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2. Disinformation against UN Peacekeeping Operations
- Author:
- Albert Trithart
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the past few years, a growing barrage of disinformation has targeted UN peacekeeping operations, particularly the missions in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Mali (MINUSMA), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). This includes false allegations that UN peacekeepers are trafficking weapons to armed groups, supporting terrorists, and exploiting natural resources. This disinformation makes it harder for peacekeeping operations to implement their mandates and has put the safety of peacekeepers at risk. This paper provides an overview of the recent rise in disinformation against MINUSCA, MINUSMA, and MONUSCO. It also examines how these three peacekeeping operations have been addressing disinformation and the challenges they have faced. While these initial efforts have tended to focus on strategic communications, disinformation is not only a strategic communications issue; it affects all mission components, and effectively tackling it requires situating it in the broader political context and understanding its drivers. This paper offers the following questions the UN Department of Peace Operations and individual missions could consider as they develop policies, guidelines, structures, and activities to address disinformation: How can missions develop a cross-cutting, strategic approach to disinformation? Disinformation is more than a technical or tactical issue; it is a political and strategic issue that requires the proactive attention of mission leaders. How can missions better monitor and analyze disinformation both online and offline? Monitoring disinformation is critical not only so missions can address it; tracking rumors also has intrinsic value by helping missions better listen to and understand the sentiments of local populations. How can missions respond to disinformation more quickly? For many UN personnel, the slowness of the UN response is one of the biggest challenges inhibiting their efforts to address disinformation. How can missions reshape anti-UN narratives? Anti-UN disinformation is woven into a broader anti-UN (and anticolonial) narrative that is grounded in both great-power politics and legitimate public grievances. In countering individual falsehoods, missions should consider whether and how they could also respond to this broader narrative. How can missions contribute to a healthier information environment? From the perspective of civil society, the most important shift the UN can make would be to focus more on supporting local journalists. Does the scale of the problem call for a more decisive shift in approach? Any shift in approach should be premised on the principle that under no circumstances should missions respond to disinformation with disinformation of their own.
- Topic:
- United Nations, Peacekeeping, and Disinformation
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic
3. Our climate future depends on conflict dynamics in Congo
- Author:
- Peer Schouten, Judith Verweijen, and Fergus Simpson
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- The Congo Basin rainforest – the second largest on earth – absorbs four percent of global CO2 emissions and constitutes a crucial line of defense against cataclysmic climate change. However, a complex mix of illegal resource exploitation and conflict is currently threatening the rainforest. To curb these threats and their global consequenses, we need to understand the interplay between resources, conflict and environmental protection in Congo.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Armed Forces, Conflict, Carbon Emissions, Forest, and Deforestation
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo
4. Our climate future depends on conflict dynamics in Congo
- Author:
- Peer Schouten, Judith Verweijen, and Fergus Simpson
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- The Congo Basin rainforest – the second largest on earth – absorbs four percent of global CO2 emissions and constitutes a crucial line of defense against cataclysmic climate change. However, a complex mix of illegal resource exploitation and conflict is currently threatening the rainforest. To curb these threats and their global consequenses, we need to understand the interplay between resources, conflict and environmental protection in Congo.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Environment, Poverty, Food, Non State Actors, Armed Forces, Inequality, Fragile States, Violence, Police, and Justice
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo
5. A Missing Mandate? Casualty Recording in UN Peace Operations
- Author:
- Hana Salama
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Small Arms Survey
- Abstract:
- UN peace operations are uniquely positioned—and mandated—to collect and monitor data on conflict-related casualties. Through the collection and analysis of this type of data, UN missions can both improve the effectiveness of peace operations and assist the international effort among UN Member States to achieve progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16—particularly Indicator 16.1.2 on conflict-related deaths. This Briefing Paper by the Small Arms Survey’s Security Assessment in North Africa (SANA) and Human Security Baseline Assessment in Sudan and South Sudan (HSBA) projects examines the current capacity of UN peace operations as data providers. A Missing Mandate? Casualty Recording in UN Peace Operations reviews current practices of data collection in UN operational settings and provides case studies through three UN peace operations in the DRC, Mali, and South Sudan. The paper, authored by casualty recording expert Hana Salama, concludes that UN missions already do much of the work required but lack the effectual mandate, resources, and coordination to ensure that the information is useful for the purpose of the SDGs.
- Topic:
- Security, United Nations, Peacekeeping, Sustainable Development Goals, Conflict, Peace, and Human Security
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and South Sudan
6. DRC’s Mining Revenues: Increasing Accountability by Analyzing Payments to Governments Reports
- Author:
- Kaisa Toroskainen, Alexander Malden, and Jean Pierre Okenda
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Natural Resource Governance Institute
- Abstract:
- This report explores the payments made by ten international mining companies to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government entities since 2015. These payments, amounting to $2 billion, have been disclosed under European Union (EU), Canadian and United Kingdom (U.K.) laws. DRC government agencies can use this data to report on revenues as the country’s mining code requires. Civil society actors, auditors and international partners, notably the International Monetary Fund, can also benefit from using payments data to monitor critical policy and governance issues in the DRC.
- Topic:
- Natural Resources, Accountability, Mining, and IMF
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Democratic Republic of the Congo
7. When Peacekeepers Do Damage: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the Democratic Republic Of Congo
- Author:
- Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde and Thomas Mandrup
- Publication Date:
- 01-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- Despite that South Africa deploys the highest numbers of female soldiers in the United Nations Organisation Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), significant challenges to changing a military culture that tacitly accepts sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) of local populations in the DRC remain. A new DIIS policy brief discusses the measures taken to adress SEA in MONUSCO. In the South African contigent in MONUSCO, 18% of the military personnel are women compared to the average of 3.8% for UN peacekeeping missions. The brief argues that strengthening in-mission gender training and investigtative capacities will be small, yet realistic, steps forward. Furthermore, the UN the should put more pressure on troop contributing countries to hold their defence leadership accountable for effective command and control enforcement. The policy brief is based on a collaborative research between DIIS and the Royal Danish Defence College, RDDC.
- Topic:
- United Nations, International Affairs, and Peacekeeping
- Political Geography:
- Democratic Republic of the Congo