Description
Peace operations undertake a broad array of rule of law activities aiming to rebuild the justice system and end impunity. This paper first discusses the UN’s understanding of the rule of law and why the UN has chosen to underpin the peacebuilding agenda with ending impunity. Second, transitional justice in MINUSCA is discussed including the establishment of the Special Criminal Court. Third, UNMISS is investigated where the UN has an unprecedented challenge of ensuring the rule of law on protection of civilian sites. Lastly, the promise of local justice is assessed. It is suggested that while ending impunity and strengthening formal institutions can be important to ensure human rights violations do not persist, there needs to be an overarching, bottom-up strategy in place to allow local communities, and other civil actors, to be part of the rule of law process.
