Peacebuilding Mission: Lessons from the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina

I. Introduction

As noted in the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (the "Brahimi Report"), the human rights component of a peacebuilding mission is "critical to effective peacebuilding." ¹ Most United Nations peacebuilding missions have thus included a human rights component to monitor post-conflict human rights violations and the response of local authorities to those violations, and to strengthen local capacity to address such violations through educational and institution-building activities. Through such activities, human rights components play a crucial role in multidimensional efforts to establish a lasting peace in areas which have suffered intense hostilities between various segments of the population, the weakening or destruction of pre-conflict law enforcement and criminal justice systems, and a general breakdown in societal norms.

One activity that has not been explicitly included in the mandates of most human rights components of a peacebuilding mission is the investigation of alleged human rights violations. ² The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), however, was explicitly mandated by the United Nations Security Council to carry out independent human rights investigations. ³ This article argues, based on the author's experiences in the UNMIBH Human Rights Office ("Human Rights Office"), that the authority to conduct investigations is crucial to the efficacy of a human rights component working in a post-conflict environment, and therefore should be expressly included in the mandates of all peacebuilding operations.

In addition to the explicit inclusion of human rights investigations in its mandate, the Human Rights Office was given additional tools that have greatly enhanced its ability to carry out investigations. First, the scope of the Human Rights Office is limited to human rights violations committed, or allegedly committed, by law enforcement officials. ⁴ Violations committed by other state agents such as military personnel or educators are therefore outside the scrutiny of the Human Rights Office. As a result, the Human Rights Office has been able to focus its efforts and resources on a category of "targets" which play a crucial role in the sustainability of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These targets include individuals and institutions which held overwhelming, and often oppressive, authority before the conflict, and actively participated in the fighting during the conflict. Second, the Human Rights Office is empowered to demand "immediate and complete access" to any law enforcement activity, official, document, or premises, ⁵ thereby enabling the Human Rights Office to go significantly beyond the general monitoring and reform of law enforcement officials. Requests by the Human Rights Office to local authorities, whether for information, access to official premises and documents, or concrete action, are therefore not subject to the willingness or discretion of local authorities. Third, if a human rights violation is substantiated, the Human Rights Office is able not only to call upon local authorities to conduct disciplinary and criminal proceedings, but also to impose sanctions including the de-authorization and removal of law enforcement officials from their positions. This authority gives the Human Rights Office the "teeth" necessary to carry out its work. Lastly, the Human Rights Office is composed of international and national non-police civilian staff with human rights and legal expertise and experience, as well as international civilian police officers with extensive investigative backgrounds. This composition allows the Human Rights Office to take a comprehensive approach to the reform and development of law enforcement agencies and the rule of law generally.

This article will provide an overview of the mandate, powers, and composition of the UNMIBH Human Rights Office and the methodology it uses, focusing in particular on: 1) investigations into alleged human rights violations by law enforcement officials to assess the response of local authorities to such allegations; and 2) inspections of law enforcement agencies to identify and address systemic flaws which facilitate human rights violations. ⁶ The purpose of this article is not, therefore, to summarize the substantive work of the Human...