Public Law Studies Quarterly

The Criteria for Evaluating the Legitimacy of UN Peacekeeping Operations

Document Type : Article

Authors

Seyed Saeed Hosseini 1
Morteza Najafi asfad 2
Mohammadreza Alipour 3

1 Ph.D. Student of public international law, Department of Public & International Law,College of Law and Political Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Visiting Professor, Department of Public & International Law,College of Law and Political Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant professor, Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, Theology and Politics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2022.332006.2913
Abstract
In times of civil conflict, UN peacekeeping operations play a vital role in safeguarding human rights norms and ensuring security in the affected countries. Ensuring security and upholding norms in these operations leads to a dual approach: one that emphasizes human rights principles and another that focuses on guaranteeing and restoring lasting peace and stability in the host country. This dual approach ultimately places the legitimacy of the operation in conflict between "procedural legitimacy"—based on norms and principles—and "output legitimacy"—based on the effectiveness of the actions taken. This results in a dual identity for UN actions, influencing how the international community judge the legitimacy of these actions. It can also lead to distrust in the efficiency of the UN. The peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and East Timor serve as clear examples of these functional disorders, which have even been interpreted as "organizational hypocrisy" in some international legal commentary. This article, using an inductive analytical method, examines the challenges in analyzing the criteria of legitimacy for the actions of UN peacekeepers and emphasizes the need for a comprehensive view of this issue.

Keywords

peacekeeping operations
united nations
procedural legitimacy
output legitimacy
capstone doctrine
Subjects

  1. English

    1. A) Books
    2. Barnett, M.; & Finnemore, M. (2004). Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
    3. Christopher, M. (2006). Displacement, Return, and Justice in the Creation of Timor Leste, In Catching Fire: Containing Forced Migration in a Volatile World. Edited by Nicholas Van Hear and Christopher McDowell, 181–211. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
    4. Edelstein, D. M. (2009). Foreign Militaries, Sustainable Institutions, and Postwar Statebuilding, In The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations. edited by Roland Paris and Timothy Sisk, London and New York: Routledge.
    5. Jett, D. C. (2001). Why Peacekeeping Fail. Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Rubinstein, R. A. (2008). Peacekeeping Under Fire: Culture and Intervention. Abingdon, UK: Paradigm Publishers.
    7. Von Billerbeck, S. B. K. (2016). Whose Peace? Local Ownership and United Nations Peacekeeping. Oxford University Press. available: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198755708.001.0001/acprof-9780198755708

     

    1. B) Articles
    2. D Major Robert (1997). Lessons From Somalia: The Dilemma of Peace Enforcement. Availlable online at:http//:www.smallwarsjounal.com
    3. Chesterman, S. (2007). Ownership in Theory and in Practice: Transfer of Authority in UN State Building Operations. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.
    4. Coleman, K. P (2017). The Legitimacy Audience Shapes the Coalition: Lessons From Afghanistan, 2001. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 11 (3).
    5. Friedman, J. (2001). Building Civilian Police Capacity: Post-Conflict Liberi. a,2003–2011, Policy Note 176, Innovations for Successful Societies, Princeton University, available at:https://successfulsocieties.princeton.edu/sites/successfulsocieties/files/Policy_Note_ID176.pdf
    6. Hurd, I. (2002). Legitimacy, Power, and the Symbolic Life of the UN Security Council. Global Governance, 8 (1).
    7. Kocen, P. (2020). Responsibility of the United Nations for peacekeeping operations: recent developments in dual attribution. InternatIonal Scientific Journal on european perspectives , 11 (1).
    8. Lipson, M. (2007). Peacekeeping: Organized Hypocrisy?. European Journal of International Relations. 13 (1).
    9. Saul, M. (2011). Local Ownership of Post-Conflict Reconstruction in International Law: The Initiation of International Involvement. Journal of Conflict and Security Law 16 (1).
    10. Walter, B. F., &Lise Morje Howard, V. Page Fortna(2021). The Extraordinary Relationship between Peacekeeping and Peace. British Journal of Political Science, 51 (4).

     

    1. C) Documents
    2. United Nations (2009). Report of the Secretary-General on Peacebuilding in the Immediate Aftermath of Conflict. A/63/881-S/2009/304
    3. United Nations (2008). United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines (Capstone Doctrine), New York: United Nations, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Policy, Evaluation and Training
    4. United Nations, Handbook on United Nations Multidimensional Peacekeeping Operations (2003). New York: United Nations, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Best Practices Unit
    5. United Nations, Report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations on Uniting our Strengths for Peace: Politics, Partnership and People (2015). A/70/95–S/2015/446. June

     

    References in Persian:

    1. A) Books
    2. Shaygan, F. (2012). United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Printing and Publishing Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (In Persian).
    3. Ziai-Bigdali, M. (2007). Public International Law, Ganj Danesh Library (In Persian).

     

    1. B) Articles
    2. Aghajani, M. (2018). Protecting civilians in United Nations peacekeeping operations. Second International Peace Research Conference, Kish Island (In Persian).
    3. Ahmadi, A. (2006). The Role of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights. Two Quarterly Journals of Law and Politics, No. 2, Special Legal (In Persian).
    4. Ebrahim Gol, A. (2007). Peacekeeping Developments in the United Nations: Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, Peacebuilding. Legal Research Journal, Spring and Summer, No. 47 (In Persian).
    5. Rezazadeh, F. (2018). Concept and Functions of Peace Keeping Operations. Geography and Human Relations Quarterly, 2 (1) (In Persian).

     

    1. C) Thesis
    2. Hamidinia, H. (1996). review of the performance of the United Nations Security Council in the new world order with an emphasis on the functioning of peacekeeping forces, master's thesis, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran (In Persian).
    3. Malekian Naini, Q. (2008). developments in peacekeeping operations with an emphasis on humanitarian interventions, master's thesis, international law, Allameh Tabatabai University (In Persian).
Public Law Studies Quarterly
Volume 54, Issue 3
Autumn 2024
Autumn 2024
Pages 1845-1864

  • Receive Date 11 October 2021
  • Revise Date 23 February 2023
  • Accept Date 11 September 2022

Home

Journal Process Ethics

Peer Review Process

Submission

Indexing and Abstracting

Contact Us