Policing Assistance in Armed Conflict: What Can Be Done?

2007

Enhancing United Nations Capacity to Support Post-Conflict Policing and Rule of Law x and dysfunctional or abusive local police forces pose dire risks to fragile peace processes, undermining public confidence in nascent governments and increasing the likelihood of renewed conflict. The growing numbers of international police authorized by the Security Council to serve in UN missions attests to an increasing recognition of the importance, and challenge, of fostering the rule of law in post-conflict environments. To date, however, the UN's capacity to recruit and deploy highly-skilled officers to the field in a timely manner has fallen far short of what is required to succeed in this task. This study attempts to address present shortfalls in UN capacity through a series of reinforcing proposals, including a core standing cadre of UN police and rule of experts to serve as mission leadership, a UN Police Reserve that offers police forces and governments financial incentives to participate, and a Senior Reserve Roster to promote the availability of highly experienced rule of law professionals for UN peacekeeping mission service. This study, and the other four described briefly below, can be accessed online from the FOPO homepage on the Stimson Center website (www.stimson.org/fopo). Borders. FOPO's border security study, Post-Conflict Borders and UN Peace Operations, is in two parts. For part one, author Kathleen A. Walsh surveyed more than 100 international border assistance and training programs. Her report, "Border Security, Trade Controls, and UN Peace Operations," found both a great deal of overlap and lack of coordination among these programs that, if remedied, could make them much more cost-effective. The second part of the study, "A Phased Approach to Post-Conflict Border Security," by Katherine N. Andrews, Brandon L. Hunt, and William J. Durch, lays out the requirements for coordinated international support to border security in post-conflict states that host international peace operations. Spoiler Networks. During and after conflict, continued smuggling of small arms, as well as of high-value commodities, such as diamonds, precious metals, and timber, sustains war and impedes peace; feeds the informal economy; and undermines efforts to support peacebuilding and sustain the rule of law. To disrupt such "spoiler" networks, the UN Security Council has regularly imposed targeted sanctions on some countries and individuals. To track progress of these measures, the UN has appointed small teams of investigators to monitor and evaluate sanctions implementation. These Panels or Groups of Experts shed critical light on the problems in implementing UN sanctions regimes, writing reports detailing how these networks operate, from Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Afghanistan; and recommending measures to counter them and to contribute to building the rule of law. These expert panels face challenges, however, both in the field and in getting the Security Council and UN member states to implement their many practical recommendations. This FOPO study details these issues, highlights how implementing Panel recommendations could improve post-conflict rule of law, and offers recommendations about how the Panels could be better used and sanctions implemented. The study is, Targeting Spoilers: The Role of UN Panels of Experts, by Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt. Accountability. In 2004, major problems of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other operations became a public scandal for the United Nations. Before that story broke, FOPO had begun work on the problem of criminal accountability for personnel in peace operations. Because states retain disciplinary responsibility for their military forces in peace operations, that work focused on police and civilian personnel.

This paper offers an Australian perspective on the essential elements of civil-military-police cooperation, building on Australia’s experience over the last decade in responding to natural disasters and instability, and rebuilding infrastructure and rule of law. The nature of crisis response—whether to disasters or conflict, or post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction—is that every situation is unique: there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Each country will approach civil-military-police interaction in a way that suits their political, socioeconomic, military and cultural circumstances. Nevertheless, the challenges that all countries face in the ‘global commons’ invites an appreciation of different national approaches, that we might find utility in the experience of others. This paper addresses three key questions: • Why do we need a civil-military-police coordinated approach? • What are the challenges/implications in achieving this? • How do we build civil-military-police capability? The paper concludes with some implications for Land Forces.

Conflict, Security & Development, 2002

US, and Principal Investigator of the 'Building Democracy After War' Project. He has written several articles on United Nations civilian police, human rights and Latin American security forces, and has served as a consultant on public security issues to the United Nations, the Ford Foundation, the US Department of Justice and the European Commission. Policymakers are giving much greater attention to police reform than they did a decade ago. International actors recognise that post-conflict settings require some forces to maintain order and justice, yet war termination often results in the dissolution of the very institutions that previously provided these goods. At the same time, Western powers are eager to keep their soldiers safe and, therefore, not engaged in policing duties. The development of internal security capabilities in countries emerging from armed conflict has thus acquired increasing importance in international security, resulting in the proliferation of 'lessons' on how international actors can foster police reform, and what steps national authorities should take if they want to restructure their own police forces. This paper seeks to clarify the concepts surrounding 'police reform'. Although one might think that 'peacebuilding' is a broad (or amorphous) enough term to encapsulate police reform, we need to recognise the varied policy and academic communities that seek to define 'policing' and 'police reform'. In some ways, police reform resembles the famous story of five blind men feeling different parts of an elephant, each man holding an entirely different perception to the others. After discussing Conflict, Security & Development

2005

Perspectives on Politics, 2022

2010

Community policing is the idea of policing in partnership with community, and the strategy for implementing this partnership. Beyond this rudimentary definition, there is no common agreement on what community policing entails. Experience of various forms of community policing in different fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) have had mixed results – there have been some benefits, though the programmes have not been as transformative as hoped, and existing police culture and community relations have often been the critical impediment. Case studies from Afghanistan, Kenya and Sierra Leone identify benefits from community policing (though the contents of these programmes varied). These include: State legitimacy can be strengthened through police-community exchange. Trust can be built through community policing and undermined through police militarisation. Valuable intelligence insights can be provided from the community members to the police. Police can educate and inform the public about specific dangers. These case studies also identify challenges and lessons learned: An existing lack of accountability in the police force culture. An existing suspicion and mistrust of the police force. A blurring of lines between illegitimate vigilantism and legitimate policing acts. Senior managers do not (or cannot) take community policing seriously, at least in comparison to other needs. Community-police exchange members are not fully representative of the community. Some (e.g. Baker, 2008) consider community policing programmes in FCAS as over-ambitious because they require a radical culture change, and instead advocate just trying to get the police system working in some form.

The United Nations today encourages a comprehensive approach to all aspects of its activities. This includes an integrated response between military, police and civilian capacities in the planning, preparation and implementation of UN peace operations and interventions. The United Nations now has some 65 years experience in dealing with international conflict and post conflict environments, and during that period the world, the United Nations and Member States have all come to realise that there is no simple solution to the international vision outlined in the UN Charter to prevent the scourge of war, and that all avenues and capabilities must be used to achieve that end. Over that period huge changes have occurred to the world, there has been broad normative debate on international responsibilities, agreements and standards, there has been the growth of a large number of regional and sub-regional organisations that focus on collective security arrangements, and some 141 new Member States have joined the United Nations to bring its membership today to 192. Nevertheless, conflict has persisted with an average of about 30 wars and armed conflicts occurring each year.

2009