Towards a Convention on the Criminal Accountability of UN Personnel Including UN Military Experts on Mission and UN Police Officers

Abstract

In spite of the United Nations’ enduring efforts to curb misconduct and crime in peacekeeping operations, the international convention on the criminal accountability of UN officials and experts on mission envisaged in 2006 has still not materialized. One of the controversies inhibiting progress concerns the range of persons to be covered. It has been argued that UN military experts on mission and UN Police should be left out as they fall under the (exclusive) (military) criminal jurisdiction of seconding States. To assess those claims, this study explores the status and criminal accountability of these personnel categories (also in comparison to that of other UN experts on mission) and considers whether relevant rules of international law necessitate or can justify (calls for) their exclusion from a future convention.