UN
Peace Operations
Planning and risk management on conduct and discipline issues is an important part of the United Nations’ approach to address misconduct in each area of the three-pronged strategy: i) prevention of misconduct, ii) enforcement of the UN standards of conduct and iii) remedial action, including support to victims and children born from sexual exploitation and abuse.
Missions are encouraged to integrate risk management in all mission operations at the outset in mission planning and resource allocation at all levels of the accountability chain in mandate delivery. This shared understanding must be reflected in structures and accountability frameworks.
Missions are also expected to develop risk management plans, which should look at the level of risk and specific risk factors linked to possible misconduct by their personnel, with particular emphasis on sexual exploitation and abuse for each prong of the three-pronged strategy.
As part of related risk management activities, as appropriate, missions conduct risk assessment visits and patrols, identify and assess risks and their sources, undertake mitigating actions and conduct follow-up visits to ensure that identified risks are adequately addressed and mitigated. Missions are guided by the DMSPC SEA Risk Management Toolkit and the Misconduct Risk Management Tools.
Missions report to the Conduct and Discipline Service on a quarterly basis on their risk assessment and mitigation activities. Missions have also been requested to develop mission-specific plans of action, based on the realities on the ground in each mission.
To support Missions in identifying risks and mitigating measures, the former Conduct and Discipline Unit, now Conduct and Discipline Service, developed in 2018 a sexual exploitation and abuse risk management toolkit. The toolkit is designed to be adaptable to the specific prevailing conditions in different types of peace operations.
In 2019, the Conduct and Discipline Service developed misconduct risk management tools to help peace operations to better manage risks of all types of misconduct, in a comprehensive manner. The development of these new tools corresponds to an integrated approach to risk management and to the commitments of the UN Secretariat, taken in connection with the Secretary-General Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative, to hold personnel and leadership accountable for proper conduct by enhancing the tools available to leadership and Member States to take a holistic approach to managing the risks of misconduct.
