Rebuilding Authority: United Nations Transitional Administration and Human Rights Protection in East Timor

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) operated in a post-conflict environment marked by institutional collapse and overlapping legal orders. The study investigates how the United Nations translated its formally delegated governing authority into tangible human rights protection and the institutional factors that shaped this process. The study uses a qualitative case study design and document analysis method of United Nations regulations, Security Council resolutions, and scholarly literature; the thesis analyzes how UNTAET constructed and operationalized legislative, executive, and judicial authority. The findings show that formal authority alone is not sufficient. Instead, authority became effective only when legitimacy and organizational capacity are aligned. Legitimacy enables acceptance of UNTAET’s rule, while organizational capacity—through inter-agency coordination, mandate interpretation, and administrative design—determines whether human rights principles could be implemented in practice. The thesis concludes that sustainable human rights protection depends on this combined and mutually reinforcing dynamic, offering implications for future UN mission operating without sovereign state structures.