Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Walley on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which UN peacekeeping missions established since 1990 do not have a human rights mandate.

Mark Simmonds

21 out of 51 peacekeeping missions established since 1990 did not include a human rights mandate to monitor and intervene. Of these 21, only the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is still in operation.

Human rights mandates or components in peacekeeping missions vary depending on the context, and are common in newer peacekeeping missions. The UK Government has supported these human rights mandates wherever possible. This is part of our broader efforts to mainstream human rights into the UN’s peace and security work.