Policing
Since the 1960s, police activities have been a part of peace operations – from individual officers in EU or OSCE missions to large police components in UN missions. The spectrum of their tasks reaches from advice and capacity building to executive police work.
At a strategic level, missions have engaged in advising and capacity building of police leadership to manage and run their organizations, e.g. the EU mission in Somalia (EUCAP Somalia) or the UN missions in Haiti (formerly MINUSTAH, now BINUH). As part of wider >Security Sector Reform efforts, UN, EU and OSCE missions often assist in the development of reform plans, such as MONUSCO for the Congolese National Police, or thematic strategies, such as the OSCE-supported strategies to combat organized crime, trafficking and terrorism in Montenegro and Tajikistan.
Police activities are a part of many peace operations, e.g.:
- UN missions such as UNMISS (South Sudan) MONUSCO (DRC) and MINUSCA (Central African Republic)
- EU missions such as EUPOL COPPS in the Palestinian Territories or EUAM Ukraine
- OSCE presences in Tajikistan or Montenegro
© Logan Abassi
In many peace operations, police work also includes basic or specialized training of local forces, e.g. on traffic monitoring and forensics, but also in gender-sensitive police work, such as is being carried out in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). Furthermore, basic structures and procedures of police institutions are developed. In the context of their peace operations, the UN, EU and OSCE advise local security forces on the selection and recruitment of police officers, as carried out in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
In many countries, community policing is coming to the fore: With the help of the OSCE in Kosovo, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan, the EU Mission in Ukraine or the UN in South Sudan (UNMISS), fora have been established that facilitate the exchange between citizens and the police on possible improvements to public safety.
In some cases, international police have also assumed executive functions: They provided public security and investigate criminal cases, such as previously in Kosovo (EULEX Kosovo) or in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).
In peace operations, police work is closely related to activities in support of >Rule of Law. The police and rule of law components of a mission, the EU missions in Somalia and the Palestinian Territories being examples, jointly support national authorities in closing legal loopholes or in improving the cooperation between prosecutors and police.
As of 17.08.2023