Peace Keeping

At the end of January 2025, the M23 captured the city of Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the region’s humanitarian and security hub. Why does this matter to us international lawyers? It matters for many reasons, not least because this is another escalation in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises…

United Nations (UN) peace operations have changed in recent years and several missions now pursue stabilization mandates. These stabilization missions uniquely work alongside the host government, promote the rule of law, engage in counter-terrorism activities, and use robust force to counter spoilers to the peace process. Stabilization mandates often expressly call for the missions to assist with the…

During his official visit to Myanmar in January 2017, the then British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was accused of ‘incredible insensitivity’, for while in the Shwedagon Pagoda he suddenly started reciting from Kipling’s colonial-era poem ‘Mandalay’ in front of local dignitaries. The accompanying tense British High Commissioner had to stop him by reminding him that reciting this…

On 31 July 2018, thirty-two States asked the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres to go a step further in addressing the failures of UN peace operations to protect civilians. In particular, they stressed the importance of holding those accountable who have failed to protect civilians in line with their mission’s mandate (see Letter…