UN Security CouncilYin FanTan Hong YouLiu TingkaiNg Jun Da

Introduction

The United Nations Security Council(UNSC) is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security.

Powers

The establishment of peace keeping operations

The establishment of international sanctions

The authorization of military action.

(powers exercised throng United Nations security council resolutions)

Role

Investigate any situation threatening international peace.

Recommend procedures for peaceful resolution of a dispute.

Call upon other member nations to completely or partially interrupt economic relations as well as sea, air, postal and radio communications, or to sever diplomatic relations.

Role

Enforce its decisions militarily, or by any means necessary.

Avoid conflict and maintain focus on cooperation.

Members

15 members of the Security Council

5 veto-wielding permanent members(China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States)

10 elected non-permanent members with two –year terms.

Members always present at UN headquarters in New York.

President

The role of President of the Security Council involves setting the agenda, presiding at its meetings and overseeing any crisis.

The President is authorized to issue both the presidential statements and notes.

The Presidency rotates monthly in alphabetical order of the Security Council member nations’ names in English.

Status of non-members

May participate in Security Council discussions in matters by which the Council agrees that the country’s interests are particularly affected.

In recent years, allow more countries to part

Responsibility to protect

Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted on 28 April 2006

Responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

The resolution commits the Council to action to protect civilians in armed conflict.

Criticism

There has been criticism that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, who are all nuclear powers, have created an exclusive nuclear club that only addresses the strategic interests and political motives of the permanent members.

E.g. Protected the oil-rich Kuwaitis in 1991 but poorly protected resource poor Rwandans in 1994.

Case studies – Darfur Crisis

Case Studies – Darfur Crisis

Darfur Conflict is an ongoing guerilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan

Began in 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs.

By September 2004, there have been an estimated of 50,000 deaths since the beginning of the conflic.

Case Studies – Darfur Crisis

In March 2005, the Security Council formally referred the situation in Darfur to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, , taking into account the report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1564 of 2004, but without mentioning any specific crimes. Two permanent members of the Security Council, the United States and China, abstained from the vote on the referral resolution

Case Studies- Darfur Crisis

In April 2007, the Judges of the ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmed Haroun, and a Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Sudan Government said that the ICC had no jurisdiction to try Sudanese citizens and that it would not hand the two men over to authorities in the Hague.

Case Studies – Darfur Crisis

International Criticism

The world's most powerful countries have largely limited themselves in expressing concerns and demand for the United Nations to take action in solving the genocide in Darfur.

In the lack of foreign political will to address the political and economic structures that underlie the conflict, the international community has defined the Darfur conflict in humanitarian assistance terms and debated the label of "genocide.”

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