Monitoring
The presence of international monitors can serve crisis prevention, the stabilization of a ceasefire or peace agreement as well as other purposes. Military, police or civilian personnel may be involved in the implementation of a monitoring mission. The first military observer mission was UNTSO (United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation) in the Middle East, which has been deployed in 1948 to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and its Arab neighbors – and which still exists.
Military observers still form an important element of peace operations, for example in the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE), the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), and Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The largest civilian observer mission of the recent past was the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission. Based on an agreement between the OSCE and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, up to 2,000 civilians were to be deployed to monitor the adherence to the ceasefire. At the time of evacuation in March 1999, 1,300 observers were working for KVM in the field. The OSCE Spillover Mission to Skopje was set up in 1992 in the border area between Macedonia and Serbia to prevent the regional conflict from spreading.
The EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia was set up in 2008. Like in the EU Aceh Monitoring Mission (2005-06) the civilian observers included members from police services and people with military background.
Possible Tasks and Functions
- Monitoring borders and reporting on relevant events and developments
- Supervising and verifying implementation of ceasefire or peace agreements and reporting any violations
- Establishing a visible international presence
- Carrying out confidence building measures (CBMs) for example through the exchange of information
- Providing early warning
updated September 2009