United Nations Peacekeeping Force operation in armed conflict: a legal duty or a choice to observe international humanitarian law?

Abstract

Although for many years the United Nations has been reluctant to formerly recognize the applicability of international humanitarian law to United Nations peacekeeping operations, the changing role and nature of United Nations peacekeeping operations in the early 1990s made this recognition imperative. The objective of this paper is to examine if there is a legal obligation or not on the United Nations forces to observe rules of international humanitarian law when they engage in peacekeeping operations. Doctrinal method of research is used for this paper, and data for the paper is generated from secondary sources such as textbooks, journals, treaties, agreements and international humanitarian law conventions. After examining the legal debate on the international responsibility of United Nations Forces in armed conflict, the findings are that International Humanitarian law applies to United Nation Forces when they are actively engaged in military operations. For this, the paper recommends that United Nations forces engaged in armed conflict should be made to observe rules of International Humanitarian Law. But its applicability takes into consideration the nature and legal status of the United Nations Organization and its capacity to be bound by its provisions.

Keywords: Conflict, Peacekeeping Operations, International Humanitarian Law