The Use of International Law by the United Nations Security Council: An Empirical Framework for Analysis

AbstractThe gendered implications of COVID-19, in particular in terms of gender-based violence and the gendered division of care work, have secured some prominence, and ignited discussion about prospects for a ‘feminist recovery’. In international law terms, feminist calls for a response to the pandemic have privileged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), conditioned—I argue—by two decades of the pursuit of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda through the UNSC. The deficiencies of the UNSC response, as characterised by the Resolution 2532 adopted to address the pandemic, manifest yet again the identified deficiencies of the WPS agenda at the UNSC, namely fragmentation, securitisation, efficacy and legitimacy. What Resolution 2532 does bring, however, is new clarity about the underlying reasons for the repeated and enduring nature of these deficiencies at the UNSC. Specifically, the COVID-19 ‘crisis’ is powerful in exposing the deficiencies of the crisis framework in which the UNSC operates. My reflections draw on insights from Hilary Charlesworth’s seminal contribution ‘International Law: A Discipline of Crisis’ to argue that, instead of conceding the ‘crisis’ framework to the pandemic by prioritising the UNSC, a ‘feminist recovery’ must instead follow Charlesworth’s exhortation to refocus on an international law of the everyday.

Download Full-text

What Future for the UN Charter System of War Prevention?

The American Journal of International Law ◽

10.2307/3109844 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 97 (3) ◽

pp. 590-598 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Richard A. Falk

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Security Council ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

Sovereign State ◽

Un Security Council ◽

Inspection Process ◽

The United Nations ◽

The Relationship

President George W. Bush historically challenged the United Nations Security Council when he uttered some memorable words in the course of his September 12, 2002, speech to the General Assembly: “Will the UN serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?” In the aftermath of the Iraq war there are at least two answers to this question. The answer of the U.S. government would be to suggest that the United Nations turned out to be irrelevant due to its failure to endorse recourse to war against the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. The answer of those who opposed the war is that the UN Security Council served the purpose of its founding by its refusal to endorse recourse to a war that could not be persuasively reconciled with the UN Charter and international law. This difference of assessment is not just factual, whether Iraq was a threat and whether the inspection process was succeeding at a reasonable pace; it was also conceptual, even jurisprudential. The resolution of this latter debate is likely to shape the future role of the United Nations, as well as influence the attitude of the most powerful sovereign state as to the relationship between international law generally and the use of force as an instrument of foreign policy.

Download Full-text

THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON SANCTIONS TOWARDS INDIVIDUAL FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Padjadjaran Journal of International Law ◽

10.23920/pjil.v3i2.316 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 202-218

Author(s):

Jessica Priscilla Suri

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Security Council ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

Islamic State ◽

International Peace ◽

Member States ◽

Peace And Security ◽

The United Nations

AbstractThe United Nations Security Council (SC) holds the primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security as stipulated in Article 24 of the United Nations Charter (UN Charter). The emergence of international terrorism as a threat to international peace and security encourages the SC to impose sanctions in the form of assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo towards targeted individuals through the SC Resolutions on Taliban, Al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). However, the implementation of UN targeted sanctions towards individuals has been violating the targeted individual’s human rights to property, rights of movement, rights to privacy, honor and reputation, and also the rights to a fair trial. This article will explain about the legitimation of the SC Resolutions in imposing sanction towards an individual, and the obligation of UN member states towards the SC resolution that imposes sanctions against its citizen. The violations of human rights stemming from the implementation of SC Resolutions on sanction towards individuals indicate that the resolutions have been adopted beyond the limits of international law. Therefore this condition makes the resolutions lost its legitimacy under international law. In accordance with Article 25 and 103 of the UN Charter, all member states have an obligation to accept, carry on and give priority to the obligation originating from the SC Resolution including to implement the sanction measures towards individuals. Nevertheless, member states must accommodate and harmonize its obligations in respecting, protecting and fulfilling all the individuals’ rights who are targeted by the SC along with its obligation to the SC Resolutions. Keywords: Human Rights, Sanction towards Individuals, United Nations Security Council.AbstrakDewan Keamanan Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa (DK) memiliki tanggungjawab utama untuk menjaga perdamaian dan keamanan internasional berdasarkan Pasal 24 Piagam PBB. Munculnya terorisme internasional sebagai ancaman terhadap perdamaian dan keamanan internasional mendorong DK untuk menjatuhkan sanksi berupa pembekuan aset, pelarangan perjalanan serta embargo senjata kepada individu yang ditargetkan melalui rezim Resolusi Taliban, Al-Qaida dan Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Dalam penerapannya penjatuhan sanksi tersebut menimbulkan pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) yaitu hak terhadap properti, hak kebebasan berpindah, hak atas privasi, kehormatan dan reputasi serta hak atas proses pengadilan yang adil. Pelanggaran HAM tersebut memunculkan tujuan dilakukannya penulisan artikel ini yaitu untuk menunjukan mengenai legitimasi resolusi DK yang menjatuhkan sanksi kepada individu, serta memaparkan mengenai kewajiban negara anggota PBB terhadap resolusi DK yang menjatuhkan sanksi kepada warga negaranya. Pelanggaran HAM yang disebabkan oleh penerapan penjatuhan sanksi terhadap individu mengindikasikan bahwa resolusi yang mendasari penjatuhan sanksi tersebut diadopsi dengan melampaui batasan-batasan penjatuhan sanksi DK dan telah kehilangan legitimasinya menurut hukum internasional. Sehingga meskipun negara memiliki kewajiban berdasarkan Pasal 25 dan 103 Piagam PBB untuk tetap menerima, melaksanakan dan mengutamakan kewajibannya berdasarkan Resolusi DK yang menjatuhkan sanksi terhadap individu, negara tetap harus mengakomodir dan mengharmonisasikan kewajibannya dalam menghormati, melindungi dan memenuhi HAM individu yang dijatuhkan sanksi saat melaksanakan kewajibannya yang berasal dari Resolusi DK. Kata Kunci: Dewan Keamanan Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa, Hak Asasi Manusia, Sanksi terhadap Individu

Download Full-text

A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law? International Law in China's Voting Behaviour and Argumentation in the United Nations Security Council

Leiden Journal of International Law ◽

10.1017/s0922156513000459 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 875-907 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

PHIL C. W. CHAN

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Rule Of Law ◽

Security Council ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

Voting Behaviour ◽

International Legal Order ◽

The United Nations ◽

International Rule ◽

Keen Observer

AbstractGiven the centrality of law in the creation, decision-making, and impact of the United Nations Security Council, the deliberative discourses among Security Council Members, and the necessity for China to articulate its reasons publicly for its actions within the Security Council, the roles that China plays within the Security Council illuminate and clarify its approaches to the current international legal order. This article explains how law serves as a constitutional–normative framework within which the Security Council must function, followed by a discussion of how the Security Council in turn may serve as a locus of deliberative discourses that delineate, influence, and constrain its members’ state behaviours. It challenges the view that law plays a limited role on matters of international security by exploring China's voting behaviour in the Security Council and the arguments that it has proffered. It also discusses how China may respond to a draft Security Council resolution aimed at its conduct other than simply by vetoing it, and how it has taken a proactive role in the maintenance of international peace and security through the Security Council.

Download Full-text

The Kalshoven Commission

Leiden Journal of International Law ◽

10.1017/s0922156500001680 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 131-134

Author(s):

Alfred de Zayas

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Security Council ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

Secretary General ◽

Former Yugoslavia ◽

Geneva Conventions ◽

The United Nations

By Resolution 780 of October 6, 1992 the United Nations Security Council requested the Secretary-Generalto establish, as a matter of urgency, an impartial Commission of Experts to examine and analyse the information submitted […] together with such further information as the Commission of Experts may obtain through its own investigations or efforts […] with a view to providing the Secretary-General with its conclusions on the evidence of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Download Full-text

Maritime Enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolutions: Use of Force and Coercive Measures

The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law ◽

10.1163/157180811x560502 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 235-261 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

ZOU Keyuan

Keyword(s):

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Security Council ◽

Korean Peninsula ◽

Use Of Force ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

International Peace ◽

Primary Responsibility ◽

Peace And Security ◽

The United Nations

AbstractThe Charter of the United Nations designates the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as one of the principal organs of the United Nations, assuming the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”. It has the power to determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, to make recommendations, and decide what measures should be taken to maintain or restore international peace and security. This article addresses a number of issues concerning how the UNSC Resolutions are enforced at sea in accordance with applicable international law and makes special reference to the circumstances in East Asia, particularly the Korean Peninsula.

Download Full-text

International law and humanitarian intervention

Medjunarodni problemi ◽

10.2298/medjp0701005s ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 5-48

Author(s):

Sava Savic

Keyword(s):

Moral Responsibility ◽

International Relations ◽

United Nations ◽

International Law ◽

Security Council ◽

Humanitarian Intervention ◽

International Community ◽

United Nations Security Council ◽

The Subject ◽

The United Nations

Taking an action by the international community, individual states or their organizations with the aim of protecting citizens in some country from the tyranny of their own authorities has been defined as a humanitarian intervention. According to international law the use of power as an instrument in international relations is, however, prohibited and therefore, any approach to humanitarian intervention is stretched out between the challenges of moral responsibility and limitations of legislature. The subject of discussion in this article is the legislative aspect of humanitarian intervention by force. The research is focused on law and legitimating of humanitarian intervention by force without the United Nations Security Council approval. .

Download Full-text