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A United Nations Police Force

An article in Mondial, the excellent magazine of Canadian World Federalists, offers an interesting update on one of the issues which has concerned World Federalists for many years, but an issue which had appeared to be put on the back burner.

We have always wanted an individually-recruited World Police Force – a small but effective force that will obey the United Nations, not any one nation-state. Such a force may have been able to have made a timely intervention and to have stopped the Rwanda bloodbath. It may have stepped in to save the good people of Srebrenitza. In days long gone A.W.F. lobbied senior staff in the Foreign Office on this issue and came away with promises to earmark certain forces for ad hoc U.N. duties, but not to support a directly-recruited U.N. force. At that time ad hoc national contingents serving the United Nations seemed a revolutionary idea.

Now it appears the overstretched peacekeeping department in New York is likely to take on a more permanent role. “The department has quietly begun assembling a standing police capacity and military reserve force.”

In 2005 the UN adopted the ‘responsibility to protect’ principle which allowed them to intervene in situations where a national government was unable to prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing and other serious human rights atrocities. A proposal has been made for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service of 15-18,000 men and women which could be deployed to deal with such situations.

At present ad hoc forces donated by willing U.N. members are created to deal with disaster areas requiring a military force. Once upon a time the Bow Street Runners were the only way justice could be enforced in this country. In 1829 when Robert Peel formed the first Metropolitan Police Force the problems of law and order began to be addressed in our national community. Perhaps we are on the brink of a similar development when our world community could begin to be policed. The UNEP’s idea has been presented by Peter Lanville at an international conference at McGill University. It is clear the U.N. is moving in this direction. America, which has been the chief obstruction on the path to effective U.N. reform, is going to have a new president by this time next year. The omens look good. Perhaps this is a door on which World Federalists should again be pushing.

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