The Role of Albania within UN Peacekeeping Operations

I. Peacekeeping 1.1 Peacekeeping, role and legal status characteristics; 1.2 United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans; 1.3 Peacekeeping and New Trends in Peacekeeping Operations; 1.4 The role of Regional Organizations; 1.5 Obligations towards international law 1. Peacekeeping, role and legal status characteristics: “Peacekeeping is not a soldiers’ job but only a soldier can do it” 1 . The maintenance of international peace and security is the main purpose of the United Nations (Art 1, comma 1 UN Charter). According to Art. 24, comma 1 of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council bears the primary responsibility for this task. Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter is concerned in particular with “action with respect to the threats to peace; breaches of peace and acts of aggression. The Peacekeeping operations 2 are authorized by the Security Council, endowed by the UN Charter with primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. A traditional peacekeeping operation 3 is established when parties to a conflict, typically two states, agree to the interposition of UN troops to uphold a ceasefire. Limited numbers of lightly armed troops are introduced and situated between the combatants, and they provide a symbolic guarantor of the peace. The Security Council maintains authority over the operation, expressed through the Secretary-General of the UN and the military commander, authorized under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter. The term “peacekeeping is not found in the United Nations Charter nor the peacekeeping operations legal basis is explicitly laid down there in. Dag 1 C.C. Moskos Jr., “Peace Soldiers. The Sociology of a UN Military Force”, Chicago, 1976, p. 139. 2 One useful way to approach the concept of peacekeeping is to divide it into three broad categories: 1) assist in maintenance of cease-fires, 2) implementation of comprehensive settlements and 3) protection of humanitarian operations. The primary goal of the first category of mission (comprised mainly of military personnel and a small number of civilian support personnel) is to allow time for political leaders and diplomats to negotiate and hopefully resolve underlying conflicts. The second broad type is also known as multi-dimensional peacekeeping, prevalent since the Security Council's establishment in 1989 of an operation in Namibia. With the end of the Cold War, members of the Council were able to agree on more ambitious and diversified operations. The third category of peacekeeping is an attempt by the international community to alleviate situations of massive human suffering. This type of operation is typically employed to protect the delivery of humanitarian relief in cases where armed violence has prevented efforts to assist a distressed population. See: Bonn, Keith E., and Anthony E. Baker. "Peace Operations" in Guide to Military Operations Other Than War: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Stability and Support Operations: Domestic and International, 71-78. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2000. 361pp. (UH723 .B66 2000) 3 Examples of traditional peacekeeping operations include the operations in Cyprus, which have separated the Greek and Turkish communities (UNFICYP, established in 1964); in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, disputed by India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP, 1949); and in the Golan Heights, between Israel and Syria (UN Disengagement Observer Force, 1974). See UN, Blue Helmets: A Review of United Nations Peacekeeping (3rd edn. New York 1996).