Policies, Principles and Guidelines

Transcription

1 Policies, Principles and Guidelines Brig Haroon Abbas, Director, Center for Excellence and Peacekeeping Studies, National Defence University, Pakistan Prof. William Flavin, Associate Director, United States Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, United States

2 Working Group 2 Co chair National Defence University, Pakistan Peacekeeping Stability Operations Institute, USA Partners Australia Jordan Nigeria Russian Federation Sweden Turkey United Kingdom

3 Focus Areas Protection of civilians Gender mainstreaming Transnational organized crime

4 Outline Methodology Protections of civilians Gender Transnational organised crime Way forward

5 Aim To establish a standing community of practitioners among Challenges Forum partners to increase the understanding, cooperation and harmonisation, across international, regional, sub-regional organizations involved in peace operations.

6 Sources Consulted UN Australia South Africa ICRC Finland Sweden EU France United Kingdom AU Germany United States NATO ECOWAS OECD Conference of American Armies Japan Netherlands Pakistan Russian Federation

7 Forum Meeting Egypt Switzerland Australia Germany USA Sweden Norway Argentina China

8 Protection of Civilians OCHA and OCHCR see POC chiefly through the prism of international humanitarian law and provision of life saving humanitarian assistance to vulnerable. UNHCR s approach to POC involved the provision of international legal protection for refugees seeking asylum and internally displaced persons. DPKO/DFS align with the language provided in Security Council resolutions, i.e. to protect civilians from the threat of physical violence.

9 Protection OCHA: All activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of human rights, refugees and international humanitarian law. AU: Includes activities undertaken to improve the security of the population and people at risk and to ensure the full respect for the rights of groups and the individual recognised under regional instruments. UKMOD: All activities aimed at ensuring full respect of the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of the relevant bodies of law, i.e. human rights law.

10 Civilians Under Humanitarian Law, civilians are protected persons... they cannot be targeted and their life and dignity must be respected. Civilians are presumed not to directly participate in hostilities and are therefore entitled to full protection from attack. Civilians lose this protection only if, and for as long as, they directly participate in hostilities. The simple possession of a weapon does not necessarily give a person the status of a combatant. Civilians who are in possession of arms (for example, for the purpose of self-defence or the protections of their property, etc), but who are not currently engaged in hostilities are entitled to protection. (UN Infantry Battalion Manual)

11 Civilians If, however, those individual instigate violence against another individual or group, or if there is reasonable belief (based on historical precedent and / or reliable intelligence) that they are preparing to commit violence then those individuals are no longer entitled to protection. (DPKO Training Module)

12 Levels of Coverage Strategic Operational Tactical

13 Commonalities Protection of civilians is integral to and essential for a successful peace operation. International law should form the basis for action. Host government has the ultimate responsibility for POC.

14 Disconnects and Gaps Application of POC. Different identities of civilians. Disconnect between the tactical, operational and strategic levels. No consensus on what the population should be protected from. Humanitarian Law is not sufficiently broad to cover the range of protection activities. Host state ownership. No formal doctrinal manual for peace operations.

15 Gender Mainstreaming Well articulated at policy and strategic level. Degree of commonality behind all approaches. Limited promulgation at operational and tactical levels Limited national military doctrine Potential training and education gap Potential resourcing gap Need for operational and tactical guidance and the training, exercises, structures, research, personnel and material that would follow

16 Transnational Organized Crime This is the least institutionalized Little to no guidance at any level on how peace operations are to deal with this issue There is no body of military doctrine Need for conceptual work to focus on peace operations mission Need for understanding the effect of the UN Mission Footprint Need for better assessment tools Need for UN Policy guidance

17 Wrap-up Gaps are identified suggesting that it is time for dialogue to broaden understanding and gain insights that can lead to solutions. POC Work toward a shared understanding Develop compressive doctrine down to tactical level Broaden the framing and implementation of the protection of civilians imperative beyond the military context in order to ensure a more holistic approach. Gender Mainstreaming: Emphasis should now be to take the strategic level guidance and ensure that it is promulgated and distributed among the Member States to include education and training. TOC: Develop UN policy guidelines that clarify whether and how peace operations should address TOC.