Role of the Security Council in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security, Particularly in Africa

2001 ◽  
pp. 206-208
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Peace And Security

United Nations and Regional Organizations: Complementarity v. Subsidiarity

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena F. Douhan
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Universal System ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
New System

The United Nations organization was planned to be established as a single universal system of collective security. Major efforts were supposed to be taken by the UN Security Council. Regional organizations were introduced into the system as a subordinate subsidiary means – elements of the system. Over the course of the time it has, however, appeared that the UN Security Council was not able to act in the way prescribed by the UN Charter in suppressing newly emerged threats and challenges in the sphere of security. In the contrary, the role of regional organizations has increased substantially. They do the majority of tasks in the sphere of maintenance of international peace and security, often without authorization or even informing the UN Security Council, although the legality of some of these actions may be dubious. As a result, the Council itself transfers the accent in relations between the UN and regional organizations from subsidiarity to complementarity or even partnership. It is thus necessary to re-check the meaning of the concepts of complementarity and subsidiarity as well as the UN Charter provisions in the changed circumstances and to specify principles of the new system.

scholarly journals The Emergence of Safe Areas and the Role of Normative Contingency

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Orchard
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Civilian Protection ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Safe Area ◽  
Peace And Security

The concept of ‘safe areas’ emerged in the early 1990s as a way of responding to increasing displacement triggered by internal conflicts. As a form of protection, their record was mixed—for every success like northern Iraq in 1991, there was a failure like the collapse of the Srebrenica safe area in 1995. But why did the safe area concept itself emerge at this time? Traditionally, safe areas were akin to humanitarian spaces anchored in consent. The shift in the early 1990s was to replace consent with an international military presence, including military forces and peacekeepers. This article argues that this shift was only possible because of two critical changes which occurred within the United Nations: the recognition that civilian protection represented an international problem and the UN Security Council broadening how it interpreted the notion of ‘threats to international peace and security’ to include issues such as forced migrant flows.

Security Council Legislation, Article 2(7) of the UN Charter, and the Principle of Subsidiarity

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICHOLAS TSAGOURIAS
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Member States ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThis article considers the relationship between the United Nations and its member states in view of the Security Council's assertion of legislative powers. It claims that the exponential growth in UN powers at the expense of the powers of its member states cannot be arrested by legal means, because of the nature of the UN system and the absence of legally enforceable criteria and compulsory dispute-settlement mechanisms. For this reason, it proposes a different approach to law-making in the area of international peace and security – one that is built around the principle of subsidiarity, as reflected in Article 2(7) of the UN Charter. The role of the principle of subsidiarity in this respect is to determine which authority is best suited to exercise legislative power and how such power should be exercised in order to attain the objective of peace and security more efficiently. It is thus contended that the principle of subsidiarity promotes co-operative relations between the United Nations and its member states by protecting the latters' jurisdictional authority from unnecessary interference.

scholarly journals What Does the Uniting for Peace Resolution Mean for the Role of the UN Security Council?

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 118-122
Author(s):  
Ieva Miluna
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Constant Control ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Normative Role

The Uniting for Peace resolution together with the UN Charter prescribes a certain role for the General Assembly with regard to international peace and security. Larry Johnson addresses that role, but he does not consider a second question: how does the Uniting for Peace resolution affect the UN Security Council? The normative role of the Council is influenced not only by the Charter, but also by general international law. In this comment, I explore the normative role of the Council in fulfilling the Charter’s purpose to maintain international peace and security. I argue that the text of the Charter and the prior practice of both the Assembly and the Council help to determine the proper division of these organs’ respective tasks within the Charter system. I conclude that the Council alone exercises the constant control needed to enforce measures of collective security effectively, and that the Assembly is limited to recommending the consequences for states when threats or breaches of the peace occur.

Regional Arrangements and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: The Role of the African Union Peace and Security Council

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 97-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Riziki Majinge
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Peace ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations

SummaryThis article examines the role of regional arrangements under the Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter) in the maintenance of international peace and security. The African Union Peace and Security Council (AU PSC), the organ within the AU charged with addressing threats to international peace and security on the African continent, is used as a case study. The author contends that the major challenges facing regional arrangements in exercising mandates under Article 53 of the UN Charter of the United Nations have more to do with inadequate financial and logistical resources than the nature of those mandates. Taking the AU’s role in Somalia, Sudan, and other African countries as examples, the article demonstrates that the AU PSC has failed to achieve its objective of maintaining peace and security precisely because the United Nations (UN) Security Council — a more powerful and better resourced organ — has failed to live up to its responsibility of extending the assistance necessary to enable the AU PSC to perform its functions. Consequently, the author concludes that the UN Security Council, when delegating powers to regional arrangements to maintain international peace and security, should provide adequate resources to such regional arrangements, especially those that will otherwise have minimal or no capacity to fulfil their mandate effectively.

un–au Partnerships in International Peace and Security and Issues of Responsibility Allocation in Cases of un Support to Regional Missions

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassilis Pergantis
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Operational Planning ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Soft Or ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Shed Light

In the last decade, the United Nations and the African Union have forged a close partnership in matters of international peace and security. This article attempts to shed light on the multifaceted role of the un in the strategic and operational planning and evolution, as well as the funding, of regional (African Union) peace support operations. Such involvement goes well beyond a simple authorization by the un Security Council and raises crucial questions in respect of the allocation of responsibility between the un and the African Union. The analysis of the relevant responsibility allocation clauses showcases that a holistic approach should be adopted that does not micromanage the different aspects of the un involvement in regional missions, but treats them as an aggregate that should be taken into account as a whole when allocating responsibility. Otherwise, the soft or indirect (but crucial) influence exercised by the un will inevitably escape responsibility.

Aggression under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

2002 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Peace And Security

AbstractThe Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court includes aggression among the crimes within the Court's jurisdiction. It mandates the Assembly of States Parties to define the crime and to set out the conditions under which the Court shall exercise jurisdiction over it. Both the definition and the conditions must be consistent with the UN Charter provisions. The most pertinent of these provisions is Article 39, which empowers the Security Council to determine ‘the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression’. Based on the context of this provision the article discusses the envisaged role of the Security Council vis-á-vis the International Criminal Court in the prosecution of aggression. The author acknowledges the Council's primary responsibility in matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security, but asserts that such responsibility is not exclusive. The author also concedes the Council's prerogative under Article 39 to determine whether a state has committed an act of aggression for purposes of making recommendations or taking enforcement measures against such a state. Nevertheless the author contends that such determination does not preclude the Court from making its own determination for the purpose of assigning criminal responsibility on individuals. The author argues that the Court is an independent, impartial judicial body. It should not be bound by determinations of the Council, a political body that is often guided more by political considerations than by the law and evidence. The author maintains that subjecting the Court's jurisdiction over aggression to Security Council determinations would eviscerate the Court's effectiveness and credibility.

The High Level Panel Report on Threats, Challenges and Change and the Future Role of the United Nations Security Council

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
KENNETH M. MANUSAMA
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Panel Report ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
High Level

The UN High Level Panel Report, published in December, takes a comprehensive approach and is very frank in analysing the threats to international peace and security and their rootcauses. Its analysis and recommendations range from economic and social challenges to the use of force. This article discusses in particular the role and tasks that the High Level Panel envisages for the Security Council in light of the threats and challenges it identified. With the events of 11 September 2001 as the pivotal moment in history, the Panel nevertheless does not recommend or insist on fundamental changes of international legal paradigms, including in the (collective) use of force. The Panel's focus on reform of Security Council composition instead of the system that it operates neglects the problems with the latter and the impossibility of achieving the former.

Trygve Lie, 1946–1953

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Jenny Ravndal
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Security Council ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Political Negotiation

This chapter explores all aspects of Trygve Lie’s interaction with the Security Council, beginning with his appointment process and the negotiation of the relative domains of the Council and the Secretary-General. This was a time when the working methods of the UN system were rapidly evolving through political negotiation and responses to external crises. It examines Lie’s personality and character, how he viewed his own responsibilities in the maintenance of international peace and security as crises arose, the legal and political tools he developed and exercised, and his changing relationship with individual permanent members and the six elected members. In the emerging Cold War, Lie’s position in the Security Council would be determined in particular by his relationships with the United States and the Soviet Union. Taking initiative in response to external crises in Iran, Palestine, Berlin, and Korea, Lie succeeded in laying foundations for an expanded political role for the Secretary-General.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document