The United Nations continues to raise controversy, also in its capacity as a peacekeeping institution. A number of studies have reported serious abuses committed by peacekeeping personnel in the host countries, abuses that are contrary to the UN peacekeeping mission. This paper seeks to trace back the philosophical origins on which the ethical code of the UN peacekeepers is based. It is argued that the source of moral guidelines and duties for the UN peacekeepers is provided by human rights as captured by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The rationale of the human rights is in turn founded on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The latter has emerged as a part of Enlightenment tradition which has rejected Aristotelian view of the human condition, in particular Aristotelian virtue ethics and moral psychology. The consequences of this theoretical omission are considered in relation to the UN peacekeepers training and their misconduct during their service.

The article addresses the issue of attribution of conduct in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. In the absence of a Convention, the essential reference is the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations. Article 7 DARIO (Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations, Giorgio Gaja special rapporteur) states that responsibility for the conduct of an organ put at the disposal of an International Organization shall be attributed on the basis of the “effective control test”. This criterion has led to considerable difficulties in determining which subject – the Troup Contributing Nation or the UN – should be held legally responsible for an unlawful act committed during a peacekeeping operation. The analysis of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Behrami and Saramati Cases, the judgments of the Dutch Courts in the HN v Netherlands case and in the Stiching mothers of Srebrenica case shows that the effective control test has been interpreted and applied in different ways. Therefore, it is needed to define an unambiguous interpretation of “effective control” that could be able to reflect the operations’ command and control structure, overcoming the peacekeeping forces’ institutional ambiguity.

This paper intends to concentrate on the Community of Sant’Egidio, established in Rome in 1968, and its contribution to the maintenance of peace. The analysis will start from the first and best known among its successes, the one achieved in Mozambique: thanks to the negotiations which took place at the headquarters of the Community, on 4.10.1992 the legitimate government and guerrillas ended a 17-year conflict by signing the General Peace Agreement. Its implementation was then placed in the hands of ONUMOZ, established by Security Council Resolution 797 (1992). Afterwards, the paper will concentrate on one of the recent initiatives of Sant’Egidio, the one in the Central African Republic: here too, the Community has proven to be able to collaborate effectively with the UN and to complete its action. In order to formalise such collaboration, on 9.6.2017 the UN and Sant’Egidio signed an agreement which provides a centralised and regular channel of communication between the two organisations. Such unprecedented agreement attracts considerable interest: indeed, the role assigned by the UN Charter to NGOs is quite weak, since it is limited to the consultative status with ECOSOC provided by article 71. Therefore, the agreement at stake can be interpreted as an attempt to fill the gap between the active involvement of the Community in the international arena and the limited role recognised to it by the UN system.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the legality of the practice of treaty-based interventions by international organisations of regional character in their member states under international law. In particular, the objective is to analyse the legality of this practice in relation to the general rules of international responsibility and to the collective security system of the Charter of the United Nations. Regarding the rules of international responsibility treaty-based interventions are considered lawful provided there is valid consent from the affected state, since consent is considered as a circumstance precluding the wrongfulness of certain conducts. With respect to the United Nations Charter such practice can also be deemed lawful considering that it does not characterize as enforcement action requiring authorization by the Security Council, as provided for in Chapter VIII of the Charter. The article concludes that such interventions are generally lawful under international law but must comply with certain conditions to be carried out. As a recent practice, interventions by regional organisations in their member states do not have well-defined legal dimensions and have not been extensively analysed by doctrine.

Este artigo tem como proposta apontar a urgência – e viabilidade – da inclusão da temática penal nas discussões acerca da governança global ambiental, como política pública internacional, a ser internalizada, posteriormente, nos países. Para tanto, o trabalho se divide em duas partes: na primeira, expõe-se como a governança global ambiental, atualmente, busca conectar Estados e suas subdivisões administrativas, organizações internacionais, empresas transnacionais e sociedade civil em torno de objetivos comuns, relacionados ao incremento da proteção do meio ambiente e ao uso sustentável dos recursos naturais. Na segunda parte, o estudo dedicar-se-á a apontar a urgência da tipificação de crimes internacionais contra o meio ambiente em tempos de paz, como meta para uma governança global mais coesa, considerando as organizações internacionais existentes, a fim de promover a unificação de teses e abordagens de ordem prática, um dos grandes problemas da governança hoje, carente de uma liderança mais efetiva, capaz de concentrar os entendimentos sobre o tema. Conclui-se que a governança global ambiental deve se ocupar, inicialmente no plano internacional, de criminalizar condutas graves atentatórias ao meio ambiente, sendo este um passo necessário e, talvez mais que isso, útil à confluência de entendimentos sobre os meios e mecanismos de proteção e repressão.