Recenti sviluppi in materia di repressione degli abusi sessuali commessi dai caschi blu nel corso delle missioni di pace delle Nazioni Unite

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted resolution 2272 in March 2016 in response to the growing problem of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. The resolution requests the Secretary-General to replace the national contingent of a UN peacekeeping operation when the sending State fails to take appropriate steps to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by its uniformed personnel, prosecute those responsible and inform the Secretary- General. The innovative content of this resolution raises several issues as to whether the Security Council is entitled to determine the termination of a State’s contribution to a UN peacekeeping operation, and under which powers. Moreover, it is unclear how the Secretary-General would in practice implement the request of the Security Council to replace all military and police units of a sending State. The article analyses UNSC resolution 2272 (2016) in order to discuss these aspects. The study highlights the novelties of this resolution, compared to previous UN actions undertaken to eradicate the « shameful issue » of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. It maintains that a new trend is emerging, where the focus of UN action is increasingly moving from the individual criminal responsibility of peacekeepers to the international responsibility of sending States.