An initial response in which military forces—
Identify, secure, and preserve evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, corruption, and transnational crime (terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking, and narcotics).
Identify and detain perpetrators of these offenses.
Support vetting, credentialing, and accounting for host-nation police forces.
Deploy police trainers and advisors.
Inventory and assess police facilities and systems.
Transformation in which military forces—
Train and advise host-nation police forces.
Establish police academies.
Develop community interface forums.
Rehabilitate or construct necessary facilities.
Support Judicial Reform
3-26. The reform of judicial bodies is integral to rule of law and provides the necessary framework for broader security sector reform. The support provided to judicial institutions parallels efforts with police and security forces to enhance the state’s capability to maintain civil control and security. Under most circumstances, other agencies and organizations typically support the development of the judicial branch of government. In a failed state, however, military forces may initially perform these functions until they can be transitioned to an appropriate civilian agency or organization. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Identify host-nation legal professionals.
Identify actual and potential leaders to incorporate into reform process.
Determine gaps or inconsistencies with international human rights norms in legal
framework.
Establish vetting criteria.
Educate criminal justice personnel on interim legal codes and international human rights
standards.
Inventory and assess courts, law schools, legal libraries, and bar associations.
Deploy judicial advisors and liaisons.
Transformation in which military forces—
Rehabilitate or construct necessary facilities.
Support vetting of host-nation legal professionals.
Support Property Dispute Resolution Processes
3-27. One of the most vital services provided by the judiciary branch is the resolution of property disputes.
In a fragile state, long-standing disputes over ownership and control of property are common. Authorities must implement dispute resolution mechanisms. This prevents the escalation of violence that can occur in the absence of law and order as people seek resolution on their own terms. Typically, the military’s role in resolving disputes is limited to transitional military authority where these mechanisms are implemented in 6 October 2008
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the absence of a functioning host-nation government. The list of essential tasks may include an initial response in which military forces—
Implement mechanisms to prevent unauthorized occupation or seizure of land or property.
Publicize dispute resolution process.
Coordinate dispute resolution process to deter violence and retribution.
Support Justice System Reform
3-28. Justice system reform, much like other reform processes, is integral to a comprehensive rule of law program and is necessary for successful security sector reform. Within the justice system, reform activities aim to reorganize basic structures, update legal statutes, encourage citizen participation, protect human rights, and ultimately achieve broad institutional reform. These activities are instrumental to establishing a justice system the local populace perceives as legitimate, fair, and effective. Although other civilian agencies typically lead reform efforts, military forces may conduct some critical tasks to establish the conditions necessary to facilitate future efforts. The list of essential tasks may include an initial response in which military forces—
Support the development of a host-nation strategy to rebuild the justice system.
Determine local due process norms and expectations.
Develop awareness of notice and comment forums.
Review current laws and resolve questions of applicability.
Abolish provisions incompatible with international standards of human rights.
Assess court administration capabilities and resources.
Support Corrections Reform
3-29. As with other reform processes, corrections reform is an integral component of broader security sector reform. Corrections reform tasks focus on building host-nation capacity in the penal system, restoring the institutional infrastructure, and providing oversight of the incarceration process. Tasks also include a comprehensive assessment of the prisoner population to help reintegrate political prisoners and others unjustly detained or held without due process. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Identify and register all detention, correction, or rehabilitative facilities.
Preserve and secure penal administrative records and reports.
Inventory and assess prison populations and conditions.
Implement humanitarian standards in prisons.
Provide emergency detention facilities.
Vet corrections personnel.
Deploy penal trainers and advisors.
Refurbish prison facilities at key sites.
Coordinate jurisdiction and handover.
Facilitate international monitoring.
Transformation in which military forces—
Rebuild corrections institutions.
Train and advise corrections personnel to internationally accepted standards.
Develop reconciliation, parole, and reintegration mechanisms.
Support War Crimes Courts and Tribunals
3-30. While the military government operates military commissions and provost courts, the international community oversees the conduct of war crimes courts and tribunals. As part of the broad processes that represent justice system reform, military forces identify, secure, and preserve evidence for courts and tribunals of war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, military forces also provide support in 3-8
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other forms, to include helping to establish courts and tribunals, supporting the investigation and arrest of war criminals, and coordinating efforts with other agencies and organizations. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Acquire secure facilities.
Establish an atrocity reporting system.
Document and preserve evidence of mass atrocities.
Publish progress reports.
Transformation in which military forces—
Assist in investigation, arrest, and transfer of suspected war criminals to international
courts.
Support witness protection.
Support media access.
Support Public Outreach and Community Rebuilding Programs
3-31. Public outreach and community rebuilding programs are central to the reconciliation process and to promoting public respect for the rule of law. They provide the local populace with a means to form a cohesive society. While these programs generally do not involve substantial military involvement, some activities require the force’s support to achieve success. The list of essential tasks may include an initial response in which military forces—
Establish broad public information programs to promote reconciliation efforts.
Develop public access to information.
Assess needs of vulnerable populations.
RESTORE ESSENTIAL SERVICES
3-32. The activities associated with this primary stability task extend beyond simply restoring local civil services and addressing the effects of humanitarian crises. While military forces generally center efforts on the initial response tasks for immediate needs of the populace, other civilian agencies and organizations focus on broader humanitarian issues and social well-being. Transformation tasks establish the foundation for long-term development, resolving the root causes of conflict that lead to events such as famine, dislocated civilians, refugee flows, and human trafficking. Fostering sustainability tasks ensures the permanence of those efforts by institutionalizing positive change in society.
3-33. Normally, military forces support host-nation and civilian relief agencies with these efforts.
However, when the host nation cannot perform its roles, military forces may execute these tasks directly or to support other civilian agencies and organizations. It is imperative that these activities are properly scaled to local capacity for sustainment. Proper scaling also creates the best opportunity for the local populace to create small-scale enterprises to provide as many of these essential services as possible through the private economy. Large-scale projects that require complicated host-nation efforts to sustain should not be initiated until the necessary infrastructure is in place to support such effort.
Provide Essential Civil Services
3-34. Although closely related to establishing and supporting effective local governance, efforts to provide essential civil services to the host-nation people involve developing the capacity to operate, maintain, and improve those services. This broader focus involves a societal component that encompasses long-range education and training, employment programs, and economic investment and development.
3-35. At the tactical level, activities of military forces to provide essential civil services are often defined in terms of the immediate humanitarian needs of the people: providing the food, water, shelter, and medical support necessary to sustain the population until local civil services are restored. Once their immediate needs are satisfied, efforts to restore basic services and transition control to civil authorities typically progress using lines of effort based on the memory aid, SWEAT-MSO (sewage, water, electricity, 6 October 2008
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academics, trash, medical, safety, and other considerations). These lines of effort are vital to integrating efforts to reestablish local civil services with similar, related actions to establish a safe, secure environment. Military forces, specifically functional units or functional specialists, may support the effort to provide essential civil services by conducting detailed infrastructure reconnaissance. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Provide for immediate humanitarian needs of the population (food, water, shelter, and
medical support).
Ensure proper sanitation, purification, and distribution of drinking water.
Provide interim sanitation, wastewater, and waste disposal services.
Transformation in which military forces build host-nation capacity to operate and maintain essential civil services.
Tasks Related to Civilian Dislocation
3-36. The following three task subcategories share similar characteristics related to the challenges associated with dislocated civilians. Intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as other humanitarian actors, are best equipped and trained to manage the human crises associated with dislocated civilians. Intergovernmental organizations may include the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration. Nongovernmental organizations may include groups such as Cooperative Assistance for Relief Everywhere (known as CARE). Humanitarian actors may include the International Committee of the Red Cross, a well-known international organization.
3-37. The presence and uncontrolled flow of dislocated civilians can threaten the success of any stability operation. Dislocated civilians are symptoms of broader issues such as conflict, insecurity, and disparities among the population. How displaced populations are treated can either foster trust and confidence—
laying the foundation for stabilization and reconstruction among a traumatized population—or create resentment and further chaos. Local and international aid organizations are most often best equipped to deal with the needs of the local populace but require a secure environment in which to operate. Through close cooperation, military forces can enable the success of these organizations by providing critical assistance to the populace.
3-38. Nearly 80 percent of all dislocated civilians are women or children. Most suffer from some form of posttraumatic stress disorder, and all require food, shelter, and medical care. Following a major disaster, humanitarian crisis, or conflict, providing adequate support to dislocated civilians often presents a challenge beyond the capability of available military forces. Therefore, military forces offer vital support—
coordinated with the efforts of other agencies and organizations—to provide humanitarian assistance to the general population. The list of essential tasks includes—
Assist dislocated civilians.
Support assistance to dislocated civilians.
Support security to dislocated civilians camps.
Assist Dislocated Civilians
3-39. When assisting dislocated civilians, military forces—
Ensure humanitarian aid organizations have access to populations in need.
Estimate food aid needs for affected populations.
Assess the adequacy of local physical transport, distribution, and storage.
Support Assistance to Dislocated Civilians
3-40. When supporting efforts to assist dislocated civilians, the list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Estimate food aid needs for dislocated civilians.
Assess the adequacy of local physical transport, distribution, and storage.
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Establish camps for dislocated civilians.
Provide emergency food, water, shelter, sanitation, and medical care to dislocated civilians.
Transformation in which military forces—
Ensure access to basic services, including education and health care.
Clear damaged and destroyed housing and assess damage.
Support Security to Dislocated Civilians Camps
3-41. When supporting dislocated civilians camp security, the list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Assess conditions of temporary shelters and camps for dislocated civilians.
Ensure adequate protection and monitoring of camps.
Ensure access of humanitarian aid organizations and security forces to camps.
Transformation in which military forces assist in establishing and maintaining order in camps.
Support Famine Prevention and Emergency Food Relief Programs
3-42. Famine-prone countries are a unique subcategory of fragile states and require special focus. Without exception, weak and failing economic, governance, health, and food systems at the national level increase famine vulnerability. The combination of weak institutions, poor policies, and environmental change often results in famine. Famine may result in food insecurity, increased poverty, morbidity, malnutrition, and mortality. Government agencies—such as the U.S. Agency for International Development—numerous nongovernmental organizations, and the United Nations are instrumental to response efforts in famine-prone states. They oversee the major relief programs that provide emergency food aid to suffering populations.
3-43. Military support of these efforts is minimal but vital to the overall success of the operation. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Monitor and analyze food security and market prices.
Predict the effects of conflict on access to food.
Estimate total food needs.
Assess the adequacy of local physical transport, distribution, and storage of food.
Deliver emergency food aid to most vulnerable populations.
Transformation in which military forces ensure safe access to transportation and distribution networks.
Support Nonfood Relief Programs
3-44. Military forces offer significant support capability to the broader effort to provide nonfood relief during humanitarian crises. Any support provided for nonfood relief programs for dislocated civilians should be closely coordinated with the relevant host-nation ministry, United Nations agency, and appropriate aid organizations. Although the related tasks are minimal, they greatly influence the long-term success of these efforts. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Secure emergency nonfood relief distribution networks.
Deliver emergency nonfood items.
Transformation in which military forces clear devastated housing and assess damage.
Support Humanitarian Demining
3-45. Humanitarian demining is related to the subordinate task clear explosive and CBRN hazards under the primary stability task establish civil security; however, this task focuses on supporting the humanitarian aspects of demining, while the task clear explosive and CBRN hazards is generally considered a 6 October 2008
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protection-related task. In fragile states, vast minefields and unexploded explosive ordnance pose a significant hazard to freedom of movement. Marking and removing these hazards initiates long-term recovery, especially along major transport routes and in critical public facilities. In comprehensive demining programs, much of the effort focuses on educating the local populace on how to recognize, avoid, and report the presence of mines and unexploded explosive ordnance. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Map and survey mined areas.
Mark minefields.
Treat initial injuries.
Transformation in which military forces—
Educate the local populace to recognize and avoid mines.
Build host-nation capacity to conduct demining.
Support Human Rights Initiatives
3-46. Often, forces that intervene after conflict or disaster encounter conditions of human suffering beyond their ability to resolve. Such situations require the dedicated support of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations able to provide long-term solutions to complex humanitarian issues. The military contribution to these efforts generally involves preventing further abuse of vulnerable populations and establishing conditions that support long-term development. These conditions enable the success of the agencies and organizations that provide for the long-term well-being of these populations. Military forces play a critical role in promoting the rule of law in preventing human rights abuses within its own ranks.
The list of essential tasks may include an initial response in which military forces monitor vulnerable groups, provide information and referrals to groups whose rights may be violated, and act preemptively to deter human rights abuses.
Support Public Health Programs
3-47. The military contribution to the public health sector, especially early in an operation, enables the complementary efforts of local and international aid organizations. The initial efforts of military forces aim to stabilize the public health situation within the operational area. These efforts may include assessments of the civilian medical and public health system such as infrastructure, medical staff, training and education, medical logistics, and public health programs. Following these initial response tasks, civilian organizations tailor their efforts to reforming the public health sector through health systems strengthening and other public health capacity-building activities. Health systems strengthening involves reducing bureaucracy by streamlining management, increasing cost-effectiveness, improving efficiency through reorganized services, decentralizing health systems, and allocating resources to better address the needs of the population. Achieving measurable progress requires early coordination and constant dialog with other actors; ultimately, this also facilitates a successful transition from military-led efforts to civilian organizations or the host nation.
3-48. The tasks performed to support public health programs closely relate to the tasks required to restore essential services. In many cases, they complement and reinforce those efforts. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Assess public health hazards within their area of operations and area of interest including malnutrition, water sources, and sewer and other sanitation services.
Assess existing medical infrastructure including preventative and veterinary services,
health—physical and psychological—care systems, and medical logistics.
Evaluate the need for additional medical capabilities.
Repair existing civilian clinics and hospitals.
Operate or augment the operations of existing civilian medical facilities.
Prevent epidemics through immediate vaccinations.
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Transformation in which military forces—
Support improvements to local waste and wastewater management capacity.
Promote and enhance the host-nation medical infrastructure.
Support Education Programs
3-49. Military activities to support education programs generally focus on physical infrastructure. In some cases, trained personnel with appropriate civilian backgrounds provide additional services such as administrative or educational expertise. The efforts of civilian organizations aim to improve adult literacy, train teachers and administrators, develop curricula, and improve school-age access to education. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces repair and reopen schools as quickly as possible.
Transformation in which military forces build schools.
SUPPORT TO GOVERNANCE
3-50. When a legitimate and functional host-nation government is present, military forces operating to support the state have a limited role. However, if the host-nation government cannot adequately perform its basic civil functions—whatever the reason—some degree of military support to governance may be necessary. A state’s legitimacy among its people is tied in part to its perceived ability to provide these essential services. In extreme cases, where civil government is completely dysfunctional or absent altogether, international law requires the military force to provide the basic civil administration functions of the host-nation government under the auspices of a transitional military authority. (See chapter 5 for a detailed discussion of transitional military authority.)
Support Transitional Administrations
3-51. When the host-nation government has collapsed or been deposed, initial response efforts focus on immediately filling the void in governance. In either situation, the reliability and trustworthiness of local officials is suspect; due care and prudence are necessary to avoid empowering officials whose interests and loyalties are inconsistent with those of the occupying force. The list of essential tasks may include—
An initial response in which military forces—
Vet host-nation officials.
Reconstitute leadership at multiple levels of government.
Establish interim legislative processes.
Transformation in which military forces advise and assist transitional administrations.
Support Development of Local Governance
3-52. Establishing effective governance at the local level is necessary before developing governance institutions and processes throughout the state. Initially, effective local governance almost depends entirely on the ability to provide essential civil services to the people; restoring these services is also fundamental to humanitarian relief efforts. (See paragraph 2-55 for additional discussion on the primary stability task, restore essential services.) Most stability tasks require an integrated and synchronized effort across all sectors to achieve the desired end state. The list of essential tasks may include—