How to prevent United Nations peacekeepers from doing more harm than good? And who can be held responsible for their wrongdoing?

Abstract

The cumulative damage the United Nations peacekeepers are committing is increasing in number with each UN mission, yet they are rarely held responsible for their wrongdoing. The UN peacekeepers have the privilege of immunity; therefore, they are only prosecuted within their home country. For victims of their crimes this is a problem, as justice is rarely delivered. The UN has tried to prevent its peacekeepers misconduct from occurring again, but without success. The crimes and the allegations against them still exists and a need for new measures is critical. This paper will discuss the harm the UN peacekeepers have caused during their mission in Haiti, and how justice was avoided. Therefore, new measures should be made, that will help the victims to get the help and assistance they need and for the wrongdoers to get the punishment they deserve. The UN should not be known for causing more harm than good to the host state’s population, as this contradictory to their agenda. Applying the suggested measures, discussed in this paper, could help in many aspects. Suggestions which lead to spending less on investigations, clear evidence of the crime, change of the peacekeeper’s behaviour for the better and quick access to witnesses or to the crime scene to name a few. Furthermore, the already existing measures need to be updated, and brought forward into the current technological era. As we are in the world of technology, we should take advantage by applying it at UN missions, the implementation of body worn video cameras as part of their uniform would act as a deterring and watchful presence, and this practice has already been used by various law enforcements in the world.