RIGHTS: UN to Adhere to Geneva Conventions

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10 1999 (IPS) - The United Nations has signed on to the Geneva Conventions that established humane rules for armed combat 50 years ago.

A document signed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan is scheduled to take effect Thursday – the 50th anniversary date – binding those involved in UN peacekeeping operations to abide by all the major guidelines set by the Geneva Conventions and their protocols.

In particular, the United Nations is committed to uphold international humanitarian law in all its peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations. In the case of any violation, “members of the military personnel of a UN force are subject to prosecution in their national courts,” the document says.

“Military operations shall be directed only against combatants and military objectives,” Annan adds in the bulletin, titled ‘Observance by United Nations Forces of International Humanitarian Law.’

“Attacks on civilians or civilian objects are prohibited,” and the document urges UN peacekeepers to avoid as much as possible “locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.”

It prohibits any attacks that could result in “indiscriminate” damage to civilians.

Similarly, the bulletin prohibits UN troops from using biological weapons, “bullets which explode, expand or flatten easily in the human body” and also antipersonnel mines and incendiary weapons.

“The right of the UN force to choose methods and means of combat is not unlimited,” Annan asserts in the bulletin.

The UN document marks the first time since the Geneva Conventions took effect on Aug. 12, 1949, that the United Nations has acknowledged that the same principles apply to its peacekeepers as they do to national troops.

In the past, since the United Nations is neither a state nor a party to the Geneva Conventions, it was not explicitly bound by its principles.

For years, as one senior UN official noted this week, few diplomats believed there was any need to underscore the principles for UN troops, since few peacekeeping operations ever involved combat.

That has changed in recent years, the official added, noting the involvement of UN troops in conflicts like those in Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. “Even peacekeeping forces in certain situations unavoidably become involved in combat situations,” he said.

Human rights officials have pointed to some UN operations – such as its involvement in Somalia and Cambodia in the early part of this decade – as ones which did not abide by the rules of war set out in the Geneva Conventions.

For example, the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) was criticised for conducting a series of attacks in urban Mogadishu in 1993 in its failed effort to capture a faction leader, Mohammed Farah Aideed. Estimates for the number of Somalis who were killed during those operations range as high as 10,000.

In the future, those types of operations will be hemmed in by the bulletin’s stipulation that UN military efforts avoid densely- populated areas “to the extent feasible.”

Similarly, the bulletin’s dictum that “women shall be especially protected against any attack, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any other form of indecent assault,” addresses a long-standing criticism of some UN troops.

In particular, the UN Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) was stung by charges that some troops were involved in operating a prostitution ring, which included child prostitution. (The contingent involved in that scandal was rotated out of Mozambique.)

In the past, some countries have tried individual UN peacekeepers for committing hughly publicised atrocities.

Canada tried several men who were accused of torturing Somali youths during the UNOSOM operation, while the Netherlands conducted an inquiry into the actions of Dutch peacekeepers during the 1995 capture by Bosnian Serbs of the UN enclave in Srebrenia. (Some 7,000 Bosnian Muslims are believed to have been killed in the aftermath of that attack, despite the presence of Dutch troops.)

Still, the UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that “there is nothing in this bulletin that will compel a member state to try its peacekeepers,” although he noted that all signatories to the Geneva Conventions are obliged to do so.

“We certainly hope this bulletin will encourage states to take necessary action under their national legislations,” he said.

UN officials expect the bulletin to encounter lively debate among the country’s 186 member states when the General Assembly meets anew in September.

Some nations already have stated that the bulletin’s principles could affect their stance on participation in UN peacekeeping, although the United Nations does not expect any nation to curtail its involvement in peacekeeping as a result.