Summary

Research Report: Discusses the nature of rule of law in conflict settings in the Asia-Pacific region.

Description

Author: Steve Darvill, AusAID

A paper delivered at: The Rule of Law on Peace Operations: A
Conference of the 'Challenges of Peace Operations Project', hosted by the Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law (in association with the Department of Defence and the University of Melbourne Law School).

This paper reflects upon the nature of rule of law in conflict settings in
the Asia-Pacific region. The paper discusses the importance of negotiating
peace and upholding the rule of law, particularly in relation to ensuring that
those who have committed atrocities are held accountable for their actions.
This is vital if peace is to be sustainable and reconciliation is to be
achievable.

Citing the Brahimi report of August 2000, Darvill discusses the many
humanitarian and peace support challenges in the region to argue for a
coordinated, multi-faceted approach to building functioning societies in
collapsed States. Darvill suggests that coherency of approaches between
various stakeholders in peace operations has often been undermined by mutual
misunderstanding about responsibilities and priorities with the result that
protection and assistance to populations affected by violent conflict may have
been sub-optimal. He suggests that the most fractious relationship within a
peace operation has been between military components and civilian actors
- particularly the humanitarian community comprised of UN agencies, Red
Cross/Red Crescent organisations, non-government organisations and
institutional donors, such as AusAID.

Darvill goes on to outline AusAID's humanitarian coordination framework
that brings coherency and congruency to policy and operations, and the in-roads
that AusAID has made in strengthening civilian-military cooperation.

Rule of Law on Peace Operations from the Perspective of an Institutional Donor [PDF 53KB]

Available: Electronic version only

This report was commissioned by AusAID. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in the report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of AusAID or the Australian Government.

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