Role of UNSC in securing human rights with reference to case studies

 

UNSC meet: courtesy Current Affairs Adda 24/7

Abstract:

The research paper titled as Role of UNSC in securing Human rights with respect to case studies tries to cover the successes & failures of UNSC in different parts of the globe with the very specific focus on human rights protection. The United Nations Security Council is the most important part of the UN with enormous political clout over its member states. The intervention of UNSC in specific countries has changed the history of many countries forever.

The paper adopts an evidence based approach to also prove the shortcomings of the UNSC & how it can improve its track record on the same. The paper adopts a pragmatic, optimistic opinion about the UNSC role in securing human rights. The paper concludes that UNSC has to improve its structural issues to ensure that enough is done to protect the human rights of people.

1. Introduction:

Human rights refers to rights that is given to everyone irrespective of seeing their gender,class etc. Basic human rights are given to everyone the only reason being that they are humans is fine to make them entitled towards human rights in the world. The human rights in the world are under constant threat from multiple forces which can be both from the state & non state level actors.

The United Nations was formed in 1945 after the world saw one of the most catastrophic conflict in the form of world war 3 which killed up to 8 million people according to independent surveys, along with countless instances of human rights violations in the form of bodily crimes on women, targeting killings of global minorities, famines that were triggered deliberately in many parts of the world by imperial powers to name a few along the use of nuclear weapons, to prevent such conflicts in the future the institution named as United Nations was formed on 24 October, 1945 for the dual objectives to ensure that world peace is maintained & human rights is protected in each & every country. United Nations has a lot of verticals like UNHRC, UNSC which have been tasked with specific tasks. UN was formed after the league of nations which failed to protect human rights in the worldwide spectrum & instead fuelled the biggest onslaught on human dignity in the world war 2 due to its complacent decisions.(Why did league of nations fail. Here are some answers?,History on the net).

The UNSC is the most powerful body politic of UN as it looks up for world peace in the world which affects the human rights directly. . Human rights are also inalienable, meaning that the state may not withdraw any individual’s human rights except under conditions prescribed by the rule of law or (for some rights only) in situations of national emergency.(Human security: undermining human rights, Rhoda-E- Hasmann, February 2012)

The UNSC is perhaps one of the oldest bodies of the UN. It was incorporated in the United nations the day when UN was formed. The UNSC is headquartered in New York, USA. The presidency of UNSC unlike other bodies of UN is, rotatory in nature where every member state of the UNSC gets to chair the UNSC meet for every month, this type of presidency is called as rotational presidency. The UNSC has 15 members, 5 of whom are permanent, these nations are P5 nations namely, China-France-UK-USA-Russia, the other 10 are on a rotational basis & are elected by the UN general assembly. The UNSC is entrusted with protecting human rights in the member states.

2. UNSC & Human Rights:

The UN Has adopted human rights charters namely ICESCR(International convention on economics, social & cultural rights)was adopted by UN General Assembly on December 16,1966 but was implemented in the year 1976. The ICESCR has stated that all the people have the right for self-determination. Article 1 of the ICESCR states everyone has the right to self determination. The Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights contains various Articles which provide recognition for the right to work according to Article. 6. The ICESCR has no provisions for interpretation and application.(IIGL : Paper 4 textbook,16:17:18). The international human rights legal regime precedes the discourse on human security by over forty years. Human rights were originally enshrined in the UN International Bill of Rights, which consists of the1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the 1966. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Some scholars argue that there is no evidence that when a state signs a human rights treaty, its actual human rights performance improves which makes the role of UNSC even more important as it covers most of the countries in its ambit & its resolutions passed can act as a valve which creates pressure on states if not binding. (Human security: undermining human rights, Rhoda-E- Hasmann,February 2012)

The UNSC can pass resolutions it seems that are in violations of the above-mentioned humanitarian laws. The UNSC has so far passed 2672 resolutions. The UNSC is responsible for maintaining the security of the world, it is but obvious to understand that the human security is directly a necessity to maintain the human rights across the globe. The number of threats facing human security & rights is enormous, some of the prominent ones are: drug abuse, narcoterrorism, ideological terrorism, fundamentalism, wars between 2 countries & climate change. (Human security: undermining human rights, Rhoda-E- Hasmann, February 2012)

Ideological terrorism & fundamentalism can take away the lives of many people at once.Many countries have become a target of fundamentalism & terrorism, some terror attacks that shook humanity were of: Paris terror attack which claimed lives of many people, needless to say that, right to life is the most important right as without it the rest of the rights become null & void, the Pulwama suicide attack on a CRPF convoy also shook the conscience of the world which led to India conducting targeted air strikes in Balakot afterwards, the Mumbai terror attacks which directly killed civilians in Mumbai in 2008 is also a stark remainder of the human rights violations that can come up with the deadly mix of fundamentalism & terrorism. Along with the pain & agony created by terror attacks, many a times, it also provokes harsh reaction by the victims which can lead to a ripple effect which results in more human rights violations, the best example in this regard can be of perhaps of the 9/11 attacks on USA where Al-Qaeda terrorists bombed 3 buildings which killed 2,997 people, this led the USA administrations of Bush & Obama respectively to launch a manhunt in Afghanistan & many more countries which led to arrests of people who may not be involved in the attacks, it also led to formation of Guantanamo Bay prison which was denied entry even to the UN team by the United states in early 2010’s, it also led to USA invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 which created a mess in Afghanistan in the long run which claimed lives of thousands of Afghan civilians, emerging of Afghanistan as a prominent route for narcotics smuggling & the subsequent loss of education rights for afghani women, the literacy rate in Afghanistan today stands at 37.8% according to World Bank. This explanation is also enough to tell that how UNSC responds to terrorism of all kinds is important for securing human rights in different parts of globe. This is precisely the reason why counter terrorism is discussed in forums meant only for human rights.(Commissioner of human rights, ORF, World bank)

The UNSC interventions have a decent track record in terms of both successes & failures.The UNSC has passed about 2672 resolutions till date on subjects of humanitarian intervention where required.(UNSC.com). Since, the resolutions by the UNSC are the last resort by the countries to intervene in disputes, the success of UNSC measures will be done objectively through this parameter in this research article.

3. Positive case studies where UNSC resolutions helped in protecting human rights

Given the complex nature of the UNSC where 5 nations are permanent along with being veto power i.e. where if one of the 5 nations disagree with the UNSC resolution then the resolution becomes null &; void, many experts believe that the veto power being in hands of countries which are in direct competition with each other over resources in different world, has delayed the implementation of some important UNSC resolutions like those related to Russia-Ukraine war & protecting of human rights have been stalled repeatedly due to the veto power. The history has shown that veto power is a tool that P5 nations use to keep their diplomatic relations with countries intact. For example: China has vetoed UNSC resolutions to declare certain Pakistani individuals as global terrorists multiple times from the decade of 2014-18, to build on strong China-Pakistan ties which point has been argued by critics. (Livemint).Despite such structural limitations the UNSC has converged on many issues of importance, like the resolutions of UNSC for cote d’ivorie or ivory coast in the African continent when the nation had undergone a civil war rising from political instability which led to the rebel forces to control significant tracts of land in Ivory Coast, it is said that the involvement of France in this entire issue worsened the situation, the French directly deployed their troops in the region, the rebels had seized parts of west ivory coast.The country was divided into half with rival factions controlling east & west respectively. There were 2 civil wars that happened in Cote d’Ivorie,mainly in 2004 & 2010 which killed about 3000 civilians & had created 30,000 refugees, this was quickly accelerating into a humanitarian crisis, the UNSC noting the extent of violence quickly swung into action by passing UNSC resolution 1528 which authorized the deployment of UNOCI. Over 6000 UN peacekeeping forces in 2004 & increased to 11,292 in 2011.Despite, France & China being on the opposite sides of the issue, the UNSC was able to maneouvre the resolution & ensure that the resolution is passed, the UN resolution gave quick results in Ivory coast with about 70,000 insurgents surrendering within 2 years getting reintegrated into the society, 2 presidential elections with opposition was conducted for the first time in Ivory coast with an active opposition in a peaceful environment, about 250,000 refugees returned by 2016 to their homeland within 6 years ofUN intervention. 

The UN also strengthened National commission for human rights decreased human rights violations, it also supported social cohesion with 1000 impact projects & bought down communal sensitive areas by around 80%.The case of ivory coast proves that UNSC can be an effective tool for protection of human rights. Today, Cote d’Ivorie is implementing SDG’s with full vigour in consultation with many countries. Within 8 years, the situation has stabilized in Ivory coast with help of UN Peacekeeping forces which was authorized by the UNSC where the ivory coast administration is present in all 108 divisions of the nation. The experiment of Ivory coast by UNSC proves that it is an effective player in protecting human rights.

4. Failures of UNSC in protecting human rights

Where there are successes there are also equal number of failures of the UNSC as a watchdog of human rights protector. The USA invasion of Iraq & Afghanistan were done by keeping the UNSC at ransom &  many a times without consultation though there were resolutions were tabled. UNSC resolution 678 which gave Iraq the warning to withdraw their troops from Kuwait till the January 1991 & had authorized the countries especially the NATO ones to go ahead the invasion. The NATO invaded Iraq in 1991 & defeated the Iraqi forces within no time, it is also called as A computer war where the television viewers were seeing the destruction of Iraqi forces on a live TV. 

The NATO forces were overwhelmingly American with estimates saying that 75-80% of the NATO forces soldiers were Americans, in fact the NATO forces were led by Norman Schwarfmann. The fallouts of Iraq war after the US war has led to debate the success & the UNSC action in this regard, the number of causalities in Iraq war was estimated to be more than 50,000 civilians, the bridge of death, connecting Kufra to Basra was also bombed by USA led NATO forces, the bridge was being used by the defeated Iraqi forces to retreat, many human rights activists also called this as a war of humanity.

The action of USA led forces in Iraq internally displaced millions of people & killed many people. The same UNSC role is in doubt when USA unilaterally invaded Iraq on the account of finding WMD’s & executed Saddam Hussein in the 2000’s, the UNSC was caught in a shock when this invasion/operation took place. The UNSC was not able to pass any resolution against this unilateral action by the USA,given the USA has a veto power. The UNSC actions in Iraq also cause many doubts in the minds of security advisors, as the country’s economy was bought to ruins with 2 wars in 12 years, it led to displacement of a government, along with giving rise to fundamentalism & killing lakhs of soldiers, denying women the right to education, creating refugees in Middle east & Europe of which repercussions are being felt today along with creation of terrorism in the entire world. 

UNSC sanctions related to economy also had a devastating impact on the lives of Iraqi civilians. Had the UNSC structure been more democratic , it would have been possible that the Iraqi civilians would have also enjoyed the fruits of development. The 2 Iraqi wars along with the catastrophic humanitarian situation that arised are considered as a failure of UNSC in protecting human rights.

5. Conclusion

From the research article its clear that like every institution, UNSC also has its own failures & successes in the field of protecting human rights. The failures have arised mainly due to the permanent veto power structure which is given to nations who have enforced regime changes, invaded countries, have serious disagreements between them, have a history of brutal colonial power & have done little for the implementation of the SDG’s & are also viewed with a skeptical lens in their own neighbourhood & in world at large. The UNSC must wake up to this failure and give the veto power to more responsible nations to ensure that it can be the human rights protector in the true sense.

6. References:

i. (A.Alnsarawi)

ii. (NCERT)

iii. (UN Peacekeeping forces)

iv. (Council)

v. t (UN-SDG)

vi. (Indian Institute of Governance & Leadership )

vii. (Sahistory)

viii. Human security: undermining human rights, Rhoda-E- Hasmann, February 2012

ix. (UN Peacekeeping)

National Interest vs Global responsibility: What should nations choose. Research Article

Credits: Springer Link

The blog here is from my assignment of Indian Institute of Governance & Leadership

 Abstract:

The literature suggests that any developing nation in this interconnected world must look forward to framing policies which suites its own national interest. The study argues that if national interest is safe then only a country has the resources, political will to take up global responsibility. The not so easy relationship between national interest & global responsibility has been argued with case study of India. This study tries to answer the question based on the economic structure, social structure, historical structure, political structure, legal structure of the country mentioned as a case study. The study applies a realist view along with a post colonialism view of international affairs to make the debate clearer. The study found out that nations usually prioritise national affairs over global responsibility.

1: Introduction

The study is aimed at analysing the national interest from a dynamic & a pragmatic point of view. The study is based on secondary research based from different sources like research papers, books, news articles to name a few. 

The author has also tried to establish a strong relation between how changing national interest has led to significant changes in the global responsibilities that countries wish to take up. Since, any policymaker would consider the economic security & territorial integrity as the most sacred parts of national interest hence the examples in the paper have been linked to it. The author has also taken an earnest effort to show examples of countries which have at multiple stages opted for national interest over global responsibility in changing scenarios. The author with the help of various research papers has come to the well informed conclusion that a country must choose national interest over global responsibility for its own safety, security & since global responsibility is determined heavily by national interest concerns it has to be considered while framing the policy for a country.

2. Objectives of the research study:

A. Understanding the concepts of national interest & global responsibility in

depth,

B. Understanding how national interest impacts global responsibility of a

country.

C. How national interests are chosen over global responsibility most of the

times

D. Why policymakers usually adopt the issue of national interest over global

responsibility in international relations.

Explaination: 

National interest is a key concept in international affairs which helps in foreign policy formulation. The historical background of idea of ‘national interest’ goes back to when the advancement of the modern state framework took place. It was and remains a significant component to portray the basic justification for conduct of states & statesmen in a compromising global condition.(Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 87). 

National interest doesn’t change but global responsibility does change routinely as power balance changes. The term, “Interest” comes from Latin, signifying it concerns it has any kind of effect to, and it is significant with reference to some individual or a thing. One logical definition portrays it as the general & continuous end for which a country acts & lives for. Every statesman lives for their national interest, whenever a summit at any bilateral or multilateral level happens it is represented by a person irrespective of their global responsibility. (Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 87)

National Interest is also one where one country places their interest first &  then uses its leverage in different international forums. National Interest demonstrates the goals of the state. It may be used polemically in political contention, to clarify depend or reprimand. National Interest also refers to the issues for which a nation is willing to go to war. (Introduction to InternationalRelations & Diplomacy 87)

National interest usually varies from nation to nation that influence their national policies &  their outlook towards international relations which directly changes their global responsibility. (Sumanth Bhattacharya, Impact of national interest & global responsibility on international order)

National interest is also sometimes directly proportional to the school of thought the country wants to keep as its priority, for example the democrats in USA system are argued to have an outlook which is more liberal in nature which makes them to keep the ideology of liberalism respecting human rights at the forefront.(Brittanica)

Though national interest is made up of different components but there are certain things which are accepted by all schools of thought within national interest except for Marxism. (Introduction to International relations & diplomacy 36).

Further information between global responsibility, national security has been expounded in the

fourth section. Some aspects explained here. Section 3 primarily deals with how & why national interest is given importance over the global responsibility of a nation. The thought of maintaining territorial integrity, sovereignty is of extreme importance in all schools of thought ranging from realism, liberalism to English school and any other school of thought, the only difference point in these schools of thought is how much importance should be given to issues ofterritorial integrity, sovereignty, fighting fundamentalism while framing the international relation policy of a nation be given over other issues, for example: a realist will argue that the national interest is supreme, a liberalist will argue that first importance should be given to human values over territorial integrity, fighting fundamentalism but the person will say both are important.

The respecting of sovereignty &  existence of a country is considered at least on the face value by nations as it’s acts as a deterrent which can help to prevent war though there can be territorial disputes, hence we see most of the countries recognising the existence of each other (keeping aside the role of intelligence agencies, specific lobbies, violent proxy actors propped up by enemy countries in this issue who pose a threat to security apparatus of the concerned nation).

Similarly, every country also recognises the right of one country to have military & a proper security apparatus however the relation between the 2 nations may be. (Sood, The Unending Game)

Despite the changes in world order, there are some components of national interest which never change which again depends on the internal as well the historical issues of a country which nations never want to leave. For example:Majority of Indian policy makers view RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) as something which infringes on national sovereignty as it led to the disappearance of Indian industries which led to India’s colonialisation. The RCEP was being viewed as an issue which was finishing off the manufacturing base of multiple industries which made India to withdraw from the agreement. The withdrawal of India from RCEP was accepted by persons across political ideologies &the common people at large with the Minister of commerce & trade Shri.Piyush Goyal stating that India’s RCEP decision was not last minute & it was imperative for India to leave the agreement for securing the economic interests.(Shukla, India’s trade protectionism & low productivity vicious cycle, Ideas for India, Research articles)

This national interest which is itself based on multiple issues determines the global responsibility of a country which is directly proportional to the stance of varying degrees of national interest given importance more specifically territorial integrity is adopted by policymakers.

National interest goes hand in hand with global responsibility of a country and both are important for the development of trade, maintenance of peace &; security, recognising sovereignty of each other. (Sumanth Bhattacharya, Impact of national interest & global responsibility on international order)

The term Global responsibility is a frequently used term when it comes to the international relations. Global responsibility of a country when spoken is applicable to individualistic nations.

The global responsibility of states is usually the core issue of the international relations which has given rise to different schools of thought such as feminism, green theory and is extremely dynamic in nature as social science issues,societal issues keep on changing from time to time.

Global responsibility in terms of international law is the duty to respond in case of violation of laws. (Baripedia). Global responsibility of a nation is directly proportional to the national issues concerned. For example: The building of Buddha Circuit in Uttar Pradesh is directly proportional to the rise of Buddhism in North east India, Bihar which serves as an electoral votebank for multiple political parties, this has led to people from different parts of world coming & visiting the circuit which has changed India’s position of global Buddhism very significantly.

Global responsibility also means the nation states tries to follow a set of responsibilities which has been set up in the world by either moral values or some shared values which are cherished by world. The liberalists in the international relations believe that it’s the duty of the nation to stay & fulfil some of their responsibilities towards the globe. The global responsibility of nations in the liberalist world view also includes the utmost respect towards human rights, climate issues, feminism among many other agendas which cannot be maintained within a geographical boundary. Hence the adoption of agendas like Climate change in the COP-26 summit is the arrival of green theory on the world stage as it has virtually made it a compulsion for nation states to save environment and keep it as a prominent topic of discussion while formulating international relations framework. (Introduction to InternationalRelations & Diplomacy 87,88,40,50: United nations website).

The best example when states showed their global responsibility from an realist scholar view point was behind the formation of the United Nations Committee of fighting terrorism, which was also based on global responsibility to maintain peace in world. However this arrangement was based looking into the realist

Another point of view who wanted to keep an international enforcement agency which agrees to the common point of maintaining peace & action against terrorism is taken accordingly hence pushing states to adopt some aspects which fight terrorism in an uniform manner which depends upon states.(UN Geneva convention)

However, if the opinion of a few select scholars mainly from the English school of thinking is to be considered there cannot be fixed set of values which can be achieved upon as the international “system” is always in a constant state of change &  anarchy where one cannot come at a genuine conclusion. The identification and solutions to global problems is at the forefront of International Relations and Diplomacy theory, the common problems of humanity give different versions of global responsibility and which responsibility should be prioritized is also a question as well as a bone of contention among scholars which will ultimately lead to a different definition of global responsibilities, hence what is a global responsibility is always contentious and a hotly debated topic. (Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 22,23,24,2526,33,40,44,45,46,47,48,50,87,88,93).

Therefore since there is no single definition of global responsibility of a nation & when it is varying from country to country it depends on what is the nation’s national interest first which will impact its global responsibility in a multi-dimensional way. Similarly in the world as of now there has been no sacred elements of global responsibility defined for a country. For example: A feminist will define global responsibility of a nation as one which takes women rights into the top account in an international relations perspective, a realist will bat for national security as the first point of an international relations policy. (Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 87,88,40,50)

However, given the diversity of global challenges the world faces its extremely pragmatic to conclude that there will be a set of definition that will apply to global responsibility, also in the current time where the world is increasingly polarised between ideologies there is no single component of global responsibility that a country will accept willingly or unwillingly. Hence there is no set of defined global responsibility in world order that one has to follow which makes states to follow their own version of global responsibility which comes out of their national interest.

Hence global responsibility of a country is that issue which is extremely debatable between nations. How a country views its global responsibility largely from the lens of their nation circumstances which frames as states believe if their nation is not existent then how can it fulfill its global responsibility, hence there is always national interest which is given importance global responsibility & subsequently its attitude towards world at large. For example: India’s inability to convert the short term gain achieved in the India Sri Lanka Accord was also an indicator on which issues did Indian policymakers make big mistakes whose impact was seen in the future on India’s responsibility towards Sri Lanka in 1990’s & the early 2000’s. This also determined India’s policy towards the island nation which further impacted its global responsibility. (Stuenkel, India: the next superpower?: Indias nationalinterests and diplomatic activism: towards global leadership?,LSE online.)

4. Examples

(a)India banned the export of rice varieties except for Basmati rice in the months which was done with effect from 9 September 2022 which was done to control the rates of food inflation & WPI (Wholesale Price Index) which is necessary for the maintaining economic security. This also means that there will be a food shortage esp. of rice in countries of middle east hence we have seen how India has adopted national interest of economic security over global responsibility. (Mishra,Livemint)

(b) India gave a strong rebuttal to the USA led human rights panels on its biased reports on Jammu Kashmir. This led to a confrontation between the Government of India & some politicians of USA who said India has abandoned its duty towards human rights. As an Indian first, many Indian social media users gave strong worded replies & called out their hypocrisy on various platforms. This also means when there is an issue related to territorial integrity & people not having any locus standi comment then the political parties unite against such a person.

(c) When USA threw & detained 100’s of accused terrorists from Afghanistan into Guantanamo Bay, it was accused of committing serious human rights violation &  when the UN team wanted to investigate the same they were not allowed in as it was viewed as interference into another country’s internal affairs. (Frankfurter, ACLU)

5.Research methodology used:

The research paper is titled as “National Interest vs Global responsibility: what should a country choose”. The objective of the paper is to understand 2 things, which are understanding how national interest impacts global responsibility & why in the world currently the nations are likely to follow their national interest while framing policy of international relations. The research methodology adopted by the researcher is secondary data. Ontology method has been used. The data has been collected from various sources from research papers, journals, newspapers like the Hindu & new Indian to further make the debate more comprehensive. The data analysis was done using the concept of phenomenology & linking the data which is taught in economics. The data pertaining is analysed using econometrics & qualitative economics study.

6. Conclusion:

The conclusion that we can infer from the entire literature is 3 fold one is, national interest determines the international relation policy & global responsibility, diplomatic policy which defines the global responsibility, two nations have historically adopted national interest over global responsibility & have not shied away to prefer national interest over global responsibility in multiple cases, third a nation should adopt national interest over global responsibility.Hence a country while framing international relations policy framework should undoubtedly adopt national interest over global responsibility.

7. References: 

(Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy : Concepts)

(Krotz)

 (Markelu)

(Masters)

(Bhattacharya)

(Mishra)

(‘We too have views about Human Rights issues in the United States’: How

Dr S Jaishankar hit back on USA’s criticism of India)

(Sood)

(Jaishankar)

(Stunekel)

(Shukla)

(UNO )