The UN Charter states that maintaining international peace and security is the primary objective of the UN (Article 1.1 of the UN Charter), and the UN Security Council is given direct responsibility for achieving this objective (Article 24).
And if an attempt fails to settle a particular dispute by peaceful means (Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations – Peaceful Settlement of Disputes), the Charter establishes a specific mechanism for the defense of collective security, authorizing the use of coercive measures (Chapter VII – Action regarding threats to peace and violations of peace and acts of aggression). And if necessary, the Security Council can, according to Chapter VII, carry out military operations (Article 42). The original goal was to have a permanent army at the disposal of the Council (Article 43). It was assumed that the Strategic Command would manage a military staff committee ( Articles 46 and 47). However, the committee was never formed, and the Cold War froze any attempts to establish the system as a whole due to the logic of the collision of ideological blocs associated with the significant powers members of the Security Council.
From the outset, the special procedures for the peaceful settlement of disputes provided for in Chapter VI were found to be insufficient in open conflict situations. On the other hand, any use of international force provided for under Chapter VII in cases that endanger international peace and security has been hampered by the veto power of the Security Council’s permanent members. The United Nations devised peacekeeping operations in 1956 during the Suez Canal crisis to overcome these obstacles. It was a unique response to a situation not foreseen in the Charter and a remedial measure to replace the use of force. Since there is no judicial basis for these actions, the justification given for these operations is often referred to as the imaginary “Chapter Six and a Half.”
Recently, the Security Council has strengthened its cooperation with regional organizations for crisis resolution, in particular with the West African Economic Community (in Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2003) and with the African Union (in Sudan through the UNAMID since 2007) This is by Articles 52 and 53 of the Charter of the United Nations. In the history of peacekeeping operations, the Security Council has also authorized the use of force for coalitions of states (the Australian-led international party in East Timor in 1999) and other organizations such as NATO (ISAF since 2001) and the African Union (AMISOM). Africans in Somalia since 2007).
Serious failures of some of these missions, such as the massacres of UN-protected people in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, have raised doubts about their work and led to new doctrines on the content and conditions of the use of force to protect the civilian population (see below II.4). It also led to the clarification of the applicability of humanitarian law to peacekeeping operations, whether as combat forces engaged in conflict or as security and stability forces engaged in tasks related to law enforcement and the restoration of public order (below 4).
The Charter of the United Nations assigns the Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. However, when it fails to pass a resolution due to the lack of unanimity of the permanent members, the General Assembly can act (Resolution 377 [5] adopted by the General Assembly in November 1950 and entitled “Uniting for Peace”) and in the event of a threat to peace international security, violation of the peace, or aggression. The General Assembly may not resort to force but can study the matter expeditiously and make recommendations to members for collective measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. In addition, it can refer the case to the International Court of Justice as it has done several times, notably in 2004, regarding the legal consequences of Israel’s construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
→ the International Court of Justice; United Nations Security Council.
