ACTIVITIES OF THE UN POLICE Generally, when UN Police are deployed to a conflict zone, they find the local police service in a moribund state whereby there is an immediate need to assist the local police in regaining an adequate level of operational capacity and effectiveness. The list of characteristics below reflects the situation of the local police in many missions to date as the first group of UN Police Officers arrive on the ground: • Corrupt and engaged in human rights abuses; • Politically and militarily influenced, biased and unaccountable to the public; • Little or no formal command and control structure and/or controlled by war lords; • Non-police personnel in police ranks, often recruited from militias or corrupt concessions; • Obsolete training facilities, overall lack of equipment and insufficient number of adequately trained officers, especially in specialized fields; • Lack of trust and conflicting relationships with local communities; and • Little or no influence or presence of the police in many areas; • Extremely low or zero salaries paid to the police officers; • Lack of functioning courts and prisons; • General departure from the Rule of Law. In these types of environments, the main tasks of the UN Police are to assist in enhancing the operational capacity of the local police; support local police institutional development through the reform and restructuring of police structures; and to help instil a level of trust between police and local communities. These efforts are achieved by implementing the applicable police mandate, consistent with the principles of democratic policing as below. 2.1. Principles of Democratic Policing Representative policing ensures that: • Police personnel sufficiently represent the community they serve; • Minority groups and women are adequately represented through fair and non-discriminatory recruitment policies in police services; and • The human rights of all people are protected, promoted and respected. Responsive policing ensures that: • Police are responsive to public needs and expectations, especially in preventing and detecting crime and maintaining public order; • Policing objectives are attained both lawfully and humanely; • Police understand the needs and expectations of the public they serve; and • Police actions are responsive to public opinion and wishes. Accountable policing is achieved in three ways: • Legally: police are accountable to the law, as are all individuals and institutions in States; • Politically: police are accountable to the public through the democratic and political institutions of government as well as through police and citizen liaison groups; and • Economically: police are accountable for the way they use resources allocated to them. OHCHR Professional Training Series No. 5: Human Rights and Law Enforcement: A Manual on Human Rights Training for the Police, 1997. Full text available at ohchr.org. 2.2. UN Police Tasks and Responsibilities Reflecting the increasingly complex and multidimensional nature of peacekeeping operations, civilian police responsibilities encompass a wide range of activities that can be broadly categorized as follows: • Advising and Reporting; • Reforming and Restructuring, Rebuilding and Strengthening Institutions; • Training, Mentoring and Skills Transfer; • Executive Law Enforcement; and • Electoral Assistance. 2.2.1. Advising and Reporting In the early 1990s, UN police components were tasked mainly with monitoring local police agencies to ensure observance of the principles of democratic policing. This required observing the behaviour of local police in the performance of their duties and reporting issues of concern to the Head of Mission for appropriate action. In the UN Transitional Assistance Group in Namibia (UNTAG), for example, the UN police component was to ensure that the South West Africa Police fulfilled their duty of maintaining law and order in an efficient, professional and non-partisan manner. UN police officers investigated public complaints against the local police and reported any violations of human rights by the police agencies. Their presence in tense border areas helped build confidence in the impartiality of the UN and reassured the general public. Although UN police had no direct authority for the maintenance of law and order and could influence the standards of policing only indirectly, they contributed significantly in keeping the transition plan for Namibia on track. Lessons learned in the 1990s showed that while monitoring was useful, it did not have a sufficient impact on the local police agencies in terms of change in attitudes, institution building or in bringing about systemic changes in the local police agencies. The passive monitoring style of early UN police missions ─ simply noting problems in local policing practices ─ proved to be of limited utility because it is less likely to significantly change the standards and methods of operation of the local police. The evolution toward more active interventions through active monitoring, which identifies weaknesses and ways to address them, has been seen to be a more effective approach and increasingly is being adopted as part of the UN police’s growing capacity building role. To the greatest extent possible, these approaches should work with, not against, the institutional structures of the local police. The late 1990s saw an increasing shift towards a process of advising and working with local counterparts. This process of advising local police, which includes observation, advice, supervision and reporting on counterparts, now forms the core of UN police role in multidimensional peace-keeping missions. The process is not an end in itself, but a means to detect problems, identify steps to address them and assess the effectiveness of existing measures for redress. When working with a local police agency, UN police looks at the effectiveness of the local police command structure; its ability to conduct internal investigations; and its relations with judicial authorities with the ultimate objective of enhancing capacity in the local police agencies and of making them independently capable of dealing with all policing issues. More importantly, the UN police works towards influencing the local police agencies to be more responsive to the community it is responsible for serving and protecting. It also assists in channelling support in terms of logistics and training to the local police. In a number of situations, UN police have found that an effective technique of working with local and national police agencies is by co-locating UN police personnel with the local police. Working together with the local police and community on a daily basis, with our strategic mission in mind, facilitates transfer of skills, trust, good communication and mutually beneficial working relationships to promote democratic and community policing practices. Thorough institutional assessment of local police institutions, made possible by co-location, has been an effective way for UN police to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to ensure that reports on their activities are grounded in local realities and based on the local context. The effectiveness of the process often depends on the willingness of the local police agencies to cooperate with the UN police. For example, the role of the UN police component in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was to supervise the local police service, primarily through monitoring and reporting. UNTAC’s police was able to make substantial progress only where the local police service had self-interest in cooperating with the UN or where moral authority provided sufficient leverage. Early on in a peacekeeping operation, it is important that appropriate standards and guidelines be established for UN police on how to advise and report on the local police. These must be implemented in a rigorous, programmed manner, albeit with flexibility, if they are to be effective. Advising and monitoring at local levels is a resource-intensive exercise, requiring a large number of UN police officers with relevant skills to be imparted. However, if efforts are focused on senior ranks of a local police agency, then fewer UN police officers, but with more managerial experience and seniority, may be needed. A top down approach has been seen to be more effective than a bottom up approach. If the senior and middle level leadership in the local police agencies are willing to reform then the trickle down effect to the field level is more effective. However, in this scenario, spot checks and targeted support at lower levels would still be required.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 10:41:46 +0000
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