Addressing the Accountability Gap in Peacekeeping: Law-Making by Domestic Courts As a Way to Avoid UN Reform?

Abstract

Two decades after the Srebrenica massacre legal accountability for serious human rights violations perpetrated by peacekeepers is still difficult to deliver. While there is an accountability gap where individuals seek redress from the United Nations, a number of court decisions seem to prompt a shift towards the domestic level so that member States might be held accountable for violations of (international) law which occur during peacekeeping missions: While national courts have upheld the immunity of the UN, developments in the domestic and regional jurisprudence on the rules on attribution and State liability point to the responsibility of the troop-contributing States. In view of the political difficulties in bringing about reforms within the UN system a focus on the decentralized law-making mechanisms at the domestic level might appeal at first sight. However, this paper argues that member States need to act and close the accountability gap above all at the level of the UN.