, but it rather aims to systematize the international legal order by identifying which legal and other regulations validly apply when military force is used by or on behalf of the United Nations.

The study ends to a conclusion that the human rights law (HRL), and not the international humanitarian law (IHL), is the legal framework applicable to United Nations peace operations. However, the study recognizes that the regime of international humanitarian law applies also to United Nations under the same conditions it applies to other actors in situations of armed conflict.

The study recommends that the laws of armed conflict should be rewritten. A single convention should be drafted, comprising the valid rules of conduct of warfare in clear and simple terms. The distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts should be expunged and the rules of customary international humanitarian law should be imported to the convention.

The study further recommends that the role of the United Nations should be specified and the members of United Nations troops in armed conflict situations should be given a protected status analogical to the police forces of national governments. A code of conduct of the United Nations should be promulgated that would determine its rights and responsibilities in relation to the parties of armed conflicts.