Targeting Spoilers the Role of United Nations Panels of Experts
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Targeting Spoilers The Role of United Nations Panels of Experts Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt Report from the Project on Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Settings Future of Peace Operations January 2009 Stimson Center Report No. 64 2 | Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt Copyright © 2009 The Henry L. Stimson Center Report Number 64 Cover photo: United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) peacekeepers conduct arms embargo inspections on government forces in western Côte d'Ivoire. Cover design by Shawn Woodley All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent from the Henry L. Stimson Center. The Henry L. Stimson Center 1111 19 th Street, NW 12 th Floor Washington, DC 20036 telephone: 202.223.5956 fax: 202.238.9604 www.stimson.org Targeting Spoilers: The Role of United Nations Panels of Experts | 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................................4 Preface ..............................................................................................................................................5 List of Acronyms ..............................................................................................................................8 List of Figures, Tables, and Sidebars ..............................................................................................10 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................11 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................19 Panels of Experts: History ..............................................................................................................25 Panels of Experts: Roles and Challenges ........................................................................................45 Panels of Experts: Toward More Effective Sanctions Implementation and Peacebuilding .............75 The Panel of Experts on Liberia .....................................................................................................89 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................109 Selected Bibliography ...................................................................................................................117 About the Authors ........................................................................................................................124 About Stimson and the Future of Peace Operations Program ......................................................125 Introduction to Part II ..................................................................................................................127 Panels of Experts “Cheat Sheet”...................................................................................................130 Panels of Experts Mandate Guide .................................................................................................138 Comprehensive Charts: A Sample Chart for Liberia ...................................................................149 Summary Charts: A Sample Chart for Liberia ............................................................................186 4 | Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report would not have been possible without the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Compton Foundation. We would like to thank those who offered us their insights, information, and analysis, especially current and former members of United Nations Panels of Experts teams. We appreciate the support of those at the United Nations, including Loraine Rickard-Martin and her colleagues in the UN Department of Political Affairs, for their valuable ideas and consideration. We are very grateful to Charles Arnott, Dorina Bekoe, Art Blundell, Kaysie Brown, E.J. Hogeendoorn, Don Hubert, Deborah O’Dell, Madalene O’Donnell, Eric Rosand, Andrea Shreni, and Alex Vines for commenting on earlier drafts of this report. Participants and speakers in roundtables held by Stimson, including Johan Peleman, Douglas Farah, J. Stephen Morrison, Kathi Austin, Alex Vines, Curtis Ward, and Alex Yearsley, further deepened our knowledge and understanding of this subject. We benefited from a variety of meetings, especially conferences sponsored by the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House), the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, the International Peace Institute, the Fourth Freedom Forum, the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, the Brookings Institution, and the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. We would also like to thank our Stimson colleagues. Useful guidance and enduring support from Stimson’s President, Ellen Laipson, and its Chief Operating Officer, Cheryl Ramp, helped make this report possible. We appreciate the insights and support of our colleagues from the Future of Peace Operations (FOPO) program, Senior Associate William Durch, and research staff Katherine Andrews, Max Kelly, and Joshua Smith. Numerous Stimson interns offered their talents, including Jeffrey Bernstein, Jung Eun Choi, Meryl Feingold, Ellen Leaver, Margaret Midyette, Denis Okello, Azita Ranjbar, Elizabeth Renieris, Stephen Wittels, and Elizabeth Zolotusky contributed to the research and analysis by tracking Panel recommendations, working on our database and analyzing their application by the Security Council. In addition, Laura Kim, Barron Weyerhaeuser, and Alison Yost helped proof the final manuscript. All errors and omissions, of course, remain the responsibility of the authors alone. Targeting Spoilers: The Role of United Nations Panels of Experts | 5 PREFACE Since 2001, Stimson’s program on the Future of Peace Operations (FOPO) has worked to promote sensible US policy toward greater UN effectiveness in the conduct of peace operations—internationally- mandated efforts that engage military, police, and other resources in support of transitions from war to peace in states and territories around the globe. Such places suffer from many deficits—in education, health, jobs, and infrastructure—but the greatest and most costly, in the long run, is their deficit in the rule of law and security. This deficit impacts quality of governance, justice, and other goals of international security and aid institutions that want to promote sustainable peace and development. There is, however, no agreed definition of the term “rule of law.” For purposes of this and other reports in FOPO’s series on restoring post-conflict rule of law, we therefore choose to use the relatively comprehensive definition contained in the UN Secretary-General’s August 2004 report on the rule of law and transitional justice. It defines rule of law as: a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to the laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency. 1 Promoting and sustaining the rule of law in war-torn lands requires a multidimensional approach that extends beyond the reform and restructuring of local police, judicial, and corrections institutions to: Early provision of public security by the international community while local security forces are reformed and rebuilt. International support for effective border controls, both to curtail illicit trade and to promote legitimate commerce and government customs revenues. Curtailment of regional smuggling rings and spoiler networks that traffic in people and commodities to finance war and, afterwards, to sustain war-time political and economic power structures. Strict legal accountability for those who participate in peace operations, lest their actions reinforce the very cynicism and resignation with regard to impunity that their work is intended to reverse. Recognition that corruption can drain the utility from any assistance program and undermine the legitimacy of post-war governments in the eyes of their peoples. This study is one of five produced by FOPO, each addressed to one of the areas above. During and after conflict, continued smuggling of small arms, as well as of high-value commodities (such as diamonds, precious metals, and timber) sustains war and impedes peace, feeds the informal economy, and undermines efforts to support peacebuilding and sustain the rule of law. To disrupt such “spoiler” networks, the UN Security Council has regularly imposed targeted sanctions on some countries, groups, 1 United Nations Secretary-General, The rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies , Report of the Secretary-General, S/2004/616, 23 August 2004, para. 2. 6 | Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt and individuals. To track the progress of these measures, the United Nations has appointed