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Anti-Corruption Norms in Training for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

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Abstract

Corruption can be a serious threat to stability and peace. It is considered to be both, cause and consequence of violent conflict. United Nations peacekeepers are deployed in war-torn states (or regions), usually with the aim of supporting the restoration of stable institutions. The present study examines whether they are prepared to face the challenges emanating from corruption. In conducting a content analysis of United Nations training and guidance documents for their peacekeepers, it is hoped to contribute to a deeper understanding of peacekeeping and its impact on the fight against corruption in (post-)conflict situations.

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Notes

  1. For further information, please visit: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/.

  2. The United Nations Peacekeeping Operations Principles and Guidelines (2008) mention the term corruption only once as part of a list of topics to be addressed in the peacekeeper’s efforts to strengthen the rule of law. For further information, please visit: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/documents/capstone_eng.pdf.

  3. The UN uses its confidential tracking system to keep record of allegations of misconduct; these data are published on the CDUs website (https://conduct.unmissions.org/other-misconduct-data). Apart from listing individual cases with regard to the respective UN mission, the website offers statistics on misconduct by categories of peacekeeping personnel. It is notable that the highest numbers of cases are reported for civilian personnel.

  4. See: https://cdu.unlb.org/FAQ2.aspx.

  5. The so-called Brahimi Report is available online: http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol = A/55/305.

  6. For further information on the Report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations on uniting our strengths for peace: politics, partnership and people, please visit: http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol = A/70/95.

  7. See for example page 25 of the framework: http://www.un.org/es/ethics/pdf/anti_fraud_framework.pdf.

  8. See also Pyman et al. [8].

  9. For a detailed description of peacekeeping principles, please visit: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/principles.shtml#impartiality.

  10. The approach implies that many acts of corruption can be seen as human rights violations. These violations can be direct, e.g. if poor people do not have access to education because they cannot afford to pay bribes, or indirect, e.g. public officials or peacekeepers engage in the exploitation of the environment leading to health risks for the population. For further information on the topic, see for example International Council on Human Rights Policy [16].

  11. For an overview on ongoing UN peacekeeping operations, please visit the UN-DPKO website: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/.

  12. The Public Integrity Index is published by the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building. It measures the states capacities to combat corruption. For further information, please visit: http://integrity-index.org/.

  13. Whereas the top-five TCCs score low, i.e. India is ranked no.68, Pakistan no.78, Bangladesh no.77, and Rwanda no.90 (Ethiopia is not included in the PII).

  14. It should be noted, however, that the population of the respective countries is relatively small.

  15. For this survey 77 items are used to score the country’s corruption risk from 4 (high transparency) to 0 (low transparency); additionally Transparency International invites the country’s governments to comment on the assessment. The items used in the survey are categorized according to five “key risk areas“: political, financial, personnel, operations, and procurement risk. Although the GI might be criticized for methodological reasons, its sub-categories are useful to gain an understanding of the various corruption risks in the country’s defense sector. For further information on the 2015 GI, please visit: http://government.defenceindex.org/#intro.

  16. For example, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) engages in a program called “Training for Peace” which focusses on capacity building in peace operations in Africa. For further information, please visit: http://trainingforpeace.org/training-peace/overview-of-the-tfp-programme-2016-2019/.

  17. Moreover, it was considered to include the so-called Legal frameworks for deployed contingents, provided by TCCs. A first analysis revealed that corruption (and related terms) wasn’t mentioned in these documents at all. 35 countries contributed these legal frameworks for their peacekeepers to the UN, for further information please visit: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/legalframeworks.shtml.

  18. Peacekeeping Training includes the so-called “International Master’s Degree in Conflictology “and a second program called “Enhancing the Capacity of African Peacekeeping Training Institutions“.

  19. Peacemaking and conflict prevention is divided into four programs: “Project for Special and Personal Representatives and Envoys of the Secretary-General“, “UNITAR-IPI Fellowship Programme in Peacemaking and Preventive Diplomacy“, “Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking in Africa“, and “Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking Capacities of indigenous peoples’ representatives“. For further information, please visit: http://unitar.org/pmcp/what-we-do.

  20. See: http://www.unitar.org/ptp/portfolio-projects/3207.

  21. See for example the DPKO „Handbook for Judicial Affairs Officers in UN Peacekeeping Operations“,http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/policy.shtml.

  22. The method was presented during the ECPR General Conference 2016 in Prague. For further information, please visit: https://ecpr.eu/Events/PaperDetails.aspx?PaperID=31479&EventID=95.

  23. The main reason for choosing this topic is the subject of my PhD thesis – corruption in the context of UN peacekeeping; for this I collect all available (official) peacekeeping documents, such as resolutions of the security council, to analyze them with regard to corruption and related concepts. Working on this rather broad research question, I wondered whether the UN offers specific training for peacekeepers on the matter in order to enable their staff to deal with the challenges of the missions before and during their deployment. Answering this question required collecting a new data-set, namely official UN documents on peacekeeping training, resulting in the present study.

  24. A list of analyzed documents can be requested from the author.

  25. For example, it offers special training for UNMISS staff, the UN mission in South Sudan, or staff of MONUSCO, the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  26. The software MAXQDA is usually used for the analysis of qualitative data, such as interview transcripts.

  27. Furthermore, the DPKO is part of the Institutional Integrity Initiative led by UNODC. The aim of the initiative is to implement the United Nations Convention Against Corruption into UN institutions. A report on the initiative’s activities is available online: https://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/COSP/session6/THE_INSTITUTIONAL_INTEGRITY_INITIATIVE.pdf [26].

  28. The UN’s Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  29. See also: https://conduct.unmissions.org/other-misconduct-introduction.

  30. For example, the UN’s Conduct and Discipline Unit website emphasizes many issues as particularly important in this context, among them topics that could be related to the issue of corruption, such as rule of law, without mentioning the term directly.

  31. See also Björkdahl [34] on how norms are shaped in the UN system.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers for their time and efforts as well as for their helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8, 50667, Cologne, Germany

    Anna K. Schwickerath

  2. Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Anna K. Schwickerath

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Schwickerath, A.K. Anti-Corruption Norms in Training for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Crime Law Soc Change 70, 275–291 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-017-9731-1

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