Why Can't United Nations Stop A War ?
Israel occupation force is committing the brutal genocide on Palestinians and the world keep looking. After witnessing horrifying videos of the brutality showered upon the innocent civilians of the Palestine, there is global accusation pointed towards the super powers of the world and United Nations in general.
United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has been calling “for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
The war in the Middle East is having a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, including women and children, every day.
This must stop.
I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 19, 2023
Foreign Editor of The Hindu, Stanly Johny replied to the UN Chief”s message and said “UN can’t do much” as it is not a global police force. In his X (formerly twitter) post, he called the world “anarchic” and added that though there would be “international rules and laws, but we don’t have the mechanisms to enforce them if the violator is a major power”.
Everyone is attacking the UN for not doing enough to stop the war. But the fact is that the UN can”t do much. It”s not a global police force. We have intnl rules & laws but we don”t have the mechanisms to enforce them if the violator is a major power. The world is anarchic. https://t.co/TenDLGH74u
— Stanly Johny (@johnstanly) November 20, 2023
But why? Why cannot the United Nations stop a war? The answer lies in the founding document of the United Nations, UN Charter. The Charter was signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, at the end of United Nations Conference on International Organisation. The charter came into power on October 24, 1945.
UN can take actions on wide variety of issues due to the organisation’s unique international character and the power vested in the UN Charter, which is considered as an international treaty. Everything about the power vested in the United Nations come from the principles in its Charter. The International Court of Justice, the principle Judicial system of United Nations, functions on the basis of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, that was annexed to the United Nations Charter.
Now come the Security Council. It is the body that was given the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. The Council made up of 15 Member States. Five permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States, and 10 non-permanent seats that rotate after election among other United Nations member countries. The Security Council takes the front seat in determining the existence of threats and breach of peace or any act of aggression.
When any crisis come, the Security Council, guided by the UN Charter can take several steps to maintain the peace and eradicate the threats. Under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, the Security Council can call the parties of dispute to maintain peace by recommending peaceful methods and terms of settlement. Under Chapter VII, if the terms of settlement was not met, the Council can impose sanctions or even authorise a coalition of Member States or a UN-authorised peace operations to restore international peace and security.
Under Article 25 of the UN Charter, the actions taken by the Security Council are binding on all member countries of UN. Under Article 27 of the Charter, each member of the Security Council has one vote.
On every matter, nine affirmative votes from the members including “the concurring votes of the permanent members” is necessary. In any procedural matters, favourable vote from nine members of the Council is needed. In short, negative vote from any one of the permanent member can block the adaption of any resolution.
Then come the General Assembly. It is a unique policy-making body of UN. The General Assembly include all the 193 Member States and each member have equal vote.
According to 1950 resolution of the General Assembly, which is also known as “Uniting for Peace”, when the Security Council fail to act because of the absence of unanimity among the five permanent members, the General Assembly have the power to put forth recommendations to the United Nations Member States for taking collective measures as a method to maintain and restore international peace and security.
If requested by the nine members of the Security Council or by other Members of the Assembly, the Assembly can meet in an Emergency Special Session. Until today, the General Assembly has held total of 11 Emergency Special Sessions out of which 8 have been requested by the Security Council.
The difference between Security Council and General Assembly is that, unlike Security Council, the Member States are not bound to abide by the resolutions taken by the General Assembly.
Coming back to Stanly Johny’s statement, if the permanent member of the Security Council, which are often called as the super powers of the world vetoed or disagreed to any of the resolutions, the peace resolution would remain unattended. As the United Nations Charter does “not have the mechanisms to enforce them if the violator is a major power”, which may shed some lights to Mr. Johny’s claim about the world being “anarchic”.
