Advancing Peace through Human Rights in UN Peace Operations

The integration of human rights in United Nations peace operations has witnessed remarkable progress during the past fifteen years. This article analyzes the evolution of human rights integration in the peace and security architecture in relation to peace operations, focusing on the achievements and shortcomings of Headquarters-led policies and reforms of the last decade, as well as the impact of recent Security Council dynamics. The article reviews the significant realizations on both the substantive and structural fronts and argues that ownership of the human rights agenda and policies, as well as accountability and leadership for their implementation, warrants a greater commitment of the organization. Such commitment should translate into institutionalizing Headquarters’ cooperation mechanisms, creating further space for human rights in decision-making, allocating adequate resources, and strengthening accountability for risk-mitigation policies, inter alia. A stronger political will is equally required to better articulate human rights issues in relation to conflict analysis, prevention and peacebuilding, in support of political objectives of peace operations.