28 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT 3.  Peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations The fact that States provide military personnel to operations put under the authority of the United Nations should not exonerate their personnel from observing international humanitarian law and human rights obligations. Where United Nations peacekeepers have a role as parties to an armed conflict, they should be bound by the applicable provisions of international humanitarian law in the same way as other parties to the conflict. The Secretary-General’s Bulletin on observance by United Nations forces of international humanitarian law includes and summarizes many, but not all, rules of international humanitarian law and instructs United Nations forces to comply with them when engaged as combatants in armed conflicts.30 The Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994, provides that “[n]othing in this Convention shall affect: (a) [t]he applicability of international humanitarian law and universally recognized standards of human rights as contained in international instruments in relation to the protection of United Nations operations and United Nations and associated personnel or the responsibility of such personnel to respect such law and standards” (art. 20). Regarding international human rights obligations, the Human Rights Committee has stated that “States parties are required by article 2, paragraph 1, [of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] to respect and to ensure the Covenant rights […]. This principle also applies to those within the power or effective control of the forces of a State party acting outside its territory, regardless of the circumstances in which such power or effective control was obtained, such as forces constituting a national contingent of a State party assigned to an international peacekeeping or peace enforcement operation.”31 Taking into account that international human rights law and international humanitarian law seek to protect the fundamental rights of human beings,   ST/SGB/1999/13.   General comment No. 31 (2004), para. 10. See, moreover, ST/SGB/1999/13. 30 31