scholarly journals The African Union, Constitutionalism and Power-Sharing

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stef Vandeginste
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
African Union ◽  
Constitutional Rule ◽  
Member States ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The Past ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Peace And Security

AbstractOver the past decade, the African Union has put in place a normative framework to promote constitutional rule and, in particular, orderly constitutional transfers of power in its member states. Its Peace and Security Council opposes unconstitutional changes of government, including through the use of sanctions. The PSC systematically advocates a return to constitutional order, in particular through free and fair elections, as a remedy for unconstitutional changes of government. However, while opposing unconstitutional means of obtaining or transferring power, the AU has been generally supportive of the use of power-sharing agreements as an instrument of negotiated conflict settlement. Most power-sharing agreements do not accord with the prevailing constitutional order. This dual policy, of opposing certain types of unconstitutional change of government while advocating power-sharing agreements, poses an obvious challenge for the consistency of AU policy.

‘Triangular’ Relationships between the United Nations and African Regional and Sub-regional Organizations in Maintaining Peace

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-345
Author(s):  
Emanuele Cimiotta
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Political Control ◽  
African Union ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Triangular Relationships

Over the past few years, the relationships between the United Nations (‘un’), regional and sub-regional organizations in maintaining peace and security in Africa have evolved. The African Union (‘au’) began coordinating enforcement actions conducted by African sub-regional organizations with the authorisation of the un Security Council (‘unsc’), which maintained its political control over them. The un Charter and relevant legal regimes of those organizations seem to allow this kind of relationship. Such a trend may explain, in part, the unsc’s most recent practice of authorising regional and sub-regional enforcement actions under Chapter vii of the un Charter, instead of Chapter viii. In carrying out those authorised military operations, African regional and/or sub-regional organizations perform their own statutory powers and pursue their own statutory objectives at the continental level. They do not act as ‘decentralised organs’ of the un.

WPS and SEA in Peacekeeping Operations

2018 ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security

In the past fifteen years, despite the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security and the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Zero Tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers, abuse by interveners remains prevalent in peace operations. SEA is not only perpetrated by peacekeepers, but also aid workers, diplomats, private contractors, and others associated with interventions. This chapter maps the extent and main characteristics of SEA in peace operations, and investigates the ways the international community has attempted to prevent and hold individuals accountable for SEA. It provides an assessment of the weaknesses in the existing WPS framework regarding SEA, particularly in terms of its engagement with masculinities, capital, and other permissive factors that make SEA such a central feature of peacekeeping operations.

Reevaluating Regional Human Rights Litigation in the Twenty-First Century: The Case of the Inter-American Court

2008 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 768-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Cavallaro ◽  
Stephanie Erin Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Union Member ◽  
First Century ◽  
African Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Court ◽  
Twenty First Century

Over the past few decades, regional human rights tribunals have grown in both number and activity. The European Court of Human Rights (European Court or ECHR) now receives tens of thousands of petitions and issues over fifteen hundred judgments on the merits each year. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recently tripled the number of cases that it resolves annually. At the time of this writing, in mid-2008, Africa’s own regional human rights court, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, prepares to begin hearing its first contentious cases. Currently, sixty-eight states are subject to the decisions of the two established regional courts (forty-seven in Europe and twenty-one in the Americas), up from less than half that number twenty years ago. In the nascent African system, twenty-four African Union member states have ratified the Protocol establishing the African Court, with an additional twenty-five signatory states.

un Security Council Resolutions before uk Courts

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-64
Author(s):  
Alexander Orakhelashvili
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Effective Performance ◽  
The Uk

Over the past decade, the effective performance by the UN Security Council of its primary responsibility in the area of peace and security has increasingly become contingent on the implementation of its decisions within the national legal systems of the UN Member States. An examination of this issue in the context of the British legal system could offer a useful case-study of the ways to enhance the effectiveness of the UN collective security mechanism, to enforce the limits on the legitimacy of that mechanism, and also to highlight the practical difficulties that may accompany the attempts to apply Security Council resolutions domestically. This contribution exposes all these issues, focusing on the practice of the uk courts over the past decade. It examines the mediation of the effect of Security Council resolutions into English law through the 1946 United Nations Act, the royal prerogative and other common law techniques. After that, the contribution moves on to examine the English courts’ handling of the normative conflict between a Security Council resolution and other sources of international law.

The Use of the Veto

1948 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman J. Padelford
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Organization ◽  
The Past ◽  
Peace And Security

No feature of United Nations activity has raised more doubts about the ability of international organization to assure peace and security than the recurrent appearance of the veto in the Security Council during the past two years.

scholarly journals The United Nations Security Council Reforms and The Permanent Five Challenge: A Historical Perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aderemi Opeyemi Ade-Ibijola
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Member States ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Middle Powers

The manner in which the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is presently constituted remains the greatest challenge to the realization of the ambitions of UNSC permanent seat seekers. For the highly infl uential economic giants better known as the “middle powers”- Japan, India, Brazil, and Germany; and African leading contenders such as Nigeria, South-Africa and Egypt ambitions to yield the desired result, they must mandatorily secure the support of the UNSC Permanent fi ve veto holding members. In light of the foregoing, this paper examines the attempts to reform the UNSC since the late 1960s and the roles of the Permanent fi ve members of the UNSC such as Britain, China, France, USA and Russia regarding this endeavour. Specifi cally, it argues that the Permanent fi ve member’s disposition to this issue has been the major challenge to the much desired reform of the UNSC. The UNSC is the main organ of the United Nations (UN) that is vested with powers to maintain international peace and security. Since its creation in mid 1940s, this organ has been criticized for its undemocratic nature by member states whose region are either not represented in the Security Council (SC) or under-represented.  

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

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

Part 2 The United Nations: What it is, 3 The Security Council

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Higgins Dame Rosalyn, DBE, QC ◽  
Webb Philippa ◽  
Akande Dapo ◽  
Sivakumaran Sandesh ◽  
Sloan James
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Member States ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War

The Security Council is unique among the principal organs of the UN in two important ways: member states agree to accept and carry out the decisions it takes in accordance with the UN Charter, and member states have conferred upon it primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security. It is also the most influential of the UN principal organs. Since the end of the Cold War the productiveness of the Security Council has increased dramatically. In the 1990s, it adopted an average of 64 resolutions a year. In 2016, it adopted 76 resolutions. This chapter discusses the Security Council’s membership, procedure, meetings, non-members, non-state entities, voting, presidency, and functions (oversight and peace and security).

The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: evaluating an embryonic international institution

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
International Security ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Institution ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Efficiency And Productivity

ABSTRACTHow has the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union helped promote peace, security and stability on the African continent? This article assesses the PSC's activities in light of insights generated by the literature on international security institutions. After providing an overview of the immediate origins of the PSC, it discusses five elements of the Council's institutional design. It then evaluates the PSC's activities during its first five years (2004–9), by examining the Council's political relevance, its efficiency and productivity, and whether it is the institution best placed to deal with the continent's security problems. It concludes that the PSC's future will hinge on whether more of the African Union's members can be persuaded to devote more serious levels of resources (human and financial) to it.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document