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| 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)
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