Human rights are at the centre of the work of the United Nations. They are one of the three mutually reinforcing pillars of the UN system, alongside development, and peace and security.

Human rights principles, information and analysis should inform a UN peace operation’s strategic planning. All peace operations personnel have a responsibility to ensure that human rights are promoted, respected and protected through and within operations in the field. The HoM and the MLT are accountable for ensuring that the promotion and protection of human rights is instilled as a fundamental principle of peace operations and that all staff are aware of their human rights responsibilities (see Chapter 1.3.2: A human rights mindset). If UN personnel (whether military, police or civilian) commit human rights abuses, they must be held accountable. Alleged human rights abuses that are brought to the attention of the HoM and/or the MLT by victims, witnesses or other sources, should be shared with the Conduct and Discipline section and investigated.

The UN’s HRDDP specifies that before providing any support to a non-UN security force, the mission must first conduct an assessment of the potential risks and benefits involved. This assessment must include considerations of the human rights record of the intended recipient of support and the adequacy of the measures put in place to prevent human rights violations.

Human Rights sections in missions

The Human Rights section helps mainstream human rights across all mission activities and leads the human rights-related work of other components of the mission. It conducts monitoring, investigations, assessments, reporting, advocacy and interventions; gives human rights advice; and provides support for institutional reform and capacity building to host governments.

The Head of the Human Rights section acts as the human rights adviser to the HoM and as the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the area of operation. They are responsible for keeping the both the High Commissioner and OHCHR informed, as well as for consulting with them on key policy and operational issues and developments. As such, the Head of the Human Rights section has dual reporting obligations with regards to the HoM and the High Commissioner.

The MLT should also meet regularly with national and international human rights organizations, civil society and host-state authorities in order to ensure transparent dialogue on the human rights situation. It is now standard operating practice for missions to issue jointly produced and regular public reports on issues of human rights concern. The MLT should also solicit feedback on the impact of the mission’s work in promoting and protecting human rights. In addition, human rights monitoring and investigations should feed into the mission’s work related to evaluation, training and assessment, and advice on the formulation of legislation.

In addition to the Human Rights section, a number of other sections can play a significant role in the promotion and protection of human rights, not least the Child Protection section, which is usually established and operated in close coordination with the SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Other relevant sections include Gender, and Rule of Law. Some operations also benefit from dedicated components that address specific aspects of transitional justice. It is essential to maintain a strong spirit of partnership on human rights issues within the UN and with other humanitarian, development, political and related actors. The MLT should be aware, however, that the promotion of human rights may at times, from a short-term perspective, leave the mission torn between difficult questions of peace versus justice. This illustrates one of the core leadership considerations on polarities, whereby both peace and justice should be supported and neither neglected.

Conflict and post-conflict situations typically exacerbate levels of risk to which women are exposed. Conversely, women have a distinctive and important role to play in promoting human rights and achieving sustainable peace. Although these issues are widely understood and accepted, they are not always acted on or may even be overlooked due to misconceived “gender-blind” approaches to human rights.

Conflict-related sexual violence

Sexual violence frequently occurs during armed conflict or in fragile states, particularly when ill-disciplined military or police forces or other armed groups believe they can act with impunity. CRSV consists of violent acts of a sexual nature, such as rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity against women, men, girls or boys.

CRSV is a crime against international human rights law, criminal law and refugee law. It can be centrally orchestrated as part of a deliberate campaign of terror against a specific group, and as such can be part of a genocidal effort or mass atrocity with the purpose of destroying families and communities or supporting ethnic cleansing of an area. It may also occur in a more decentralized manner due to a general lack of discipline within units, or due to a general lack of security and stability.

The mission should solicit women’s views regarding CRSV and, if they do not already exist, it may be possible to facilitate the creation of women’s groups to provide insights on CRSV and other issues. Women’s groups, NGOs, the media and CSOs can increase awareness, generate the communal interest to eliminate CRSV, conduct local activities, implement and strengthen local norms in accordance with international standards, share information, form coalitions, and advocate to generate political pressure to eliminate CRSV. However, it should be noted that discussing or dealing with CRSV and SBGV is culturally taboo in many cultures. Working in the context of such cultures can be particularly challenging and context awareness and locally anchored approaches to prevention methods should be adopted.

Preventing and combating CRSV and SGBV are multi-dimensional activities and demand the integrated capacity of the UN system. The UN system will normally establish a sub-cluster or working group to address SGBV and CRSV in all aspects of the response. The need to deploy sufficient numbers of uniformed women in the military and police components is an essential prerequisite. UNPOL may deploy specialized teams consisting of a limited number of experts with special skills in areas such as investigations and SGBV. It is essential that the UN itself does not compound the situation by ill-discipline and predatory behaviour against the population; and here the MLT supported by the mission’s Conduct and Discipline section must be alert (see Chapter 1.3.4: Conduct of personnel).

Child protection

Children have particular needs as a consequence of conflict. Provisions for the protection of children are included in several peace operations mandates. Children may have been mobilized or recruited into armed forces at a young age, been the victims of sexual violence, or be parties to or the victim of killings, maiming or abduction. They may also lack access to humanitarian relief or child-sensitive DDR programmes. As a consequence, actions will need to be taken to address any abuses committed against children by armed groups, and to identify and support the needs of children affected by conflict, through humanitarian assistance, relocation, reunion with family members, reintegration programmes, education and other forms of support. Peace operations also have a role to play in early-warning of signs of attempted recruitment and the use of child soldiers, as well as in reporting grave violations against children.

With support of child-protection advisers, the MLT must identify – jointly with UNICEF, the UNCT and national actors as appropriate – the child-protection priorities in the mission area.^[1] This may require advocacy with national actors and other partners.^[2] Peacekeeping personnel should not conduct interviews with children, take pictures of child survivors or give money. Grave violations against children should be referred to child-protection advisers and other experts to manage.

5.1.1 Operational activities

Key operational activities in support of this output include:

• Conducting regular monitoring of the human rights situation, which involves active collection, verification, analysis and use of information to prevent and address human rights violations.
• Conducting in-depth investigations into serious human rights violations or emblematic cases where appropriate and where possible, with reliable national actors, to document the widespread or systematic nature of such incidents.
• Monitoring and reporting any grave violations of children’s rights, such as killing and maiming, the recruitment and use of children, abduction, sexual violence, attacks against schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access.
• Conducting threat and vulnerability assessments for specific groups (e.g. women, children, IDPs and minorities) to advise the mission on protection responses that could prevent further incidents.
• Incorporating human rights and protection concerns (e.g. the protection of women and children) into mission planning processes.
• Preventing human rights violations through mission-wide early- warning mechanisms.
• Establishing joint-protection teams consisting of military, police and civilian components and deploying human rights or multidisciplinary mobile teams to remote areas where necessary and possible.
• Conducting regular proactive patrols.
• Ensuring appropriate security conditions to guarantee temporary demilitarized zones intended to allow the safe transit of humanitarian aid into, and/or refugees out of, a crisis region.
• Undertaking advocacy and intervention actions at local, national and/ or international levels to address human rights concerns, for instance through quiet diplomacy or public statements.
• In conjunction with the OHCHR, issuing public reports on human rights issues in the country; and supporting institutional reform and capacity building by working closely with and advising the host government and civil society.
• Monitoring all detentions by UN personnel and obtain unconditional access to detained persons held in UN premises at all times, as well as to all documents relating to the taking, handling and management of detained persons.

5.1.3 Responsibilities and coordination

Within the mission, the Human Rights section is responsible for pro- moting and implementing the necessary human rights required by the mandate. The head of the Human Rights section must have effective direct access to the MLT and be part of the integrated senior manage- ment group and other relevant decision-making bodies, including the SMT (albeit as the OHCHR designate) and operational planning bodies.

5.1.4 Resources

The MLT should ensure that sufficient resources are available in the mission budget to facilitate human rights efforts more widely.