United Nations Role in Conflict Resolution Process: Case Study in Sierra Leone 1991-2002

The phenomenon of international conflict that occurred after the Cold War opens the United Nations' opportunity to play a more significant role in maintaining international peace and security. UN peacekeeping operations are one form of response to the challenges that arise at this time. This operation is a multidimensional operation that includes peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding activities. The complexity of the conflict in Sierra Leone, West Africa, in the early 90s was caused by poor governance and illegal exploitation of diamonds, resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties and various other problems, such as rising poverty and unemployment increasing numbers of refugees. Given the Sierra Leonean government’s powerlessness in resolving the conflict, the UN, about international organizations, intervened in restoring and achieving peace. In this article, the author tries to analyze the role of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone to resolve Sierra Leone’s internal conflicts in 1994-2005, with activities as a mediator for the warring parties and sending peacekeeping forces in the country. This paper is based on the author’s experience as a Military Observer at Unamsil and literature studies. The U.N./Unamsil played a significant role in resolving the conflict there. This needs to be known and informed to the general public and the military to understand the United Nations’ role better.

Introducing the Deadly Electoral Conflict Dataset (DECO)

This article introduces the Deadly Electoral Conflict dataset (DECO): a global, georeferenced event dataset on electoral violence with lethal outcomes from 1989 to 2017. DECO allows for empirical evaluation of theories relating to the timing, location, and dynamics of deadly electoral violence. By clearly distinguishing electoral violence from related (and sometimes concurrent) instances of organized violence, DECO is particularly suitable for investigating how election-related violence is connected to other forms of violent political contention. In the article, we present the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the data collection and discuss empirical patterns that emerge in DECO. We also demonstrate one potential use of DECO by examining the association between United Nations peacekeeping forces and the prevalence of deadly electoral violence in conflict-affected countries.

PROTECTION OF PEACEKEEPING FORCES BASED ON THE CONVENTION ON THE SAFETY

The attacks and threats directed at UN personnel and related personnel resulted in injuries and death. Therefore, to protect these personnel, the GA established a Resolution, namely the Convention on Safety, which aims to protect UN personnel while carrying out its mission. The 1994 Convention on the Safety of the United Nations and Associated Personnel regulates protected personnel and regulates prohibited acts to extradite perpetrators. The Convention urges the host country (Host Country) to determine its jurisdiction in extraditing perpetrators of crimes against personnel UN and related personnel without delay. Given that each country has sovereignty in its territory and is entitled to determine a national legal system that determines national law application based on jurisdiction.

The Significance of Pre-Deployment Training, Culture Tolerance and Impartiality in Reducing Conflicts during Peacekeeping Operations: Malaysian Experiences

Cultural understanding is important in peacekeeping operations since it emphasizes on cooperation of various parties including the cooperation of the local community. Without cultural tolerance from both sides, this operation are difficult to run smoothly and effectively and in fact, this can also lead to a worsen situation, such as the armed conflict between the peacekeeping forces and the local community. Therefore, this study is carried out by using semi-structured interview of 25 officers who have been assigned under United Nations peacekeeping operations and it is centered on three parameters namely pre-deployment training, high level of tolerance and impartiality in discharging their duties. Most officers agree that these parameters are the most significant attributes that could reduce cultural based conflict in the assigned areas.

Beyond the Purview of International Criminal Judgments

This chapter examines three aspects of mass atrocity situations that have generally received little or no attention within the judgments of international criminal courts: first, the structural and slow violence that tends to exist prior to, during, and after the outbreak of situations of mass atrocity; second, the interventions of international actors, including the policies and practices of colonial powers, international financial institutions, and international peacekeeping forces; and finally, the roles performed by bystander communities and resisters during episodes of mass violence. By highlighting these blind spots, the chapter directs attention to the narrative limits of international criminal courts and highlights the risk that their judgments may undermine more nuanced understandings of human agency in mass atrocity contexts, whilst legitimating some of the structural and slow forms of violence and international interventions that they marginalise or exclude.

UNwilling or UNable? The United Nations and the recurrent problem of sexual abuse

Since its establishment in 1945, the United Nations has grown to become a powerful intergovernmental body enjoying respect and legitimacy among a large part of the international community. Unfortunately, since the 1990s there have been recurrent problems with the organization’s peacekeeping forces being accused of sexual violence against the very people they are supposed to protect. In this article, the UN’s management of events in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2014 and its inability to put an end to the sexual assaults committed by its representatives have been used to explore whether the organization could be accused of a state crime – under the presumption that the UN can be equated with a state. To do this, the definition of state crime and the complicity continuum developed by Kauzlarich, Mullins and Matthews (2003) are used to evaluate the UN’s actions in relation to the events in the CAR. The responsibilities of the UN in situations like the one in the CAR are examined and discussed.AbstractFörenta nationerna har sedan starten 1945 utvecklats till en mäktig mellanstatlig organisation som åtnjuter respekt och legitimitet från majoriteten av det internationella samfundet. Dessvärre har det, sedan 1990-talet, vid upprepade tillfällen uppdagats att organisationens fredsbevarande styrkor anklagats för sexuellt våld mot just de grupper som de är satta att beskydda. I denna artikel användes organisationens hantering av händelserna i Centralafrikanska republiken (CAR) under 2014, samt dess oförmåga att stoppa sexuella övergrepp utförda av dess företrädare, för att undersöka om FN kunde anklagas för en statligt brott, under förutsättning att organisationen kan likställas med en stat. För detta användes Kauzlarich, Mullins och Matthews (2003) definition av statlig brottslighet, samt det complicity continuum som de utvecklat, för att utvärdera FN:s åtgärder under händelserna i CAR. FN:s ansvar i situationer som det i CAR problematiseras och diskuteras.

South Caucasus through the Prism of the Second Karabakh War

The article attempts to identify some, in the author's opinion, most important factors that underlie the so-called second Karabakh war and its consequences for the geopolitical prospects of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the entire South Caucasus. The main attention is focused on the reasons for the victory of Azerbaijan and the catastrophic defeat of Armenia. It is shown that with all possible reservations in this matter, one of the main beneficiaries of the conflict was Russia, which, under the auspices of the peacekeeping forces, returned its military units to the territory formally under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan for at least five years.

The UN Security Council as an eff ective instrument for ensuring peace and security stability in Africa

The article highlights the activities of the UN in the African area: promoting the economic development of the UN states; combating international terrorism and organized crime; ensuring international security; preventing armed confl icts; strengthening cooperation of Member States in the fi ght against infectious and other dangerous diseases. The close attention of the UN Security Council to the political processes taking place on the African continent yields tangible results. Peacekeeping missions are being sent to hot spots in Africa. The military contingents of these missions, together with the army units of states, participate in the fi ght against militants of illegal armed formations, reduce the intensity of confl icts, help the civilian population to survive in a diffi cult military-political situation, as well as assist in the post-confl ict reconstruction of countries. Given the weakness and imperfection of the local armies, UN member states help to train the peacekeeping forces of African states. Russia, along with other states, is preparing Africans for peacekeeping activities through the Ministry of Internal Aff airs and the Ministry of Defense.