Policing and human rights: International lessons from the 1990's

With the end of the Cold War politicians, policy makers, and scholars began to speak of a new world order. One feature of this new world order has been the proliferation of disorder, in particular internal conflicts that have occurred in a number of countries throughout the world. This kind of domestic disorder is not new. What is new is an attempt by the international community, usually under the auspices of the United Nations, to respond to the disorder through a peacekeeping initiative. The initial goal of the international community is to establish a stable environment for the victims of the disorder, the citizenry of the state experiencing the disorder and at times citizens of neighboring countries. Much has been written about the military, political and humanitarian components of peacekeeping initiatives. The role that police play in assisting with the establishment of a stable environment has only received modest attention. Nevertheless, the police role is a central feature in the short term success or failure of such missions. Ultimately, their impact often determines one of the long term objectives of the original initiative, that is the emergence or re-emergence of a political climate that supports human rights. This paper attempts to do two things. First, through the case study method, examples of UN peacekeeping initiatives in the 1990s illustrate how police were employed in the recent past. Attention will focus, in particular, on El Salvador, Somalia, and Haiti. Second, if the international community plans to continue with this kind of activity, there is a need to identify the lessons learned from these experiences in order to establish principles that could lead to an effective and efficient strategy of engagement.