The first international civilian police officer was deployed from 1960 to 1964 to the UN Operation in the Congo
(ONUC) (UN 2003a, p. 84).Footnote 7 In 1964, the first police component was deployed to the UN Peacekeeping
Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). OverSeeSeeUN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
the next 25 years, civilian police were used in UN peacekeeping
operations to
monitor
and reportSeeSeeCyprus
on local police activities. This started to change following the deployment of police to Namibia
in 1989, as part of the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG)
. In 1995, the Centre for Human Rights in cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping
Operations
(DPKO) Training Unit introduced the ‘SMART’ concept—an acronym describing the core of civilian police tasks in peace operations
: supporting human rights and humanitarian assistance
; monitoring the performance of the local law enforcement agencies, prisons, courts, and implementing agreements; advising the local police on humane effective law enforcement, according to the international standards laid down in the conventions, covenants, and treaties on human rights; reporting on situations and incidents; and training the local law enforcement in the best practice for policing
and human rights (Hartz 2000, p. 31).
While civilian police officers continued to monitor, mentor and advise local police, they also started to assist in the development and restructuring of law-enforcement structures. In the cases of Kosovo
and Timor-Leste
, and more recently, to a limited degree, in the Central African Republic
, they also acted as the authority for law enforcement.Footnote 8 In addition, in some missions there have been blurred lines between political actors, violent extremist groups, and transnational criminal networks, and the UN has been involved in strengthening host-state capacities to combat violent extremism, and transnational organised crime
, as well as, sexual and gender-based violence, for instance in Cote-d’Ivoire, Haiti
, Mali
and the Democratic Republic of Congo (UN 2016b, p. 5). Further, and as mentioned above, the UN plays an increasingly important role in protecting civilians (Sebastian 2015). Hence, there has been a steady increase, in the numbers of police officers, the complexity of police tasks, and in the number of operations where the police form an integrated part, reflecting the general growth in peace operation but also the relative importance of policing
within these missions.
Furthermore, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP
) has an important advisory role in the planning and implementation of police reform around the world and has a more long-term focus compared to DPKO
. Since 2012, UNDP
is
designated together with DPKOSeeSeeDepartment of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO)
as the joint Global Focal Point
on Police, Justice and Corrections Areas in the Rule of Law
in Post-Conflict and Other Crisis Situations (GFP). Other key partners are the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Women.
It is
not only the mandates that have changed, but also the policing
toolbox of the UN has transformed during the last decades. Today, UN police
teams range in size from just a few officers to more than 3500. At the time of writing, there are 11,034 officers, of whom 10% are women, coming from 87 UN Member States and deployed in 16 out of 23 UN operations (UN 2017a, b). The main policing
instruments of the UN are: Formed Police Units
(FPUs), currently 66%, and individual police officers
, currently 34%, including specialised police teams, contracted seconded police, and civilian experts. In addition, comes the Standing Police Capacity
.
Individual Police Officers
are normally police officers but can also be other law enforcement personnel of various ranks and experience assigned to serve with the UN on secondment by governments of Member States.Footnote 9 Individual Police Officers mentor and train national police officers; they provide specialisation in different types of investigations and in several countries, they help law enforcement agents to address transnational crime. In some cases, they develop community-oriented policing
in refugee or internally displaced persons camps.
Most police officers serving in UN peacekeeping
operations are deployed as part of a Formed Police Unit
.Footnote 10 These consist of approximately 140 police officers who are trained to operate in high-risk environments. The core responsibilities of FPUs are public order management, protection of UN personnel and facilities, and support to police operations requiring a concerted response (ibid.). The FPUs are normally more heavily equipped in contrast to individual UN police
officers, who are unarmed (Hansen 2011, p. 2). The UN deployed its first modern FPU in 1999, to the UN Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK
).Footnote 11 The numbers of FPUs has increased from 9 units in 2000 to 71 in 2016.Footnote 12
The Standing Police Capacity
is
the rapid deployment unit of the UN, based in Brindisi, Italy
. It has an approved operational capacity of 40 staff members and its core task is
to provide technical assistance and start-up capacity to field missions, as well as in non-mission settings through the Global Focal Point
arrangement (UN 2016b, p. 7). The Standing Police Capacity consists of people with specialised knowledge and leadership experience, and is
to assist in the fulfilment of the strategic mission of the UN Police
.
Increasingly, UN Member States have established specialised police teams that are deployed in peacekeeping
operations. For instance, since 2010 Norway
has a specialised police team on investigating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) assisting the UN mission in Haiti
(Caparini and Osland 2016a, b). Furthermore
, some UN Member States have other instruments available, such as the Spanish Guardia Civil, the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri, the Portuguese National Republican Guard, and the Dutch Royal Marechaussee, all of which form part of the European Gendarmerie Force, established in 2006.Footnote 13 Several UN Member States also have a growing private industry offering policing
and security services across the globe, including towards UN peacekeeping
operations. For instance, in the UK the private security industry offering such services overseas, is
now valued at £1 billion (Ellison and Sinclair 2013, p. 3).
It seems like the shell of UNPOL has hardened. This is
an expected development given the more insecure situations the UN faces. One would assume this is
to promote the security of both the UNPOL itself and the people it is
there to assist, but what impact can this have on the (re)-establishment of trust? Before going into that discussion, let us now turn to the different reform initiatives and doctrinal developments particularly relevant for UN Police
.