10-11 June 2019
New York, New York
The Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) hosted an annual meeting of the Senior Legal Advisors and Legal Advisers of UN peace operations on 10 and 11 June 2019 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.聽
The participants were welcomed on 10 June by the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Mr. Miguel de Serpa Soares, by the Under-Secretary-General for Operations Support, Mr. Atul Khare, and by representatives of the Departments of Peace Operations and of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
Twenty United Nations peacekeeping operations or special political missions, and the Brindisi United Nations Global Service Centre, were represented. The Field Legal Advisers and OLA exchanged, as every year, on their respective experiences and challenges and sought to identify lessons learned, while discussing legal matters of common interest to peacekeeping operations and UN Headquarters.聽
This year, the FLO, as it is also called (for Field Legal Officers鈥� meeting) discussed the revision of the UN Protection of Civilians Policy, efforts to promote accountability for attacks against UN Peacekeepers, the UN system of administration of justice including recent jurisprudence of the UN Appeals Tribunal. The FLO also discussed lessons learned in the handling of detentions of Mission personnel, challenges in the implementation of status-of-forces and status-of-mission agreements, and the latest UN initiatives aimed at combatting sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment in the workplace. Also on the programme were discussions on the new process for delegation of authority and the reform of the UN Development System.聽
The meeting also remembered Mr. Ernst Tschoepke, the retired former Head of the Legal Affairs Office of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), who passed away on 13 March 2019.
OLA is grateful to the Departments of Peace Operations, of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and of Operations Support, for their steadfast support to the FLO every year.
