Mandates Matter: An Exploration of Impartiality in United Nations Operations‪.‬

The idea of UN impartiality has long been assumed as a characteristic of certain UN military operations but has never been explored. I argue that the impartiality of a UN mandate needs to be considered separately from the impartiality of the implementation of that mandate. Such a separation reveals that maintaining an overall framework of impartiality in UN operations is critically dependent on the nature of the mandate. An analysis of UN operations on this basis reveals that Security Council mandates for UN military operations whose tasks extend beyond the observance of agreements made by the parties to the conflict are not impartial. Often, however, these mandates are crafted within an overall approach that is said to be impartial, thus creating an inherent contradiction that has the potential to undermine the operation as a whole. KEYWORDS: United Nations, Security Council, impartiality, peace enforcement, peacekeeping. **********