UN Tort Law for Peacekeeping Missions

The United Nations (UN) is currently conducting thirteen peacekeeping missions of varying sizes, level of armament and robustness in Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Darfur, to name but a few. These peacekeeping missions expose the UNs uniformed and civilian personnel to service-related risk that may result in death, illness, injury and loss. However, it is not only the UNs own personnel that can be affected by such tragedies, as the local populations in the various regions where peacekeepers operate are also subject to such risks. A considerable number of these tortious acts is attributable to the respective peacekeeping mission and, ultimately, to the UN. It is the UNs internal handling of these third-party tort claims, outside of domestic court systems and shielded from the public eye, that is the exclusive subject of this project. The aim related to this is to identify and contextualize the rules the UN applies when dealing with torts and remedies for affected third parties. This project will meaningfully advance the current state of the art in several respects: first, by increasing our understanding of the procedures of UN local claims review boards when dealing with third-party claims in situ; second, by shedding light on the substantive rules applied by such boards to individual claims before submitting to the injured party a proposal for amicable settlement. Finally, this project could have wider implications by potentially influencing the claims settlement practices of other international organizations with military missions under their operational command (eg NATO, ECOWAS, African Union).

The project examines how the United Nations handles harm arising during peacekeeping missions and develops practicable options to make outcomes for victims fairer, faster and more transparent. From 2021 to 2025, work concentrated on assembling and analysing a coherent record of UN thirdparty liability practice. Pandemic restrictions initially limited access to the UN Archives; a planned visit was postponed as archives operated at reduced capacity and US entry restrictions applied. The project term was extended on a costneutral basis; one contract was suspended and another reduced in hours. In response, the team requested scans of nondigitised records, pursued alternative repositories, and conducted interviews with former UN officials and practitioners. A oneday archive slot was offered but deemed insufficient and deferred until broader access was possible. From early 2022, document scanning and interviews advanced in parallel; conversations with experts from CIVIC and a former UN AssistantSecretaryGeneral informed the legal context and institutional practice. A book proposal was accepted by Edward Elgar; early drafting began to identify questions for external discussion. Results were presented at the 20th Conference on European Tort Law and during UN Arbitration Week, and further tested through an ESIL workshop contribution on fairness and double standards in UN claims handling. In July 2023, onsite work at the UN Archives proceeded; additional perspectives were gathered in interviews with military and mission legal advisers. A focused workshop in Salzburg in September 2023 examined legal gaps and practical options. In 2024, the team consolidated archival materials, interview transcripts and literature, presented the project at HIAS, and built a searchable database. A case discussion with a Haitian human rights defender illuminated obstacles faced by civilians seeking remedies. In 2025, work centred on finalising the monograph United Nations Tortious Liability in Peacekeeping Missions (Edward Elgar, planned 2026), complemented by articles on UN claims practice and general principles, public presentations in Hamburg, Durham and Cambridge, two specialist workshops, and the completion of a related doctoral thesis. The expected impact is improved access to remedies, strengthened trust in peacekeeping, and a more consistent, transparent practice within the UN.