Monday, May 20

UN’s Rare Powerful Move: Invokes Article 99 On Gaza

Edited by Hiba Anvar
UN’s Rare Powerful Move: Invokes Article 99 On Gaza (image-instagram/antonioguterres)

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a rare move on Wednesday by invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter, urging the Security Council to act on the war in Gaza.

This move by the secretary-general came as the security council is yet to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and their allies. The Security council, most powerful body of UN, consisting of 15 members is responsible to maintain international peace and security.

In his letter to the council’s president, he invoked the article, saying that the current situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.

He also added that the ongoing weeks of hostilities in Gaza and Israel have “created appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory”.

In response to the letter drafted by the Secretary General, Security Council member United Arab Emirates responded that they have submitted a resolution to the council and has “called for a humanitarian ceasefire resolution to be adopted urgently”.

If the council chooses to act on Guterre’s advice, it will have the additional power to ensure the resolution is implemented, which includes the power to impose sanctions and authorize the deployment of an international force.

In the 15-member council, five members including, China, Russia, US, UK and France hold veto power. The resolution passed on October 18 calling for a humanitarian pause in Israel-Hamas war was vetoed by US, though twelve other council members voted in favour. Meanwhile, the veto power holders, Russia and UK abstained.

The Secretary General, Guterres who has been calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” since October 18, has warned that the public order in Gaza could soon break down amid the complete collapse of the humanitarian system.

The ongoing catastrophe on the besieged enclave of Gaza has compelled him to invoke the Article 99 for the first time since he took the top job at the UN in 2017.

“The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region,” he wrote. “Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost”.

But this decision to invoke the Article 99 was not welcomed by Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan. Erdan who has been continuously calling for the removal of Guterres, criticised the move of invoking Article 99 and described the letter as “more proof” of Guterre’s “moral distortion and his bias against Israel”.

“The Secretary-General’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza,” he wrote in a post on X.

The UN Charter, the constitutive instrument of the United Nations, only provides limited power to the UN secretary general. The UN secretary general serve as the UN’s Chief Administrative Officer and is elected by member states.

The Article 99 of the UN Charter gives the secretary general the provision to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.

The last time the Article was explicitly invoked was in 1989 in relation to a military conflict in Lebanon, reports Miami Herald. The provocation of the rarely used provision may result in a seismic wave to the UN system.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief Joseph Borell has urged the EU members of the Security Council and other countries to support Guterre’s call for ceasefire.