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The Expediency and Effectiveness of UN Peace-Keeping Operations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2009

D.A. Leurdijk
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Extract

In the 1987 Annual Report on the work of the United Nations the Secretary-General, Pérez de Cuéllar, wrote that for the solution of almost every regional conflict in which the UN is involved the need for a UN peace-keeping operation can be envisaged. He referred in particular to the settlement of the Namibia situation, regarding which the ten year old plan (contained in Resolution 435 of the Security Council) provides for the stationing of military and civilian units which are to carry out peace-keeping tasks during the transitional stage of independence. He claimed that other cases would require new and innovative forms of peace-keeping by the UN. In September 1987 he wrote that during the preceding year several conflicts had extended to the sea. This raised the question to what extent the UN had a role with regard to keeping the peace at sea and ensuring the safety of merchant vessels as part of their aim to bring an end to conflict. Pérez de Cuéllar pointed out that any peace-keeping operation at sea could be distinguished from peace-keeping on land in a number of respects, though the basic principles would be largely the same.

Type
Asser Institute Lectures on International Law: Political and Legal Aspects of UN Peace-Keeping Operations
Information
Netherlands International Law Review , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , December 1988 , pp. 311 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1988

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References

1. Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, September 1987. Document A/42/1, 9 September 1987.

2. See the articles which I have written together with Siekmann, R.C.R.: ‘Een maritieme VNvredesmacht verdient in de Golf de voorkeur’ [A UN naval peace-keeping force is to be preferred in the Gulf], NRC Handelsblad (10 08 1987Google Scholar); ‘Staakt-het-vuren geen “vaag verzoek” maar bindend besluit Veiligheidsraad; Wapenembargo moet gelden voor beide partijen’ [Cease-fire is not a ‘vague request’ but a mandatory decision of the Security Council; arms embargo must apply to both parties], NRC Handelsblad (8 September 1987); ‘VS verkleinen kans oplossing Golfconflict’ [US reduces possibility of settling Gulf conflict], De Volkskrant (21 October 1987); ‘VN vredesmacht alternatief in de Golf en in Afghanistan’ [UN peace-keeping force is an alternative solution for Afghanistan as well as for the Gulf], Trouw (29 October 1987); and ‘Er komt beweging aan het diplomatieke front in de Golfoorlog. Bel luidt voor een nieuwe ronde’ [Things are moving on the diplomatic front in the Gulf War; the bell tolls for a new round], NRC Handelsblad (2 January 1988).

3. Security Council Res. 619 (1988) of 9 August 1988.

4. S/20093, 7 August 1988, Report of the Security Council on the implementation of operative paragraph 2 of Security Council Res. 598 (1987).

5. ‘Agreements on Afghanistan’, in Department of State Bulletin (June 1988) pp. 54–60; also UN Doc. S/19835.

6. Press release AFG/4, PI/597, 28 April 1988.