ROLE OF UNITED NATIONS IN PROMOTING PEACE AND

SECURITY

RESEARCH PAPER
Submitted by
AAAAAAA

Registration No
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Department of Political Science, University of Balochistan

July 31, 2019

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 THE ROLE Of UNITED NATIONS IN PROMOTING PEACE AND SECURITY

ABSTRACT

The study examined the United Nations through its various efforts
and abilities to enthrone peace in the world. It adopted a
developmental approach, bringing to light the UN’s early attempts
at peace, through the Cold War years and up to contemporary
times. Taking into cognizance why the UN was established in the
first place, and bearing in mind a clear conceptual understanding of
peace, the study reveals that the UN’s balance sheet with regard to
this onerous responsibility of admirable successes of peace and
security.

KEYWORDS
Peace, United Nations, Purpose, Balance sheet, Security
INTRODUCTION

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are
facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic
development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace.
The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of
Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for
dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions.
There are currently 193 member states, including every internationally
recognized sovereign state in the world but the Vatican City. From its offices
around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive
and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The
organization has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main
deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for
peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (for assisting in promoting
international economic and social cooperation and development); the
Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN);
the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United
Nations Trusteeship Council (which is currently inactive). Other prominent UN
System agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food
Program (WFP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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One of the primary purposes of the United Nations is the maintenance of
international peace and security. Since its creation, the UN has often been
called upon to prevent disputes from escalating into war, to persuade opposing
parties to use the conference table rather than force of arms, or to help restore
peace when armed conflict does break out. Over the decades, the UN has
helped to end numerous conflicts, often through actions of the Security Council
— the primary organ for dealing with issues of international peace and security.
The Security Council, the General Assembly and the Secretary-General all play
major, complementary roles in fostering peace and security. . United Nations
activities cover the principal areas of conflict prevention, peacemaking,
peacekeeping, enforcement and peace building.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH
This research is having trifold significance, such as it will be useful: the experts
that are working or affiliated with United Nations, foreign policy makers and for
the future researchers.
OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
The objectives of the research are:
● To examine the role of United Nations in promoting peace and security
in the world
● To identify the mechanism how United Nations is maintaining peace.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Q1. How United Nations is working for maintaining peace and security?
Q2. What is the mechanism through which United Nations works?

HYPOTHESIS

This paper hypothesizes that United Nations is playing very important role in
maintaining peace and security in the world.

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THE SEARCH FOR COLLECTIVE SECURITY FOLLOWING WORLD
WARS I AND II

As a direct result of the human, economic and material calamities experienced

during and after World War I and II (1914-1918 and 1939-1945 respectively), it
was of utmost importance for world leaders, according to Chesterman et al.
(2008:19), to design an international system that would prevent the recurrence
of such calamities. Formally bringing World War I to an end, the League of
Nations was the first attempt to design such an international system. The
League of Nations was established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles “to
promote international cooperation and achieve peace and security” (UN DPI,
2004:3). It aimed to preserve peace through arbitration, conciliation, and a
system of collective security; and to promote improved economic and social
living conditions worldwide (Fomerand, 2007:20). While the League of Nations
was successful in dealing with minor conflicts in the 1920s it failed, however, to
prevent World War II and was consequently officially dissolved on 18 April 1946
(Fomerand, 2007:24).
Gray (2008:86) paraphrases the United Nations’ main aims as two-fold: firstly,
to prohibit the unilateral use of force by states other than in self-defence, and
secondly, to centralise the use of force under the control of the UN Security
Council. The Charter reflected the basic philosophy of collective security,
similar to the Covenant of the League of Nations (Stromberg, 2012[1963?]).
There were, however, important differences between the Covenant and the UN
Charter. Goodrich et al. (1969:11) point out that the UN Charter recognised the
need for international cooperation in economic and social issues, and the need
to safeguard basic human rights; and followed a political approach to enforce
peace measures through collective action by the major states, instead of
putting legal obligations on member states to keep the peace as the Covenant

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had done. Nonetheless, the United Nations formed a continuum with the
League of Nations in general purpose, structure, and function; and many of the
United Nations’ principal organs and related agencies were adopted from
similar structures in the League of Nations (EB, 2009). The establishment of the
collective security regime, as provided under the UN Charter, constituted a
major turning point in the management of international crises. Member states
renounced the unilateral use of armed force except for the purposes of self-
defence. The compensation for this prohibition is an institutional system that
vests decision-making power on international peace and security in a political
body that has limited membership and can adopt decisions that are binding on
all member states of the organisation (de Chazournes, 2005:1). The UN Charter
therefore constitutes a collective security system (Sarooshi, 1999:1) and confers
the collective responsibility to maintain international peace and security onto
the UN Security Council (UN, 2009i). The Charter will be discussed in the
following section and how it regulates the maintenance of international peace
and security.

THE MANDATE OF THE UNITED NATIONS TO MAINTAIN

INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

The UN Charter lays out the general framework for the United Nations’
activities, its purposes, membership, structure, and arrangements for the
maintenance of peace and security and international economic and social
cooperation (Fomerand, 2007:43; UN DPI, 2004:3). As envisioned by its
Charter, the United Nations consists of six principle organs (UN DPI, 2004:3):

i. The UN General Assembly,

ii. The UN Security Council,
iii. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC),
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 iv. The Trusteeship Council (which suspended operations in 1994)
v. The International Court of Justice, and
vi. The UN Secretariat.
The UN Charter also codifies the major principles of international relations,
including the principles of sovereign equality of states; the prohibition of the
use of force in international relations in any matter inconsistent with the
purposes of the United Nations; and the obligation of states to fulfil
international obligations (Fomerand, 2007:43; UN DPI, 2004:3). In total, the UN
Charter consists of 19 Chapters and 111 Articles (UN DPI, 2004:3-4). Signed by
193 member states, it is the most widely ratified treaty in the history of
international relations (Chesterman et al., 2008:4) and, as will be seen, the UN
Charter binds all signatories by international law to comply with its provisions
(UN DPI, 2004:3-4). The United Nations System and how the different principal
organs and subsidiaries, such as the Agencies, Programmes and Funds, interact
and are linked to one another are depicted in Figure 3.1. In this chapter, the
workings in part of three of these principal organs, the UN General Assembly,
the UN Security Council and the UN Secretariat, will be discussed.

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The authority and legitimacy of the UN Charter

The United Nations comprises a treaty-based system which requires states both
to impose limits on their own right to resort to force, and to depend on a
collective response for protection (Gray, 2008:86; Fomerand, 2007:Iv). Alvarez
(2001:137138) argues that parties to the treaty (i.e. the UN Charter) have in
fact created a “third party” institution (i.e. the United Nations) to which the
parties have delegated certain functions, and in so doing, have willingly
accepted a structure of authority or legitimised power in the same fashion as a
nation-state has accepted its constitution as the highest authority (Alvarez,
2001:137-138). Goodrich et al. (1969:11) support this and elaborate that while
the Charter is clearly a treaty, it also acts as the constitution of the organisation
and requires members to act in accordance with the its principles, so far as may
be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security. By being
signatories to the treaty, member states have agreed, in Article 24 of the
Charter, to confer on the UN Security Council primary responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security (Sarooshi, 1999:1) and, in
Article 25, have accepted an obligation to do the UN Security Council’s bidding
(Lowe et al., 2008:5). The full text of Article 25 reads (UN, 2009i):

“The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the
decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter”.

Furthermore, de Chazournes (2005:16) notes that Article 103 establishes the

primacy of obligations arising from the Charter over all other conventional
obligations “in the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members
of the United Nations under the Charter and their obligations under any other
international agreement.” The United Nations, by means of the Charter, is
therefore the primary custodian of collective legitimisation in global politics

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(Voeten, 2005:527) and continues to guide the practice of states and broader
debate on critical issues such as the use of force (Chesterman et al., 2008:20).

In the case of the “Aerial incident at Lockerbie” (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya vs.
United Kingdom, 1992), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that
obligations resulting from UN Security Council decisions enjoy similar pre-
eminence through an interpretation combining Article 103 with Article 25 of
the UN Charter (de Chazournes, 2005:16). However, Saul (2005:142-143)
cautions that UN Security Council resolutions do not create international law,
but are normative obligations of member states under the UN Charter. The UN
Security Council can thus be described as ‘‘a political organ having legal
consequences’’. Malanczuk and Akehurst (1997:387) concur that the UN
Security Council and UN General Assembly are not, and were never intended to
be, judicial bodies. The following sections will elaborate on the relevant
Articles of the Charter to gain an understanding of the obligations and
responsibilities which the UN Charter puts on the United Nations to maintain
international peace and security.

The responsibility to maintain international peace and security

The previous section pointed to the fact that, on the authority of the UN
Charter, the
United Nations is distinctly mandated to maintain international peace and
security.
This mandate is given in the first of the four purposes of the United Nations, in
Article 1(1) of the UN Charter (UN, 2009d):

“To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective
collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and
for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to
bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice

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and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or
situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.”

Yamashita (2007:567) summarises the purposes of Article 1 as: maintaining

international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations,
and achieving international cooperation in economic, social, cultural, or
humanitarian problems; which he roughly equates with the respective roles of
the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social
Council of the United Nations. Consistent with this, Article 24(1) conveys the
primary role and responsibility to maintain international peace and security on
the UN Security Council (UN, 2009i). Notwithstanding this, Lowe et al. (2008:5)
argue that within the United Nations, the UN Security Council has primary, but
not exclusive, responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and
security. Under the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, adopted by the General
Assembly in November 1950, the UN General Assembly may take action if the
UN Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity among its permanent
members, fails to act where there appears to be a threat to international peace,
breach to the peace or act of aggression (UN DPI, 2008a:6). The UN General
Assembly is empowered to consider the matter immediately and to make
recommendations to members for collective measures, including, in the case of
a breach of the peace or act of aggression, the use of armed forces when
necessary to maintain international peace and security (UN DPI, 2008a:6).

Article 24(2) of the Charter states that the specific powers granted to the
Security Council for the discharge of these duties are laid down in Chapters VI:
Pacific settlement of disputes; VII: Action with respect to threats to the peace,
breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression; VIII: Regional arrangements; and
XII: International trusteeship system (UN, 2009i). Heiskanen (2001:164) states
that the corner stone of this responsibility is Chapter VII, in particular Article 43,
which envisages the creation of an international military force operating under

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the Security Council, to deal with any “threats to the peace, breaches of the
peace, and acts of aggression”.

Chapter IV, V, VI, and VII of the Charter will be discussed in more detail in the
following sections. Chapter IV sets out the composition of the UN General
Assembly. Chapter V focuses on the UN Security Council; Chapter VI on the
‘Pacific Settlement of Disputes’; and Chapter VII provides guidance in terms of
‘Action with respect to threats to the peace, breached of the peace and acts of
aggression’. Chapter VIII will be discussed under section 3.4.1, while Chapter XII
will not be discussed as the Trusteeship Council suspended its operations when
Palau attained independence in 1994, signalling the end of the United Nations’
responsibility for the trust territories (Bodell, 2008a:543; Chesterman et al.,
2008:119). The UN General Assembly will be discussed next.

Chapter IV of the UN Charter: The UN General Assembly (Articles 9-22)

Article 9 of the UN Charter makes it clear that the UN General Assembly shall
consist of all the members of the United Nations (UN, 2011a), and as of
September 2011 it consisted of 193 Member States (UN, 2011b). Membership
of the United Nations, in accordance with Article 4 of the UN Charter (UN,
2011c), “is open to all peace-loving States that accept the obligations contained
in the United Nations Charter and, in the judgment of the Organisation, are able
to carry out these obligations”. Article 4 of the UN Charter (UN, 2011c) also
mentions that states are admitted to membership of the United Nations by
decision of the UN General Assembly upon the recommendation of the UN
Security Council. Membership can be suspended (and reinstated) by the UN
Security Council, according to Article 5 and 6 of the UN Charter (UN, 2011c), if
any preventive or enforcement action was taken against a Member State by the
UN Security Council; or by the UN General Assembly upon the recommendation

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of the UN Security Council if a UN member state has persistently violated the
Principles contained in the UN Charter. These are two issues which have a
direct impact on the maintenance of international peace and security, as is seen
in Chapter Six, section 6.2.2.1, the UN General Assembly has much influence on
the establishment of peace missions, such as UNAMID, through its budgeting
process. The following section will elaborate on the voting rights of UN
member states and budgetary matters as they pertain directly to the
maintenance of international peace and security.

Voting rights and budgetary matters in the UN General Assembly

To understand the decision-making powers and processes of the UN General

Assembly it is prudent to explain some of its procedures. The UN General
Assembly, in line with Article 97 of the UN Charter, appoints the UN Secretary-
General upon the recommendation of the UN Security Council, as the chief
administrative officer of the United Nations (UN, 2011d). In addition, the UN
General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative
organ of the United Nations and it provides a unique forum for multilateral
discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter,
states the United Nations (2011e). The UN General Assembly meets in regular
session intensively from September to December each year, and thereafter as
required (UN, 2011e). Each country has one vote and decisions on important
questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and
budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority, while decisions on other
questions are by simple majority (UN, 2011f). Article 19 of the UN Charter (UN,
2011g), however, states that “A Member of the United Nations which is in
arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall
have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or
exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two full

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years”. The UN General Assembly may, nevertheless, permit such a UN
member state to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions
beyond the control of the Member (UN, 2011g). As a result of the great
number of questions it is called upon to consider, the UN General Assembly
allocates items relevant to its work among its six Main Committees, which
discuss them, seeking where possible to harmonise the various approaches of
UN member states, and then present their recommendations to a plenary
meeting of the UN General Assembly as draft resolutions and decisions for
consideration (UN, 2011h). The Six Main Committees are, according to the
United Nations (2011h):

a. First Committee (Disarmament and International Security Committee) is

concerned with disarmament and related international security
questions;

b. Second Committee (Economic and Financial Committee) is concerned

with economic questions;

c. Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee) deals

with social and humanitarian issues;

d. Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonisation Committee)

deals with a variety of political subjects not dealt with by the First
Committee, as well as with decolonisation;

e. Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary Committee) deals with

the administration and budgets of the United Nations; and

f. Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) deals with international legal

matters.

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The UN General Assembly (UN, 2011i) also has a subsidiary organ, the Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), which:

a. Examines and reports on the budget submitted by the UN Secretary-

General to the UN General Assembly;

b. Advises the UN General Assembly concerning any administrative and

budgetary matters referred to it;

c. Examines on behalf of the UN General Assembly the administrative

budgets of the specialised agencies and proposals for financial
arrangements with such agencies; and

d. Considers and reports to the UN General Assembly on the auditors’

reports on the accounts of the United Nations and of the specialised
agencies. The programme of work of the Committee is determined by
the requirements of the UN General Assembly and the other legislative
bodies to which the Committee reports.

Article 17 (UN, 2011a) dictates that the UN General Assembly will approve the
budget of the United Nations and the expenses shall be borne by the Member
States as apportioned by the UN General Assembly. According to the United
Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UN DPKO, 2011), the UN
General Assembly apportions peacekeeping expenses based on a special scale
of assessments under a formula established by Member States themselves; this
formula takes into account, among other things, the relative economic wealth
of UN member states, with the five permanent members of the Security Council
required to pay a larger share because of their special responsibility for the

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maintenance of international peace and security. The Regular Budget cycle of
the United Nations is for two years, and the biennial budget is approved by the
UN General Assembly, in short, after review and endorsement (in different
stages) by the ACABQ and the Fifth Committee (Fifth Committee, 2008:10-12).
Budgets for peacekeeping missions, however, follow a different cycle, as
explained next.

Peacekeeping budgets

Peacekeeping budgets are reviewed and approved by the UN General Assembly

on an annual basis after a review of the budget and performance report by the
ACABQ (Fifth Committee, 2008:2,24). The UN DPKO (2011) explains that each
peacekeeping operation has its own budget and account which includes
operational costs such as transport and logistics and staff costs such as salaries.
The peacekeeping budget cycle runs from 1 July to 30 June which is rarely
aligned with the UN Security Council mandate; however, budgets are prepared
for 12 months based on of the most current mandate of the operation (UN
DPKO, 2011). The UN DPKO (2011) notes the following actions which are
needed for approval of the peacekeeping budget:

• The Secretary-General has to submit the budget proposal to the ACABQ

which reviews the proposal and makes recommendations to the Fifth
Committee for its review and approval. Ultimately, the budget is
endorsed by the General Assembly as a whole.
• At the end of the financial cycle, each peacekeeping operation has to
prepare and submit a performance report which shows the actual use of
resources. This report is also considered and approved by the General
Assembly, as explained below.

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Regarding the start-up costs for a peacekeeping mission, which could be at any
time during the normal cycle depending on the urgency of the mission, the Fifth
Committee (2008:22) elaborates that the UN Secretary-General may request
commitment authority of up to USD50 million for one mission from the ACABQ,
provided that the total commitment authority granted by the ACABQ at any
one time must not exceed a cumulative amount of USD150 million, while for
more than USD50 million, the commitment authority must be requested from
the UN General Assembly. As is seen in Chapter Six, section 6.2.2.1, the UN
Secretary-General used this commitment authority to set up the African
Union/United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

To extend the mandate and budget of a peacekeeping mission, the Fifth

Committee (2008:24) notes that a financial mandate extension usually occurs
just a few days before expiry of an existing mandate; this follows the UN
Security Council's decision to continue the mission, and review and approval by
the UN General Assembly of the performance reports (as highlighted by the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations above) and the proposed budget.
Performance reports are prepared for the preceding 12-month period because
the United Nations follows a Results-Based Budgeting (RBB) system
(Abraszewski et al., 1999:1). Abraszewski et al. (1999:3) explain that RBB is a
programme budget process in which: (a) programme formulation revolves
around a set of predefined objectives and expected results; (b) expected results
justify the resource requirements which are derived from and linked to outputs
required to achieve such results; and (c) actual performance in achieving results
is measured by objective performance indicators. Abraszewski et al., (1999:3)
subsequently derive from an internal briefing at the United Nations Secretariat
that “RBB is about formulating programme budgets that are driven by a
number of desired results which are articulated at the outset of the budgetary

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process, and against which actual performance is measured at the end of a
biennium”.

The above budget process delineates not only the symbiotic but also greatly
dependent relationship between the UN Security Council and UN General
Assembly with regard to peacekeeping operations: though the UN Security
Council authorises it, the UN General Assembly ‘pays’ for the mission. The
following section will provide a brief explanation of how peacekeeping missions
get manpower support (military, police, and military experts) from UN member
states.

PEACE KEEPING CONTRIBUTIONS

By 30 April 2011, military, police, and military expert contributions to United

Nations peace operations were provided by 115 UN member states and
amounted to a grand total of 99 382 personnel (UN, 2011j). The
reimbursement for these contributions is standardised. The United Nations
signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each contributing Member
State. The MOU is a negotiated, formal agreement between the United Nations
and the troop/police contributing country that establishes the responsibility
and standards for the provision of personnel, major equipment and self-
sustainment support services for both the United Nations and the contributing
country (UN, 2011j). The MOU contains details of the personnel, major
equipment and self-sustainment services that the contributing country will
provide and includes the standard reimbursement rates that will apply. As
these standard rates have been predetermined by Member States, contributing
countries are reimbursed equally for providing the same generic types of
personnel, equipment or self-sustainment services (UN, 2011j). Self-
sustainment services are reimbursed by the United Nations on a per person/per

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month basis, payable from UN Headquarters (UNHQ) directly to the
contributing countries (UN, 2011j). Other functions of the UN General
Assembly will be mentioned throughout the chapter. The relationship in terms
of peace and security with the UN Security Council will be elaborated on in the
following section.

Chapter V of the Charter: The UN Security Council (Articles 23-32)

The UN Security Council is the organ of the United Nations which is entitled to
authorise the use of force in situations not involving self-defence (DFA, 2008).
Chapter V, Article 23 sets out the composition of the UN Security Council,
Articles 24 to 26 set out its functions and powers, Article 27 describes the
voting rights of members, and Articles 28 to 32 provide the procedures to be
followed in the UN Security Council (UN, 2009i).

According to the provisions in Article 23, the UN Security Council is to consist of

fifteen UN Member States. The United States of America, the French Republic,
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the People’s
Republic of China (until 1971, the ‘Republic of China’) and the Russian
Federation (until 1991, the ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’) hold
permanent seats while the remaining ten elected members serve in a non-
permanent capacity (UN, 2009i). The South African Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA, 2008) explains that the UN General Assembly elects five non-
permanent members to the UN Security Council each year on the basis of their
contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security, equitable
geographical distribution and bilateral relations between States. Africa has
three non-permanent seats, Eastern Europe one, and Asia, Western
Europe/others and Latin America/Caribbean two seats each. Elected members
serve two-year terms on the UN Security Council and are not eligible for

64
immediate reelection (DFA, 2008). By electing five non-permanent members to
the UN Security Council each year for a two-year term, there are always 10 non-
permanent members serving with the five permanent members.

Under the UN Charter, the functions and powers of the UN Security Council
include the following (UN DPI, 2004:9; UN DPI, 2008a:8-9):

• To maintain international peace and security in accordance with the

principles and purposes of the United Nations;
• To formulate plans for establishing a system to regulate armaments;
• To call upon parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means;
• To investigate any dispute or situations which might lead to
international frictions, and to recommend methods of adjusting such
disputes or the terms of settlement;
• To determine the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression
and to recommend what actions to take;
• To call upon parties concerned to comply with such provisional
measures as it deems necessary or desirable to prevent an aggression of
the situation;
• To call on members of the United Nations to take measures not involving
the use of armed force, such as sanctions, to give effect to the UN
Security
Council’s decisions;
• To resort to, or authorise the use of, force to maintain or restore
international peace and security;
• To encourage the peaceful settlement of local disputes through regional
arrangements and to use such regional arrangements for enforcement
action under its authority;

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 • To recommend to the UN General Assembly the appointment of the UN
Secretary-General and, together with the UN General Assembly, to elect
the Judges of the International Court of Justice;
• To request the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on any legal question; and
• To recommend to the UN General Assembly the admission of new
members to the United Nations.

The functions and powers of the UN Security Council relating to international

peace and security will become more evident as the next chapters of the
Charter are discussed, starting with Chapter VI, Pacific Settlement of disputes.

PACIFIC SETTLEMENTS OF DISPUTES

The former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, stated in 2003 that Chapter VI of
the Charter stands at the heart of the United Nations system of collective
security and noted that the majority of the UN Security Council’s work
continues to be carried out under Chapter VI (UNIS, 2007). Chapter VI
empowers the UN Security Council to make various types of recommendations
for the peaceful settlement of disputes, including providing the UN Security
Council with certain powers of investigation into the cause(s) of the dispute
(Malanczuk & Akehurst, 1997:386). According to the letter of the Charter, the
circumstances in which the UN Security Council may recommend terms of
settlement are different from the circumstances in which it may recommend
procedures for settlement; but the circumstances in question are defined in
very precise terms. In practice, however, the UN Security Council usually
disregards these complexities and makes recommendations without citing any
Articles of the UN Charter or bothering about the tortuous and imprecise
distinctions made in Chapter VI (Malanczuk & Akehurst, 1997:386). Articles 33
to 37 deal with disputes where their continuance is likely to endanger the
maintenance of international peace and security, while Article 38 gives the UN

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Security Council the power to make recommendations on any dispute if all the
parties so request (OLA, 1992:118,) and will be discussed next.

INTERNATIOAL DISPUTES

The provision in Article 33 obligates member states to seek a solution for

disputes by peaceful means and obligates the UN Security Council to determine
whether or not the continuance of the dispute is likely to endanger
international peace and security. Furthermore, the parties to the dispute must
seek a solution “by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration,
judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other
peaceful means of their own choice” before bringing them to the UN Security
Council as mandated in Article 37 of the Charter (Goodrich et al., 1969:259; UN,
2009e). Under Article 34 of the Charter, the UN Security Council has the
responsibility to investigate any dispute which may endanger international
peace and security (Goodrich et al., 1969:259-260). Mani (2007:302-303) adds
that international disputes are not restricted to those between states but are
also applicable to those involving other entities, including international
organisations, ‘de facto regimes, ethnic communities enjoying a particular kind
of status under international law, national liberation movements’, and ‘peoples
who are holders of the right to selfdetermination’. The manner in which the
United Nations responds to a dispute will be discussed next.

ACTING ON INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES

Before the United Nations can respond to settle a dispute, the dispute needs to
be brought to them in accordance with the requirements of the Charter.
According to Malanczuk and Akehurst (1997:386), a dispute may be brought to
the Security Council by:

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 1. A member of the United Nations, whether or not it is a party to the
dispute, according to Article 35(1) of the Charter;

2. By a state which is not a member of the United Nations, provided that it

is a party to the dispute and “accepts in advance, for the purposes of the
dispute, the obligations of pacific settlement provided in the Charter”,
according to Article 35(2) of the Charter;

3. By the General Assembly, which may ‘call for the attention of the
Security Council to situations which are likely to endanger international
peace and security”; according to Article 11(2 and 3) and Article 11(2) of
the Charter; and

4. By the UN Secretary-General, who “may bring to the attention of the

Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the
maintenance of international peace and security”, according to Article
99 of the Charter.

The UN Security Council, in performing its functions in the ‘pacific settlement of

disputes’, may rely upon the application of some of the specific settlement
measures enumerated in Article 33: “negotiation, enquiry, mediation,
conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or
arrangements, or other peaceful means of choice” (UN, 2009e; Mani, 2007:304-
307). In fact, when a complaint is brought to the UN Security Council, its first
action is usually to recommend that the parties try to reach agreement by
peaceful means and it may set forth principles for a peaceful settlement, unless
when in some cases the UN Security Council itself undertakes investigation and
mediation (UN DPI, 2008a:9). In addition to making recommendations to the
parties for peaceful settlement as depicted in Article 38 of the Charter (UN,

68
2009e), the UN Security Council may also appoint special representatives
and/or ask the good offices of the UN Secretary-General to undertake
investigation and mediation. This may not always lead to a peaceful solution
and more concrete steps may be necessary, such as the process of
“peacemaking”.

PEACE MAKING ACTIVITIES

When a dispute leads to fighting, the UN Security Council often issues directives
to prevent further hostilities and may take measures under Chapter VII, rather
than under Chapter VI, to enforce its decisions (UN DPI, 2008a:73). The reason
for this, note Suterwalla (2000) and Reynolds (2007), is that the resolutions
under Chapter VI are advisory rather than binding and have been operative
only with the consent of all the parties involved. Traditionally, according to
Suterwalla (2000), Chapter VI has not been interpreted to support collective
intervention by member states in the affairs of another member states. Doyle
and Sambanis (2007:324) explain that actions taken under Chapter VI fall under
the United Nations category of ‘peace-making’, which are efforts designed to
bring hostile parties to agreement through the peaceful settlement of their
differences. These actions include military-to-military contacts, security
assistance, shows of force and preventive deployments (UN DPKO, 2009a).
Peace-making furthermore includes those measures taken, according to the UN
DPKO (2008:17), to address conflicts in progress and usually involves diplomatic
action to bring hostile parties to a negotiated agreement. It also covers the
diplomatic activities conducted after the commencement of a conflict, and is
aimed at establishing a cease-fire or a rapid peaceful settlement. These
activities can include the provision of mediation, conciliation and such actions
as diplomatic pressure, isolation or sanctions (ISS, 2000:41). Chapter VI peace
efforts further extend to peace-restoration and conflict-mitigation operations,
which, depending on the reality on the ground, can turn into a Chapter VII

69
operation, for example in the event humanitarian convoys needing to be
defended by force of arms, or exclusion zones needing to be enforced by air
strikes from the military (UN DPKO, 2009a).

Peacekeeping operations also fall under Chapter VI, though it is sometimes not
clearly distinguishable whether they should be authorised under Chapter VI or
VII of the Charter. When there is such ambiguity such operations are
sometimes referred to as Chapter VI-and-a-half peacekeeping (Lewis & Sewall,
1993:50-51). Nevertheless, according to the United Nations glossary of terms
(1998), peacekeeping is described as “a hybrid politico-military activity aimed at
conflict control, which involves a United Nations presence in the field (usually
involving military and civilian personnel), with the consent of the parties, to
implement or to monitor the implementation of arrangements relating to the
control of conflicts (cease-fires, separation of forces etc.), and their resolution
(partial or comprehensive settlements) and/or to protect the delivery of
humanitarian relief” (UN, 1998). UN DPKO (2008:18) typifies it as a technique
designed to preserve the peace, however fragile, where fighting has been
halted, and to assist in implementing agreements achieved by the
peacemakers. Characteristically, a peacekeeping operation includes non-
combat military operations undertaken by outside forces with the consent of all
major belligerent parties and is designed to monitor and facilitate the
implementation of an existing truce agreement in support of diplomatic efforts
to reach a political settlement (UN, 1998).

Finally, it should be noted that Chapter VI links with Chapter VIII: “Regional
Arrangements”. According to Article 52(3) of Chapter VIII, the UN Security
Council “shall encourage the development of pacific settlement of local
disputes” through ‘regional agreements’ or by ‘regional agencies’ either on the
initiative of the States concerned or by reference from the UN Security Council

70
(UN, 2009f). Some states have accordingly taken the position to first try to
solve a dispute through a regional agency before it is presented to the UN
Security Council (OLA, 1992:118). Furthermore, Article 54 of Chapter VIII
necessitates that regional organisations or States party to a dispute or situation
must keep the UN Security Council informed of all mediation activities through
the UN Secretary-General (OLA, 1992:118; UN, 2009f). As was said before,
Chapter VI is at the heart of the United Nations’ activities. Chapter VII,
however, is the cornerstone of the United Nations’ efforts to maintain
international peace and security and will be discussed next.

Chapter VII of the Charter: Actions with respect to Threats to the Peace,
Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression (Articles 39-51)

The previous section highlighted the fact that resolutions taken under Chapters
VI are advisory rather than binding; consequently, military missions under
Chapter VI would rest on consent by the state in question. Under Chapter VII,
however, the UN Security Council may impose measures on states carrying
obligatory legal force and therefore does need not to depend on the consent of
the states involved. To do this, the UN Security Council must determine that the
situation constitutes a threat to or breach of the peace (Matheson, 2008:2).

The UN Security Council is empowered by Article 39 of Chapter VII to determine

the existence of any threat to peace or act of aggression and to make
recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken to maintain or
restore international peace and security (UN, 2009g). Lowe et al. (2008:35) and
Suterwalla (2000) argue that the Charter sets no limits on the discretion of the
UN Security Council to determine what constitutes a threat to international
peace and security. Nevertheless, Yamashita (2007:551) and Gray (2008:86)
point out that when the UN Security Council deals with issues of threats to

71
international peace and security, it may first ask the parties to comply with
provisional measures “as it deems necessary or desirable” as quoted from
Article 40 of the Charter. When this does not lead to a peaceful resolution the
UN Security Council is empowered to “determine the existence of any threat to
peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression”, and on that basis can decide
upon non-military steps such as economic sanctions and, as a last resort, “such
actions by air, sea or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore
international peace and security” (Yamashita, 2007:551; Gray, 2008:86). The
remainder of this section will elaborate on what constitutes a threat to
international peace and security, how this determination relates to
international law and the use of force in self-defence, and what is meant by
‘peace keeping’ under Chapter VII of the Charter.

Threats to international peace and security

The United Nations’ view of what constitutes a “threat to the peace” has
evolved over the years. For instance, Article 2 (7) of the UN Charter (UN, 2009d)
clearly withholds the United Nations from interfering in the internal matters of
states:
“Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to
intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any
state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under
the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of
enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.”

In 1992, the former UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, however,

presented in his address to the Security Council “An agenda for peace
preventive diplomacy, peace-making and peacekeeping” the contention that a
threat to peace and international security can exist even if the conflict is limited
to a state or a part of the State if the refugee flows triggered by these hostilities
are likely to destabilise the region (Breitweiser, 2008:91). In 2004, the UN High-
level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change released a report (UN, 2004)
which argues that there is a shared responsibility for the provision of global

72
security, according to the International Development Committee (IDC,
2005:14). The report outlines firstly how prevention can enhance security;
secondly, how, when prevention fails, force might then be used to enhance
security; and thirdly, how the UN itself can be a more effective player in the
provision of collective security (IDC, 2005:14). In relation to internal conflicts,
the report of the High-level Panel concludes that “the principle of non-
intervention in internal affairs cannot be used to protect genocidal acts or
largescale violations of international humanitarian law or large-scale ethnic
cleansing” (IDC, 2005:14).

Most of the matters to which the UN Security Council turns its attention at
present (such as peacekeeping, peace-building, genocide, terrorism, and
weapons of mass destruction) are not mentioned in the UN Charter (Luck,
2008:62). De Chazournes (2005:16) notably refers to one of the conclusions of
the meeting of the UN Security Council at the level of heads of state and
government, on 31 January 1992, that “The absence of war and military conflict
amongst States does not in itself ensure international peace and security. The
non-military sources of instability in the economic, social, humanitarian and
ecological fields have become threats to peace and security.” Yamashita
(2007:564) and Malone (2007:120-121) explain that consensus in the UN
Security Council on the ‘threat to peace’ concept has changed over the years:
during the Cold War period, with the exception of the cases of Apartheid in
South Africa and racism in Southern Rhodesia, the threat concept was
restricted to the two categories of interstate wars and internationalised wars.
The concept expanded during the post-Cold War period to include massive
human rights violations or humanitarian crises, international terrorism and
Weapons-of-MassDestruction (WMD) proliferation, and intrastate conflicts
which are feared to impinge on regional stability in terms of intensity,
geographical coverage and human suffering. Farrall (2007:85) upholds that the

73
UN Security Council tends to avoid articulating the precise nature of threats to
international peace and security and discerns two broad categories: those with
a clear international or transboundary dimension and those arising from an
internal crisis (please see Table 3.1 for the types of situations under which the
UN Security Council has determined a threat to international peace and security
leading to the application of sanctions).

74
 Types of situations in which the Security Council has determined a threat to
international peace and security
Threats arising from an internal crisis
Threats with a clear international or
transboundary dimension
• Where a state has a history of • Where a racist minority has
maintaining an aggressive foreign prevented the majority from
policy, combined with the exercising its right to self-
potential to possess or to determination.
produce weapons of mass • Where a government maintains a
destruction. policy of Apartheid.
• Where a state or non-state entity • Where there is general civil war,
has engaged in or provided with no entity in effective control
support for acts of international of the apparatus of government.
terrorism. • Where power has been seized
• Where two states have been from a democratically elected
engaged in international conflict. government.
• Where states have undertaken • Where a government has been
acts of interference in the affairs subject to or threatened by the
of another state. use of military force by a rebel
group.
• Where there is a serious
humanitarian crisis.
• Where a government has used
oppressive force against a
minority, in violation of that
minority’s fundamental rights,
including the right to self-
determination.

Table 3.1: Situations under which the UN Security Council has determined a
threat to international peace and security (According to, Farrall, 2007:86, 92)

Even though the circumstances under which the UN Security Council

determines a threat to international peace and security can be distinguished, it
is debatable whether the UN Security Council is guided by the requirements of

75
international law, or breaches thereof, when making such a determination. The
influence of international law on UN Security Council decisions under Chapter
VII will be discussed next.
Determining a threat to international peace and security and the rule of law

Measures under Chapter VII are not necessarily taken as a result of a law being
broken. Simma (2002:705) confirms that measures taken under Chapter VII,
including sanctions, primarily serve to enforce peace and may also be
addressed to States that have neither violated international law nor threaten to
do so. This is reflected in Article 1(1), according to Simma (2002:705), which
requires observance of international law only for Security Council action in the
area of dispute settlement, but not for measures of collective security. Farrall
(2007:15) believes that owing to its political origins, the concept of the rule of
law is conspicuously absent from the UN Charter. Farrall (2007:15-16) argues,
therefore, that even though threats to international peace and security may
take the form of violations of international law, these two concepts do not
necessarily overlap. The implication is that the UN Security Council acts above
the law and as a law unto itself, and does not necessarily respond to a violation
of international law or even to a violation to the Charter (Farrall, 2007:16).
Malanczuk and Akehurst (1997:387) clarify that although the UN Security
Council and UN General Assembly do take legal factors into account, they also
consider political factors; and political factors often overshadow legal
considerations in their deliberations. Moreover, Malanczuk and Akehurst
(1997:387) continue, members of the UN Security Council and the UN General
Assembly are not always impartial as could be seen during the Cold War when
members of an alliance tended to support one another, and small neutralist
states tried to avoid giving offence to the two superpowers of the time (the
USA and the USSR). Chapter VII of the Charter also deals with the issue of acts
of self-defence, and these will be discussed next.

76
Self-defence

Article 51 of the Charter entitles states to defend themselves when attacked by

an armed aggressor (UN, 2009g). Voeten (2005:530) makes the point that
states routinely resort to expanded conceptions of self-defence to justify
unilateral use of force. The UN Security Council Resolution 1373 adopted in
September 2001, for example, affirmed the right of the United States to act
forcefully in its self-defence against terrorist activities and de facto legitimised
the United States military action in Afghanistan that started in October 2001.
Gray (2008:87), however, emphasises that the aim of Article 51 is rather to
ensure that the UN Security Council is informed at all times of the use of force
by states, and that it could then take action if necessary; and that a state’s right
to self-defence is only a temporary right until the UN Security Council has taken
measures to maintain international peace and security. The UN Security
Council has a whole range of measures at its disposal that could be taken to
maintain international peace and security. These will be elaborated on in the
next section.

COMPLIANCE WITH UN SECURITY COUNCIL DECISIONS

In taking action against threats to international peace and security, the UN
Security Council may consider non-coercive measures (diplomacy) or coercive
measures (sanctions or the use of force). The diplomatic options available to
the UN Security Council include communicating with parties to a conflict
situation through press statements or presidential statements, relying on the
good offices of the UN Secretary-General, or deploying UN Security Council
missions to conflict-afflicted or post-conflict areas (DFA, 2008). The UN Security
Council can also, under Chapter VII, establish international tribunals to
prosecute persons for serious violations of international humanitarian and
human rights law, including acts of genocide (UN DPI, 2008a) and may work

77
with regional organisations to further international peace and security. The UN
Security Council acts on behalf of all UN Member States and its Chapter VII
decisions are legally binding (DFA, 2008). In this regard, de Chazournes
(2005:16) and Lowe et al. (2008:37) refer to the case of the “Aerial incident at
Lockerbie” (Lybian Arab Jamahiriya vs. United Kingdom, 1992), where the ICJ
ruled that obligations resulting from UN Security Council decisions enjoy similar
pre-eminence to international law through an interpretation combining Article
103 with Article 25 of the UN Charter. Saul (2005:142-143), disagrees and
cautions that UN Security Council resolutions do not create international law,
but are normative obligations on member states under the UN Charter and
instead, resolutions may assist in interpreting the UN Charter, provide evidence
of general principles of law, or reflect opinio juris, provided that their subject-
matter is not restricted to particular circumstances.

The United Nations uses a wide array of compliance and enforcement

processes to get states to honour their international commitments and the UN
Security Council resolutions.

CONCLUSION

The UN Charter constitutes a collective security system aiming to prevent the

resurgence or recurrence of another world war. The UN Charter acts as a
treaty and codifies the major principles of international relations while putting
an obligation on signatories to the treaty to comply with its provisions. Article
1(1) of the UN Charter mandates the United Nations to maintain international
peace and security and confers the responsibility therefor onto the UN Security
Council (Article 24(1)). Therefore, the UN Security Council is the only entity
which can legitimately authorise the use of force by member states, not

78
involving self-defence, although it is obligated to first encourage the settlement
of disputes by peaceful means.

Furthermore, the UN Security Council has full discretion to determine what

constitutes a breach to the peace, or threat to international peace and security,
and does not necessarily take action when an international law or convention
has been broken. Threats to international peace and security have changed
since the inception of the United Nations in 1945, from a focus on war and
military conflict, to include non-military sources of instability in the economic,
social, humanitarian and ecological fields.

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