ABSTRACT
The debate over the applicability of international humanitarian law (IHL) to UN peacekeeping operations which spanned the 1990s ended with the promulgation of the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on the Observance by United Nations Forces of International Humanitarian Law.1 In the decade that followed, a new and more complex debate emerged over the scope of application of IHL in the specificities of UN operations, the ‘duality’ of peacekeepers, the application of the laws of occupation to UN transitional administrations, the convergence or divergence of IHL and international human rights law (IHRL), and the responsibility of the UN for violations of IHL or IHRL by members of its peacekeeping operations. It was a debate situated at the intersection of many disciplines: of IHL, IHRL, international criminal law, responsibility of international organisations and privileges and immunities of the organisation and its personnel.
