McGill Law Journal ~ Revue de droit de McGill
BOOK REVIEW
Siobhn Wills, Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeep-
ers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp xxi, 296. ISBN 978-
0-19-953387-9.
Hilmi M. Zawati *
The last two decades have witnessed the highest ever involvement of
United Nations blue helmets in peacekeeping missions throughout the
world. These international missions, as Siobhn Wills observes, consist of
different types of peace and enforcement operations, including conflict
prevention, peacemaking, peace enforcement, peace building, and human-
itarian operations.1 The engagement of UN troops in civilian protection
operations in the worlds war-torn areas has resulted in several complica-
tions concerning their mandates to protect civilians from harm on the one
hand, and their entanglement in human rights violations on the other.2
* Hilmi M. Zawati, DCL (McGill), MA in international comparative law (McGill), PhD
(CPU), MA (Punjab), Post-Graduate Diploma in law (Khartoum), LLB (BAU), is cur-
rently president of the International Legal Advocacy Forum (ILAF), and an interna-
tional criminal law jurist and human rights advocate. Zawatis most recent work is his
book Symbolic Judgments or Judging Symbols: Fair Labelling and the Dilemma of
Prosecuting Gender-Based Crimes under the Statutes of the International Criminal Tri-
bunals, Forthcoming, 2012. I would like to thank Ibtisam M Mahmoud, librarian,
McGill University Health Centre, Man H Zawati, DCL Candidate, McGill Law School,
for research material, and Steve Millier for reading the early draft of this review.
Hilmi M. Zawati 2011
Citation: (2011) 57:2 McGill LJ 383 ~ Rfrence : (2011) 57 : 2 RD McGill 383
1 Siobhn Wills, Protecting Civilians: The Obligations of Peacekeepers (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2009) at 86.
2 Francis Elliott & Ruth Elkins, UN Shame over Sex Scandal The Independent (7 Jan-
uary 2007), online: The Independent
ard, UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) at
336; Maggie Farley, Abuse by U.N. Troops Entrenched Los Angeles Times (19 October
2005), online: Los Angeles Times
Olds Sexually Abused by UN Peacekeepers The Telegraph (26 May 2008), online: The
Telegraph Group
Guards the Guards? The ICC and Serious Crimes Committed by United Nations
Peacekeepers in Africa (2004) 13:4 African Security Review 5; Mark Steyn, UN Forc-
es: Just a Bunch of Thugs? The Telegraph (15 February 2005), online: The Telegraph
Group
the Watchmen? The Economist
(29 May 2008), online: The Economist
ing: A Gendered Analysis (Boulder, Colo: Lynne Rienner, 2004) at 185; The Worse U.N.
384 (2011) 57:2 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
In light of these developments, a fresh look into the norms of interna-
tional humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law is
necessary to remind troops of their obligation to protect civilians from
human rights abuses and, at the same time, hold members of these mis-
sions accountable for alleged crimes and violations. Thus, the purpose of
Protecting Civilians, The Obligations of Peacekeepers is to examine in
depth international humanitarian and human rights law instruments and
demonstrate how these laws impose obligations on UN peacekeepers and
other multinational forces to protect civilians in war-torn areas of the
world, including intervention to prevent or stop human rights violations
and restore law in UN-occupied areas.
Focusing on the challenges faced by peacekeeping missions in imple-
menting their mandates, the author devotes the first chapter of her book
to providing a historical review of peacekeepers successes and failures in
protecting civilians. She explores how these troops, on different occasions,
did less than nothing when civilians were at risk of becoming victims of
serious violations, such as the collective blood baths and mass rape cam-
paigns in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, and other ravaged areas of the
world. In spite of the fact that UN troops were authorized to take all ap-
propriate measures3 to protect civilians and to use force in case of self-
defence,4 these troops repeatedly failed either to implement these man-
dates or to protect themselves, as when they were attacked in Kigali and
Scandal, Editorial, The New York Times (24 October 2005), online: The New York
Times
3 Wills, supra note 1 at 281; Resolution 1820 S Res 1820, UNSCOR, 2008, UN Doc
S/RES/1820, (19 June 2008).
4 The UN worked side by side with the European Community (EC) for the settlement of
the Yugoslav conflict. On 3 January 1992, a ceasefire was in place, following an agree-
ment signed in Geneva between the governments of Croatia and Serbia to end hostili-
ties between their armies. By 17 January 1992, UN military observers were deployed
throughout Croatia. Although this ceasefire was broken several times, including the
downing of the EC ceasefire monitors helicopter, the UN secretary general confirmed
that the UN peacekeeping units would use minimal force and only in self-defence. The
UN Protection Forces limited mandate encouraged Serbs to dictate their conditions and
inspired a culture of impunity. See United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles
and Guidelines (New York: United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations,
2008) at 31; Frances Pilch & Joseph Derdzinski, The UN Response to the Balkan
Wars, in Jeffrey S Morton et al, eds, Reflections on the Balkan Wars: Ten Years After
the Break Up of Yugoslavia (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) 93 at 95; Hans
Stark, Histoire immdiate de la guerre Yougoslave dans Ccile Monnot & Jean Cot,
Dernire guerre Balkanique? Ex-Yougoslavie: tmoignages, analyses, perspectives (Paris:
LHarmattan, 1996) at 19; Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to Security Council
Resolution 749 (1992), UNSCOR, 1992, UN Doc S/23836.
BOOK REVIEW ~RECENSION COMPARATIVE
385
lost ten of their members.5 Moreover, it was reported that the UN Assis-
tance Mission for Rwanda and the UN Protection Force abandoned thou-
sands of civilians in the Kigali cole Technique Officielle and in Srebreni-
ca to be slaughtered by Hutu and Serb forces, respectively.6
Chapter 2 of this analysis examines the extent to which international
humanitarian law obliges peacekeeping forces to protect civilians from
human rights abuses. Relying on her extensive research, Wills explains
that the ambiguity of obligations imposed on UN peacekeeping missions
to protect civilians during armed conflict under IHLparticularly com-
mon article 1 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions7has resulted in many in-
compatibilities in peacekeepers mandates. This vagueness has encour-
aged the UN to treat the above laws as mere political perspective rather
than as binding law. Finally, the author concludes by claiming that treat-
ing the norms of IHLas they relate to UN troopsas moral standards
rather than laws compelling obedience has undermined many peacekeep-
ing missions and caused the failure of these operations in different re-
gions of the world.8
By the same token, Wills tries, in chapter 3, to ascertain the applica-
bility of international human rights law to UN peacekeeping missions and
to determine whether these laws impose obligations on UN troops and
5 Hilmi M Zawati, The Triumph of Ethnic Hatred and the Failure of International Politi-
cal Will: Gendered Violence and Genocide in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
(Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010) at 210; Romeo Dallaire & Bruce Poulin,
Rwanda: From Peace Agreement to Genocide (1995) 24:3 Canadian Defence Quarterly
7 at 9.
6 Astri Suhrke, Dilemmas of Protection: The Log of the Kigali Battalion, in Howard
Adelman & Astri Suhrke, eds, The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Ugan-
da to Zaire (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1999) 253; Raymond W Copson, Africas
Wars and Prospects for Peace (Armonk, NY: M E Sharpe, 1994); Susan E Cook, The
Politics of Preservation in Rwanda in Susan E Cook, ed, Genocide in Cambodia and
Rwanda: New Perspectives (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2006) 281; John F Burns,
UN disarms Muslim defenders of Srebrenica, The [Montreal] Gazette (22 April 1993)
A18; Zawati, supra note 5 at 235.
7 Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in
Armed Forces in the Field, 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 31, Can TS 1965 No 20 [Geneva
Convention I]; Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded,
Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea, 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 85,
Can TS 1965 No 20 [Geneva Convention II]; Geneva Convention Relative to the Treat-
ment of Prisoners of War, 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 135, Can TS 1965 No 20 [Geneva
Convention III]; Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War, 12 August 1949, 75 UNTS 287, Can TS 1965 No 20 [Geneva Convention
IV].
8 Wills, supra note 1 at 45; Estelle Ins Nkounkou-Ngongo, Protection of Childrens
Rights in Peacekeeping Missions: Analysis of Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
(LLM Dissertation, University of Makerere Faculty of Law, 2007) [unpublished] at 7.
386 (2011) 57:2 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
multinational forces to protect civilians during armed conflict. The author
relies on different perspectivesparticularly that of IHLto examine the
applicability of human rights law to armed conflicts, and then reviews
historical developments in IHL and international human rights law since
the 1960s. Moreover, in examining different cases, she explores the rela-
tionship between international human rights law and other regimes,
namely occupation law and IHL. Wills concludes by asserting that, de-
spite the fact that many questions about peacekeepers responsibilities in
protecting civilian populations remain undetermined, human rights law is
still applicable during armed conflict. This notion has been supported by
the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, regional human
rights courts, UN human rights bodies, and the reports of the Interna-
tional Committee of the Red Cross. In this respect, the Human Rights
Committee has provided that the UN is bound by international human
rights law in territories under its administration and that, accordingly,
UN peacekeepers are not immune from its investigation.9 However, this
proclamation does not go so far as to say that UN troops may be held ac-
countable for violations of their human rights obligations in international
or national courts, except when they are deployed without a UN Security
Council resolution.
Wills insists that, even though the UN is not a party to IHL treaties
and consequently cannot be expected to carry out all obligations included
in these treaties, it is widely accepted that UN troops must respect the
principles and spirit of the laws of war.10 However, this respect does
not impose any obligation on UN peacekeepers to prevent violations of
IHL or require that they be held responsible for their felonies in territo-
ries under their control.11 On that basis, ruling on violations of IHL com-
mitted by UN troops in Somalia, both the Canadian court martials and
the Belgian military court concluded that IHL did not apply to UN peace-
keeping forces in Somalia,12 decisions that enraged human rights groups
and activists.
9 Wills, supra note 1 at 168.
10 Wills, supra note 1 at 248.
11 Marco Odello, Tackling Criminal Acts in Peacekeeping Operations: The Accountability
of Peacekeepers (2010) 15:2 J Confl & Sec L 347 at 373; Peter Rowe, United Nations
Peacekeepers and Human Rights Violations: The Role of Military Discipline, online:
(2010) 51 Harv Intl LJ Online 69 at 78
at 188-89.
12 Wills, supra note 1 at 91, 262.
BOOK REVIEW ~RECENSION COMPARATIVE
387
Nonetheless, the author examines in chapter 4 of her analysis the
question of the applicability of occupation laws13 to the UN forces involved
in humanitarian intervention or peacekeeping operations, notwithstand-
ing that the UN is not a state party to these conventions and that its
troops are not considered to be belligerent occupation forces. After a con-
siderable analysis of different casesparticularly the status of the United
Nations Operation in Somalia, the Kosovo Force, the United Nations In-
terim Administration Mission in Kosovo, and the multinational forces in
IraqWills concludes that the question of the applicability of the laws of
occupation to UN operations is an issue that is open to discussion and
controversy.14 While some commentators argue that Security Council
Resolution 1483 made it clear that the laws of occupation may be applica-
ble to operations mandated by the UN, others were reluctant to consider
the UN-run operations as comparable to military occupation.15
In the light of the outcomes of previous chapters, Wills tries in chapter
5 of this work to determine the scope of the UN peacekeepers and other
multinational forces obligations to protect civilians from serious viola-
tions of human rights, including those committed by third parties against
local populations.
The author develops the argument that UN peacekeepers and forces
alike have both moral and legal obligations to stop violence against civil-
ians, whether as troops mandated by the UN or as subjects of contrib-
uting states bound by the norms of international humanitarian law con-
ventions. In this respect, she refers to the concept of the collective re-
sponsibility to protect,16 and to common article 1 to the 1949 Geneva
13 These occupation laws are incorporated in regulations annexed to the Convention Re-
specting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 18 October 1907, 36 US Stat 2277, 1 TI
Agree 631 (1907 Hague Convention); the Geneva Convention IV, supra note 7; and the
Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the
Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 3, Can
TS 1991 No. 2 (Protocol I).
14 Wills, supra note 1 at 242.
15 Ibid at 234-35.
16 Ibid at 252. The concept of the collective responsibility to protect was developed by the
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty in 2001. For more on
this concept, see Alex J Bellamy & Paul D Williams, On the Limits of Moral Hazard:
The Responsibility to Protect, Armed Conflict and Mass Atrocities, online: (2011) Eu-
ropean Journal of International Relations 1
The Security Councils Responsibility to Protect (2011) 8:1 International Organiza-
tions Law Review 1; Gareth Evans & Mohamed Sahnoun, The Responsibility to Pro-
tect (2002) 81:6 Foreign Affairs 99; Hitoshi Nasu, Operationalizing the Responsibility
to Protect in the Context of Civilian Protection by UN Peacekeepers (2011) 18:4 Inter-
national Peacekeeping 364 ; Michael W Doyle, International Ethics and the Responsi-
bility to Protect (2011) 13:1 International Studies Review 72; Sabine Hassler, Peace-
388 (2011) 57:2 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
Conventions, which provides for the duty to respect and ensure respect
for international humanitarian law.17 Although these provisions are di-
rected at states or organizations, they nevertheless impose indirect re-
sponsibility on individual peacekeepers to protect civilians from violations
of their fundamental human rights. Nonetheless, in connection with the
above discussion, the author would argue that the duty to protect civilians
from violations of human rights can also be derived from the jus cogens
and erga omnes legal concepts, which prohibit such violations on the basis
of the common interest of the international community.18
In fact, the principle of international collective responsibility to protect
civilians emerged and was emphasized in the mandates of peacekeeping
missions in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and Srebrenica mass
killings, in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Since then, this principle has be-
come a clear norm within the obligations of peacekeepers and multina-
tional forces whether deployed according to a UN Security Council resolu-
tion or authorized by regional organizations. In spite of these instructions,
some peacekeeping missions have utterly failed to protect civilians, while
others have been actively involved in the violation of civilians human
rights, including sexual exploitation and abuse.19
keeping and the Responsibility to Protect (2010) 14:1/2 Journal of International Peace-
keeping 134; S Neil MacFarlane, Carolin J Thielking & Thomas G Weiss, The Respon-
sibility to Protect: Is Anyone Interested in Humanitarian Intervention? (2004) 25:5
Third World Quarterly 977.
17 Common art 1 to Geneva Conventions I-IV, supra note 7.
18 Dean Adams, The Prohibition of Widespread Rape as a Jus Cogens (2005) 6:2 San Di-
ego Intl LJ 357; David S Mitchell, The Prohibition of Rape in International Humani-
tarian Law as a Norm of Jus Cogens: Clarifying the Doctrine (2005) 15:2 Duke J Comp
& Intl L 219 at 225.
19 Jehan Khaleeli & Sarah Martin, Addressing the Sexual Misconduct of Peacekeepers,
Refugees International (23 September 2004); Colum Lynch, U.N. Faces More Accusa-
tions of Sexual Misconduct, The Washington Post (13 March 2005) A22; Children and
Armed Conflict: Report of the Secretary-General, UNGAOR/UNSCOR, 59th Sess, UN
Doc A/59/695, (2005); Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and
Sexual Abuse: Report of the Secretary-General, UNGAOR, 60th Sess, UN Doc A/60/861,
(2006) at para 17; Scott A Levin, Sexual Exploitation of Refugee Children by U.N.
Peacekeepers (2003) 19:3 NYL Sch J Hum Rts 833; Secretary-Generals Bulletin: Spe-
cial Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, Secretariat,
2003, UN Doc ST/SGB/2003/13; United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Re-
search Institute, Trafficking in Human Beings and Peace-Support Operations: Pre-
Deployment/In-Service Training Programme for International Law-Enforcement Per-
sonnel, 2d ed (Turin: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Insti-
tute, 2006) at 67; UNSC, News Release, UN Doc SC/8400, Security Council Condemns
in the Strongest Terms All Acts of Sexual Abuse, Exploitation by UN Peacekeeping
Personnel (31 May 2005), online: UN Meetings Coverage & Press Releases
S/RES/1400 at art 14 ([e]xpresses its serious concern at allegations that some United
BOOK REVIEW ~RECENSION COMPARATIVE
389
As indicated earlier, peacekeeping and multinational operations have
become a focus of legal studies. This is not because they have served as
one of the UNs tools to preserve peace and security around the world
since the establishment of the UN Truce Supervision Organization in
1948, but due to their repeated failure to prevent or stop mass violations
against civilians, relying on the notion that intervening to stop human
rights violations could be understood as supporting one side of the conflict
against the other or losing impartiality.20 Moreover, these missions were
Nations personnel may have been involved in sexual abuse of women and children in
camps for refugees and internally displaced people in the region [emphasis in origi-
nal]); Resolution 1436, S Res 1436, UNSCOR, 2002, UN Doc S/RES/1436 at art 15
([w]elcomes steps taken by UNAMSIL to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation of
women in Sierra Leone peacekeeping mission [emphasis in original]); Resolution 1460,
S Res 1460, UNSCOR, 2003, UN Doc S/RES/1460 at art 10 ([n]otes with concern all the
cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of women and children, especially girls, in hu-
manitarian crisis, including those cases involving humanitarian workers and peace-
keepers [emphasis in original]); Resolution 1565, S Res 1565, UNSCOR, 2004, UN Doc
S/RES/1565 at arts 1, 25 (renews the United Nations Organization Mission in the Dem-
ocratic Republic of the Congos (MONUC) mandate and requests the secretary general
to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and misconduct); Resolution 1590, S
Res 1590, UNSCOR, 2005, UN Doc S/RES/1590 at 2 ([s]trongly condemning all viola-
tions of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Darfur region, in par-
ticular the continuation of violence against civilians and sexual violence against women
and girls [emphasis in original]); Resolution 1794, S Res 1794, UNSCOR, 2007, UN
Doc S/RES/1794 at art 18 ([r]equests MONUC, in view of the scale and severity of sex-
ual violence committed especially by armed elements in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, to undertake a thorough review of its efforts to prevent and respond to sexual
violence, and to pursue a comprehensive mission-wide strategy, in close cooperation
with the United Nations Country Team and other partners [emphasis in original]);
Update Report No 3: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN Peacekeeping Personnel
Security Council Report (20 February 2006), online: Security Council Report
20 Shyla Vohra, Impartiality in United Nations Peace-Keeping (1996) 9:1 Leiden J Intl
L 63 at 76ff. On the contrary, it has been reported that two French NATO officers
passed sensitive information about NATO plans to arrest Karadi and bomb military
targets in Yugoslavia. Major Herve Gourmelon, an Implementation Force French mili-
tary officer whose job was to maintain contacts with Bosnian Serbs, had met repeatedly
with Karadi, thereby frustrating plans to arrest the latter. By the same token, Major
Pierre Bunel, who was working at the NATO headquarters in Brussels as chief of staff
to Frances top military representative, confessed in his meeting with French investiga-
tors that he had passed sensitive information to Belgrade about the details of the
NATO plans for punitive air strikes against Serb military targets. See Anne Swardson,
French Officer Accused of Spying for Yugoslavia, The Washington Post (3 November
1998) A12; Ben Macintyre, Serbs were given Nato targets, The Times (3 November
1998) 1; Charles Bremner, Spy case damages French bid for key Kosovo role, The
Times (4 November 1998) 16; French Major Held in Spying at NATO Panel, The New
York Times (3 November 1998) A8; John Lichfield, France accused over genocide in
Rwanda, The Independent (9 April 1998), online: The Independent
Yugoslavia, The Scotsman (3 November 1998), online:
390 (2011) 57:2 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
criticized for alleged crimes and violations of human rights committed by
their members against protected people, specifically sexual exploitation,
smuggling through borders, trafficking in women and girls,21 and sexual
scandals, including sex for food.22
Where there was no peace to keep, and bound by inappropriate man-
dates, UN troops overwhelmingly failed to prevent the tragic massacre of
approximately eight thousand Bosnian Muslims by Serb forces and para-
militaries in Srebrenica, a UN safe haven, in the summer of 1995.23 Sim-
ultaneously, in spite of several alarming reports, the UN peacekeeping
mission in Rwanda, led by the Canadian General Romo Dallaire, could
not stop the mass killings of eight hundred thousand Tutsi and Hutu civil-
ians, in 1994, due to the reluctance of the United Nations Department of
Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) to provide adequate troops to
properly carry out the missions mandate.24 This failure caused General
Robert Graham, French officer accused of leaking secrets to Serbs, Financial Times (4
November 1998) 2; Zawati, supra note 5 at 222.
21 Melanie OBrien, National and International Criminal Jurisdiction over United Na-
tions Peacekeeping Personnel for Gender-Based Crimes against Women (PhD Thesis,
University of Nottingham, 2010) [unpublished] at 271-72; Valorie K Vojdik, Sexual
Abuse and Exploitation of Women and Girls by U.N. Peacekeeping Troops (2007) 15:1
Mich St J Intl L 157 at 158; Wills, supra note 1 at 225-26, 272-82.
22 Claire Morris, Peacekeeping and the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls in Post-
Conflict Societies: A Serious Enigma to Establishing the Rule of Law (2010) 14:1/2
Journal of International Peacekeeping 184 at 189; Emily Wax, Congos Desperate
One-Dollar U.N. Girls, The Washington Post (21 March 2005) A1, A14; Jonathan
Clayton & James Bone, Sex scandal in Congo threatens to engulf UNs peacekeepers,
The Times (23 December 2004) 25; Sarah Martin, Must Boys be Boys?: Ending Sexual
Exploitation & Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Missions (Washington, DC Refugees Interna-
tional, 2005), online: Refugees International
Face Pain, Shame and AIDS, Ms. 15:1 (Spring 2005) 56 at 58; UNSC, Press Release,
Sexual Exploitation Allegations Related to UN Mission in Democratic Republic of Con-
go (22 November 2004), online:
23 See Douglass W Cassel, Srebrenica: The faces of evil, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (9
August 2001) 6; John F Burns, Serbs demand Canadians be pulled out of Srebrenica:
146 soldiers stand between 30,000 civilians and heavily armed besieging force, The
[Montreal] Gazette (27 April 1993) A12.
24 Howard Adelman & Astri Suhrke, Early Warning and Conflict Management: Genocide
in Rwanda (Bergen: Michelsen Institute, 1996) at 68, 71; Human Rights Watch, News
Release, Rwandan Genocide Could Have Been Stopped: Comprehensive Study Points
Finger at U.S., U.N., France, Belgium (31 March 1999), online: Human Rights Watch
il: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004) at 514.
BOOK REVIEW ~RECENSION COMPARATIVE
391
Dallaire to ask his famous question: Are we all human, or are some more
human than others?25
These issues raise various questions relating to peacekeepers collec-
tive obligations to protect civilians under international humanitarian and
human rights law, the possibility of holding them accountable for their
crimes, and whether the UN peacekeeping missions are bound by the
norms of local or international laws of armed conflict. Considering the
dramatic changes and complexity in recent peace support operations, the
main concern of legal inquiries ought to shift from merely focusing on the-
se missions obligations under international law to protect civilians and
bring peace and security to areas devastated by war to laying down the
foundation of a legal framework to eradicate peacekeepers violations and
bring perpetrators to justicenot only repatriating them to their contrib-
uting states.
Many of the above concerns are meticulously addressed by Siobhn
Wills in this timely, critical, and well articulated workoriginally submit-
ted to All Souls College, Oxford University, as a doctoral thesisby care-
fully analyzing the many inadequacies in the mandate of peacekeeping
missions, caused by the lack of international political will and manifested
in the tragic failure to stop mass killings and other atrocities in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo, Congo, and other regions of the world
racked by war.26
In sum, this work contributes to the development of a legal literature
that will undoubtedly assist the UNDPKO in overcoming previous short-
25 The international community had failed utterly in the post-Cold War era to observe its
duties in preserving international peace and security, placing the principles of interna-
tional humanitarian and human rights lawembedded in international and regional
conventions and treatiesin question. Like General Dallaire, we in the West certainly
have no difficulty to believe that our lives are worth more than the lives of other people
in this world: we should remember that the Dutch and French peacekeepers allowed
the fall of Srebrenica and the massacre of more than eight thousand Bosnian Muslim
civilians by Serb forces to save the lives of a handful of their colleagues captured by
Serb paramilitaries; and that the lives of the eight hundred thousand Rwandans
slaughtered in that nations genocide were only worth risking the lives of ten American
troops, as declared by an American officer, or not even one more Belgian soldier beyond
the ten Belgian troops massacred by Hutu extremists at the beginning of the genocide,
as Belgian officials maintained. See Daniela Kroslak, The Role of France in the Rwan-
dan Genocide (London, UK: C Hurst & Co, 2007); Dallaire, supra note 22 at 522; Lau-
rence de Barros-Duchne, Srebrenica: Histoire dun crime international (Paris:
LHarmattan, 1996); Michael Moodie, The Balkan Tragedy (1995) 541:1 Annals Am
Acad Pol & Soc Sci 101; Steven L Burg, War or Peace?: Nationalism, Democracy, and
American Foreign Policy in Post-Communist Europe (New York: New York University
Press, 1996).
26 Wills, supra note 1 at 36, 38.
392 (2011) 57:2 MCGILL LAW JOURNAL ~ REVUE DE DROIT DE MCGILL
comings. Moreover, it underlines the necessity to reform the United Na-
tions founding laws and procedures, particularly the laws of intervention
under chapters 6 and 7 of the UN Charter. At the same time, it emphasiz-
es that the international community must take further steps to end the
conspiracy of silence, combat the culture of impunity, and eradicate the
UN peacekeepers human rights violations, including sexual misconduct
and exploitation.27 This will not be possible without introducing an effec-
tive judicial mechanism within the United Nations to bring blue-helmeted
perpetrators to justice rather than repatriating them to face prosecution,
if any, in their own countries.
27 See Anna Shotton, A Strategy to Address Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by United
Nations Peacekeeping Personnel 39:1 (2006) Cornell Intl LJ 97; Elizabeth F Defeis,
U.N. Peacekeepers and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: An End to Impunity (2008)
7:2 Wash U Global Stud L Rev 185; Lauren Hunter, Should We Prosecute the Protec-
tors? Holding Peacekeepers Accountable in Cases of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
(2009) 1 Carleton Review of International Affairs 15; Muna Ndulo, The United Nations
Responses to the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Women and Girls by Peacekeepers
During Peacekeeping Missions (2008) 27:1 Berkeley J Intl L 127.
