The Role of Albania within UN Peacekeeping Operations

I. Peacekeeping 
 
1.1 Peacekeeping, role and legal status characteristics; 1.2 United Nations Special 
Committee on the Balkans; 1.3 Peacekeeping and New Trends in Peacekeeping Operations; 
1.4 The role of Regional Organizations; 1.5 Obligations towards international law 
 
 
1. Peacekeeping, role and legal status characteristics: 
 
“Peacekeeping is not a soldiers’ job but only a soldier can do it”
1
.  
The maintenance of international peace and security is the main purpose of 
the United Nations (Art 1, comma 1 UN Charter). According to Art. 24, comma 1 of 
the United Nations Charter, the Security Council bears the primary responsibility for 
this task. Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter is concerned in particular with 
“action with respect to the threats to peace; breaches of peace and acts of aggression. 
The Peacekeeping operations
2
 are authorized by the Security Council, 
endowed by the UN Charter with primary responsibility for maintaining 
international peace and security. A traditional peacekeeping operation
3
 is established 
when parties to a conflict, typically two states, agree to the interposition of UN 
troops to uphold a ceasefire. Limited numbers of lightly armed troops are introduced 
and situated between the combatants, and they provide a symbolic guarantor of the 
peace. The Security Council maintains authority over the operation, expressed 
through the Secretary-General of the UN and the military commander, authorized 
under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter.  
The term “peacekeeping is not found in the United Nations Charter nor the 
peacekeeping operations legal basis is explicitly laid down there in. Dag 
                                                 
1
 C.C. Moskos Jr., “Peace Soldiers. The Sociology of a UN Military Force”, Chicago, 1976, p. 139. 
2
 One useful way to approach the concept of peacekeeping is to divide it into three broad categories: 
1) assist in maintenance of cease-fires, 2) implementation of comprehensive settlements and 3) 
protection of humanitarian operations. The primary goal of the first category of mission (comprised 
mainly of military personnel and a small number of civilian support personnel) is to allow time for 
political leaders and diplomats to negotiate and hopefully resolve underlying conflicts. The second 
broad type is also known as multi-dimensional peacekeeping, prevalent since the Security Council's 
establishment in 1989 of an operation in Namibia. With the end of the Cold War, members of the 
Council were able to agree on more ambitious and diversified operations. The third category of 
peacekeeping is an attempt by the international community to alleviate situations of massive human 
suffering. This type of operation is typically employed to protect the delivery of humanitarian relief in 
cases where armed violence has prevented efforts to assist a distressed population. See: Bonn, Keith 
E., and Anthony E. Baker. "Peace Operations" in Guide to Military Operations Other Than War: 
Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Stability and Support Operations: Domestic and International, 
71-78. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2000. 361pp. (UH723 .B66 2000) 
3
 Examples of traditional peacekeeping operations include the operations in Cyprus, which have 
separated the Greek and Turkish communities (UNFICYP, established in 1964); in the state of Jammu 
and Kashmir, disputed by India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP, 1949); and in the Golan Heights, between 
Israel and Syria (UN Disengagement Observer Force, 1974). See UN, Blue Helmets: A Review of 
United Nations Peacekeeping (3rd edn. New York 1996).
2 
Hammarskjöld, the second UN Secretary-General, referred to it as belonging to 
"Chapter Six and a Half" of the UN Charter, placing it between traditional methods 
of resolving disputes peacefully, such as negotiation and mediation under Chapter VI 
(Art. 33-Art. 38), and more forceful actions as authorized under Chapter VII (Art. 
39- Art.51).  
The term “United Nations Peace-keeping Operations” usually includes both 
peacekeeping forces and military observer missions. In general two kinds of tasks for 
United Nations Peacekeeping can be distinguished: 
 establish a buffer between states, and 
 maintain law and order within a state’s territory
4
.  
Moreover the functioning of the UN peacekeeping forces is based on the following 
principles:  
 their stationing is dependent upon the consent of the receiving state (the host state); 
 the use of force is permitted only in case of self-defence; 
 they have to act with complete impartiality
5
 and neutrality. 
The peacekeepers or the so-called Blue Helmets have a “double status”: 
because they are members of their national armed forces, but under the general 
authority of the Security Council and the operative command of the Secretary 
General. For this reason, they do not represent an independent UN army. It is 
important to underline in this phase that the peacekeeping operations are conducted 
according to the principles of consent, impartiality and self-defence. The principle of 
consent is referred to the consent of the state where the peacekeepers have to 
conduct their activities. Immediately after the consent, the so called Status of Force 
Agreement (SOFA), where are fixed the rules that the peacekeeping operation must 
respect, is stipulated between the United Nations and the hosting State.  
The difficulty in finding an adequate definition of United Nations 
Peacekeeping is largely due to the nature and historical roots of peacekeeping. First 
because each UN peacekeeping operations are responsive to each particular conflict 
situation, and every conflict has its own unique character and dynamics, in other 
words there are no operations that share two identical traits. Second, since UN 
peacekeeping operations were not originally foreseen in the UN Charter as among 
                                                 
4
 Benedetto Conforti “Le Nazioni Unite”, CEDAM Milano 2000 
5
 Italian Society for International Organization, “Prospects for Reform of the United Nations System”, 
International Symposium held in Rome from 15 to 17 May 1992, CEDAM, Padova 1993; Andrea de 
Guttry Fabrizio Pagani, “Le Nazioni Unite” – Sviluppo e Riforma del Sistema di Sicurezza Collettiva, 
Mulino Bologna 2005
3 
the measures designed to preserve international peace and security, they are a purely 
empirical creation born of necessity. UN peacekeeping emerged during the Cold 
War as an ad hoc improvisation. The concept of UN peacekeeping has been 
empirically developed and a general theoretical framework of United Nations 
Peacekeeping has emerged after repeated trial and error in the field. With the end of 
the Cold War, the strategic context for UN peacekeeping dramatically changed, 
from “traditional” missions involving strictly military tasks, to complex 
“multidimensional” enterprises designed to ensure the implementation of 
comprehensive peace agreements and assist in laying the foundations for a 
sustainable peace
6
. Indeed, the nature of conflicts has also changed over the years. 
Originally developed as means of dealing with inter-State conflict, UN 
peacekeeping has been increasingly applied to intra-State conflicts and civil wars.  
UN peacekeeping continues to evolve, both conceptually and operationally, 
to meet new challenges and political realities in short, it is “an evolving concept”
7
. 
In this regard interesting is the identification from Boutros-Ghali
8
, former Secretary 
General of United Nations, of eleven new tasks that the United Nations 
Peacekeeping Operations are now asked to undertake. These include: (1) supervision 
of cease-fire, (2) regrouping and demobilisation of forces (including their 
reintegration into civilian life and the destruction of their weapons), (3) design and 
implementation of de-mining programmes, (4) return of refugees and displaced 
persons, (5) provision of humanitarian assistance, (6) supervision of existing 
administrative structures, (7) establishment of new police forces, (8) verification of 
respect for human rights, (9) design and supervision of constitutional, judicial, and 
electoral reforms, (10) observation, supervision, organisation, and conduct of 
elections, and (11) co-ordination of support for economic rehabilitation and 
reconstruction. 
 
The functions of UN peacekeeping operations have been carefully 
reviewed and specific tasks that have been assigned to UN peacekeeping operations 
have been identified. These tasks fall broadly into three main clusters: (1) 
interposition, (2) transition assistance, and (3) humanitarian intervention. 
                                                 
6
 See http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko 
7
 UN Document (A/46/48), operative para. 28 
8
 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Improving the Capacity of the United Nations for Peacekeeping: Report of 
the Secretary-General (A/48/403, S/26450) in Paul Taylor, Sam Daws, and Ute Adamczick-Gerteis 
(eds.), Documents on Reform of the United Nations (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1997), p. 68. See also 
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peace-
keeping (A/47/277, S/24111) (New York: United Nations, 1992), p. 11 (para. 20-21), and Boutros 
Boutros-Ghali, Building Peace and Development 1994 (New York: United Nations, 1994), pp. 147-
278 (para. 397-787).