OUVRAGE : A. Kihara-Hunt, Holding UNPOL to Account: Individual Criminal Accountability of United Nations Police Personnel

Ai KIHARA-HUNT

Ai Kihara-Hunt’s Holding UNPOL to Account: Individual Criminal Accountability of United Nations Police Personnel analyzes whether the mechanisms that address criminal accountability of United Nations police personnel serving in peace operations are effective, and if there is a problem, how it can be mitigated.

The volume reviews the obligations of States and the UN to investigate and prosecute criminal acts committed by UN police, and examines the jurisdictional and immunity issues involved. It concludes that these do not constitute legal barriers to accountability, although immunity poses some problems in practice. The principal problem appears to be the lack of political will to bring prosecutions, as well as a lack of transparency, which makes it difficult accurately to determine the scale of the problem.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword, by William G. O’Neill
Abstract

Acknowledgement

List of Cases

List of Treaties

Acronyms

Chapter 1. Introduction

1. The issue
2. The evolution of UN Peace Operations
3. The scope of this work
4. Issues outside the scope of this work
5. Structure
6. Definitions and clarifications
7. Conclusion

Chapter 2. UN police in peace operations

1. Evolution of the functions of the UN Police in UN Peace Operations
2. The growth in size of the UN Police
3. Ensuring the deployment of the required types of personnel
4. Conclusion

Chapter 3. Evidence of the commission of crimes by UN police

1. Findings regarding particularized allegations
2. Possible patterns of criminal conduct
3. Evidence of prosecution
4. Conclusion

Chapter 4. Current UN machinery for collecting information for domestic criminal proceedings

1. Benchmarks
2. Evolution of the approach to, and the mechanisms for, dealing with criminal misconduct
3. Analysis of the mechanisms’ performance

Chapter 5. Criminal juridiction under international law and national law

1. Introduction
2. Criminal laws to which the UN Police are subject
3. International law governing jurisdiction
4. National laws dealing with jurisdiction
5. Conclusion

Chapter 6. Immunity as a potential legal barrier

1. The law of immunity
2. Application of immunity in practice
3. Conclusion

Chapter 7. Is there an obligation to investigate and prosecute?

1. IHRL monitoring mechanisms
2. A State’s obligation to investigate and prosecute UN Police officers, in relation to serious crimes
3. Scope of the obligation
4. The obligation of the host State to investigate and prosecute
5. The sending State’s obligation
6. Special circumstances pertaining to Formed Police Units (FPUs)
7. Does immunity have any impact on the State’s obligation to prosecute?
8. Does the UN have an obligation to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by UN Police officers?
9. Conclusion

Chapter 8. Conclusion

Index

AI KIHARA-HUNT, Holding UNPOL to Account: Individual Criminal Accountability of United Nations Police Personnel, Leiden, Brill/Nijhoff, 2017 (436 pp.)