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This book explores the nature and scope of the provision requiring States to ‘ensure respect’ for international humanitarian law (IHL) contained within Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It examines the interpretation and application of this provision in a range of contexts, both thematic and country-specific. Accepting the clearly articulated notion of ‘respect’ for IHL, it builds on the existing literature studying the meaning of ‘ensure respect’ and outlines an understanding of the concept in situations such as enacting implementing legislation, diplomatic interactions, regulating private actors, targeting, detaining persons under IHL in non-international armed conflict, protecting civilians (including internally displaced populations) and prosecuting war crimes. It also considers topical issues such as counter-terrorism and foreign fighting. The book will be a valuable resource for practitioners, academics and researchers. It provides much needed practical reflection for States as to what ensuring respect entails, so that governments are able to address these obligations.

Civil wars pose some of the most difficult problems in the world today and the United Nations is the organization generally called upon to bring and sustain peace. Lise Morjé Howard studies the sources of success and failure in UN peacekeeping. Her in-depth 2007 analysis of some of the most complex UN peacekeeping missions debunks the conventional wisdom that they habitually fail, showing that the UN record actually includes a number of important, though understudied, success stories. Using systematic comparative analysis, Howard argues that UN peacekeeping succeeds when field missions establish significant autonomy from UN headquarters, allowing civilian and military staff to adjust to the post-civil war environment. In contrast, failure frequently results from operational directives originating in UN headquarters, often devised in relation to higher-level political disputes with little relevance to the civil war in question. Howard recommends future reforms be oriented toward devolving decision-making power to the field missions.

Private military security companies (‘PMSCs’) are present in almost all United Nations peacekeeping operations. The utilisation of PMSCs by international organisations raises distinct and complex legal issues. This article discusses the status of PMSCs under the international law of armed conflict, focusing particularly on their involvement in UN peacekeeping activities. We argue that assessing the position of PMSCs requires a sharper understanding of the legal status of civilians who may play an active role in hostilities. The role of PMSCs in UN operations, in particular, places pressure on the widespread view that civilians who participate in hostilities thereby violate the law of warfare. The article then reviews the options for holding PMSCs accountable for violations of international law. We argue that this issue is best addressed by treating international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law as an interlocking body of norms and mechanisms applicable in armed conflict.

Referendums have become an undeniably important, and perhaps inescapable, peacemaking tool in contemporary peace processes. As such, understanding the ways in which referendum outcomes are shaped by peace negotiations is vital. Drawing upon two case studies, Amaral presents an empirically rich comparative analysis of the Annan Plan in Cyprus and the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. She examines the negotiations, offering new interview material with key political and civil figures involved in the peace negotiations and referendum campaigns in both cases. Amaral argues that referendums are unsuitable for traditional secretive and exclusionist peace negotiations that fail to engage and educate the public. They rather require inclusive negotiations that involve a broad spectrum of political stakeholders and civil society at the early stages of the process. This peacemaking approach can allow referendums to positively shape societies in conflict and be a crucial step toward lasting peace.

لقد شكل تحقيق احترام حقوق الإنسان أساسا لتبلور نظام قانوني دولي يعرف بالقانون الدولي لحقوق الإنسان، تطلب ذالك مرحلتين أساسيتين؛ تتمثل المرحلة الأولى في مرحلة بناء قواعد القانون الدولي لحقوق الإنسان عبر قيام الفقه والمنظمات غير الحكومية الدولية بنشر الوعي بأهمية مسألة حقوق الإنسان ما يؤثر بالضرورة في الموقف الرسمي للدول والذي انتهي بصوغ نصوص اتفاقية دولية حددت مضمونها. تتمثل المرحلة الثانية في مرحلة إعمال وتفعيل تلك القواعد وذلك عبر المساهمة الفاعلة لأجهزة الأمم المتحدة لذلك يجب على مجلس الأمن أن يلعب دورا فعالا في منع اندلاع النزاعات المسلحة خاصة غير الدولية منها والمساهمة في بلورة حلول سياسية لها عبر اعتماد الإجراءات التالية؛ العقوبات الذكية، المتابعة الجنائية وقوات السلام، سينعكس ذالك إيجابا على تحقيق احترام وترقية حقوق الإنسان.

\"They took us to a small house. There they tore off our clothes and raped my friend and me. I was only 17 years old and still a virgin\", says Joari. The shocking thing: Joari and her friend were allegedly raped by the people who were meant to protect her: UN peacekeepers. 20,000 UN peacekeeping troops were sent to bring stability to the Eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a war is raging between rebels and government forces. They were meant to protect civilians from assaults and sexual violence. But some of the saviors turned into perpetrators who abuse the helplessness and the extreme poverty of girls and women. In this film, victims of UN soldiers speak out for the first time about the abuse they suffered. We also document how the UN Headquarters in New York have known about the problem with sexual assaults for a long time. By training their staff and introducing a \"zero tolerance policy\", the UN tries to combat these incidents. The official line is that the numbers of assaults have been drastically reduced. However, UN insiders tell us that \"on the ground, these measures have no effect at all.\"

THE SITUATION IN THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT HAS BEEN QUITE STABLE SINCE THE RUSSIAN-BROKERED UNOFFICIAL CEASEFIRE WAS INTRODUCED IN MAY 1994, WITH ONLY OCCASIONAL SKIRMISHES AND ARTILLERY DUELS. THERE ARE NO INDISPUTABLE INDICATORS THAT EITHER SIDE IS PREPARING TO RESUME OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS IN THE NEAR TO MEDIUM TERM. THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES POLITICAL FACTORS, WHICH AS THE LACK OF PROGRESS IN POLITICAL NEGOTIATIONS WOULD TRIGGER NEW FIGHTING.

Do States, through their military forces, have legal obligations under human rights treaties towards the local civilian population during UN-mandated peace operations? It is frequently claimed that it is unrealistic to require compliance with human rights treaties in peace operations and this has led to an unwillingness to hold States accountable for human rights violations. In this book, Kjetil Larsen criticises this position by addressing the arguments against the applicability of human rights treaties and demonstrating that compliance with the treaties is unrealistic only if one takes an 'all or nothing' approach to them. He outlines a coherent and more flexible approach which distinguishes clearly between positive and negative obligations and makes treaty compliance more realistic. His proposals for the application of human rights treaties would also strengthen the legal framework for human rights protection in peace operations without posing any unrealistic obligations on the military forces.

Africa’s Deadliest Conflict deals with the complex intersection of the legacy of post-colonial history—a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions—and changing norms of international intervention associated with the idea of human security and the responsibility to protect (R2P). It attempts to explain why, despite a softening of norms related to the sanctity of state sovereignty, the international community dealt so ineffectively with a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which between 1997 and 2011 claimed an estimated 5.5 million. In particular, the book focuses on the role of mass media in creating a will to intervene, a role considered by many to be the key to prodding a reluctant international community to action.Included in the book are a primer on Congolese history, a review of United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Congo, and a detailed examination of both US television news and New York Times coverage of the Congo from 1997 through 2008. Separate conclusions are offered with respect to peacekeeping in the Age of R2P and on the role of mass media in both promoting and inhibiting robust international responses to large-scale humanitarian crises.