UN-Truth

The UN News Centre [the UN uses British English spelling] has put out a little story reporting that UN USG for Peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, has told journalists: “Troop-contributing countries must accept the introduction of formal discipline standards for United Nations peacekeepers or risk jeopardizing the world body’s entire recent campaign to improve the actions of its personnel in the
… Discussions are about to resume with UN Member States on a proposed memorandum of understanding setting out standards for the estimated 100,000 peacekeepers operating in 18 separate missions around the world, Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno told a press conference in response to questions from journalists. The standards, which would be contained in a memorandum of understanding, are being proposed as part of the Secretariat’s response to a series of scandals in recent years over the behaviour – most notoriously involving sexual exploitation and abuse – by some UN peacekeepers. But Mr. Guéhenno added that some States have indicated they are opposed to the introduction of such standards and he called on those unnamed countries to rethink their positions.
‘Sometimes countries want to have their cake and eat it’, he said. ‘That is, you can’t at the same time want the UN to have perfect discipline and everything, and then resist any UN encroachment or interference with their own national disciplinary procedures. It makes things very difficult’…

The UN News Centre story continues: “Although the UN can send misbehaving peacekeepers home, troop-contributing countries are currently responsible for the conduct of their troops and other uniformed personnel, and UN rules can be made binding only with their agreement. Mr. Guéhenno stressed that it was vital that both the UN and Member States ‘have the same understanding of what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, what is criminal, what is not. We need to have total clarity on that’. [This means that they do not yet have this desired common understanding]

The Under-Secretary-General said another potential problem arose in that some countries may not have the same standards or procedures for conducting investigations as the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS)”…
See full UN News Centre story here.

Filed under: UN Peacekeeping