T10: International Organisations

1. Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the
United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security,
recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving
any changes to the UN Charter.

A. Composition
The UNSC consists of 15 members which are 5 permanent members and 10
non-permanent members. To date, the UNSC comprises 15 seats.

- Five are permanent and held by the so-called ‘P5’, consisting of the United
States (‘US’), the United Kingdom (‘UK’), France, Russia, and China. The P5
enjoys a privileged status not only by virtue of their permanency but also by
reason of special voting rights which is the veto power.
- The remaining ten are non-permanent Member States elected every two
years, with five replaced each year.

● History Behind the Composition of the SC

The establishment of the UNSC, and the very entity of the UN itself, was
necessitated by the unprecedented call for international peace. This was
especially so in hindsight of the catastrophic losses of life in World War II
(‘WW2’), where nations had come to a consensus that there was an
imperative need to have a functioning international organisation that
maintains international peace and security. The League of Nations (‘LoN’),
which was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation and held the
exact purpose of maintaining world peace, had failed exponentially in
preventing WW2.

Since then, only two notable changes have occurred within the composition of
the P5. First, the China seat was changed from the Nationalist Government to
the Chinese Community Party (‘CCP’) due to the Chinese Civil War. Second
was the change of the USSR seat to Russia due to the dissolution of the
former. Whereas, in terms of the non-permanent seats, following pressure
from the Non-Aligned Movement (‘NAM’) the UNSC which only had six
non-permanent members for its first two decades, had expanded to ten.
B. Functions & Powers
- Art. 24 (1) of the UN Charter, in order to ensure prompt and effective action by the
United Nations, its Members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility
for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in
carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their
behalf.
- Article 24(2) of the UN Charter further provides that such responsibilities are to be
discharged “in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations”.
As such, it cannot act arbitrarily and unfettered by any restraints.
- Article 25 of the UN Charter provides that the Members of the United Nations agree
to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the
present Charter. By virtue of this provision, it indicates that so long as the Security
Council has acted intra vires, the UN members are bound by its decisions.

● Votes by members of the UN Security Council

- Art. 27 (1) of the UNC, provides that each member of the Security Council shall
have one vote.
- Art. 27 (2) of the UNC, provides that decisions of the Security Council on procedural
matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members.
- Art. 27 (3) of the UNC, provides that decisions of the Security Council on all other
matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the
concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under
Chapter VI, and under paragraph 3 of Article 52, a party to a dispute shall abstain
from voting.
● Methods/ Means in Exercising Function of maintaining International Peace and
Security
The UN Security Council’s primary function, the maintenance of international peace
and security, is to be exercised by two means. First, the “peaceful settlement” of
international disputes, and secondly the taking of “enforcement action”, assuming
that the first one failed.

1. Peaceful settlement of disputes (Chapter VI of the UN Charter)

Chapter VII (Article 33 to 38) sets out the various means by which the
Security Council may assist in the settlement of disputes (mere disputes, not
actual fights in material time).

However, the disputes here only refer to those disputes which are “likely to
endanger international peace and security”.

With that said, personnel who have the right to submit disputes to the council
include:
- the General Assembly,
- the Secretary General,
- the Member States, and
- non-Member States.

As for legal disputes, it is a general rule to refer it to the International Court of

Justice by the parties.
2. Enforcement Action (Chapter VII of the UN Charter)
Chapter VII (Article 39 to 51) of the UN Charter provides for the enforcement
action of the UN Security Council in relation to ‘Threats to the Peace’,
‘Breaches of the Peace’, and ‘Acts of Aggression’.

- Art. 39 of the UNC, the Security Council shall determine the

existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of
aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what
measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to
maintain or restore international peace and security.

Put it in another way, the responsibilities of the Security Council under

Article 39 of UN Charter are twofold whereby:
a. Firstly, to determine the existence of a threat to the peace,
breach of peace, or act of aggression; and
b. Secondly, to make recommendations or decide on measures to
maintain or restore international peace and security.

However, there are two difficulties in the determination under this

article.
a. Firstly, the word “peace” must mean “international peace”
because if the Security Council intervenes in every single civil
strife, regardless of whether it is of international level or not, it
will be in contradiction to the intention of the Charter and also
the sovereignty of other States.
b. Secondly, it is the lack of definition of the terms in the Charter
such as threat to peace, breach of peace or act of aggression.
Therefore, to determine whether there exist such matters in
cases, the Security Council enjoys a broad discretionary
power.
● 2 Forms of Enforcement Actions
The Security Council usually has two forms of enforcement action available, namely
the action not involving the use of armed force and the action involving the use of
armed force.

1. Action not involving the Use of Armed Force

- Art. 41 of the UNC, the Security Council may decide what measures not
involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its
decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply
such measures.

These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and

of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication,
and the severance of diplomatic relations.

I. Sanctions against Southern Rhodesia, in this incident, Southern

Rhodesia was sanctioned for its apartheid policies. To elaborate, by
virtue of 11 votes with 4 abstentions (refusal to vote), the UN Security
Council declared an international embargo upon Rhodesia. As a
result, 122 Member States of the UN were forbidden from selling oil,
arms, motor vehicles, aeroplanes, or any form of financial and
economic aid to Southern Rhodesia.
II. Sanctions against South Africa, in this incident, Southern Africa was
also sanctioned for its apartheid policies. On the 4th of November
1977, the 15 members of the UN Security Council had unanimously
agreed to adopt the Resolution 418 which imposes a mandatory arms
embargo against South Africa.
2. Action involving the Use of Armed Force
- Art. 42 of the UNC, if the Security Council considers that measures provided
for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may
take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain
or restore international peace and security. Such action may include
demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of
Members of the United Nations.

- Nevertheless, it is important to note here that the enforcement actions under

Chapter VII of the UN Charter is substantive (on opinion of the party in
dispute) in nature. In other words, there must be unanimity or abstention from
all the non-permanent and permanent members (the Big 5) for such action to
pass, as per Art. 27(3) of the UNC.

During Cold War

I. Korean War in 1950, in this incident, 16 Member State of the UN had
sent armed forces into Korea to aid them in resolving war issues so as
to restore peace, and such acts of the Member States were done
upon measures suggested by the UN Security Councils, after the
unanimous agreement of the members of such Council therein.

After Cold War

I. The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, it was unanimously agreed by the
members of the UN Security Council that such incidents have
breached international peace and security. Thus, on the 9th of August
1990, the UN Security Council had adopted Resolution 662 which
deemed Iraq's act of merging to be null and void, and called upon all
UN State members not to recognise such annexation by Iraq. On the
3rd of April 1991, the UN Security Council had then by Resolution 687,
sent armies to Iraq in order to set the terms for a cease fire, and had
imposed harsh conditions on Iraq.
C. Instances of Abuse of Power
There is no shortage of tragedies caused by the abuse of power by the SC in the
exercise of their veto power. Much of which have been politically motivated at
protecting national interest, at the expense of global interest.

I. The Syrian Civil War, our international community has repeatedly witnessed
the strategic use of veto power by both Russia and China, a partnership now
termed as 'P2' within the UNSC, in shielding the Syrian government from
international accountability.

Critics have condemned both nations for acting in national interest at the
expense of global peace. Russia is alleged to have strategic interests in the
region through its historical ties with the Assad regime, thus seeking to
maintain the Syrian President's grip on power. Whereas China is alleged to be
acting on the fear of the rise of Islamist extremism. More specifically, ethnic
Uyghurs joining jihadist organisations.

II. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US has exercised its veto power at least
thirty-four times by October 2023 to block resolutions viewed as biased or
critical over their long-time ally, Israel. This is especially cynical, given the fact
that, at this point in time, there were only a total of thirty-six draft resolutions
related to the conflict since 1945.
D. Possible Reforms
It is unlikely that major reforms can be made.

a. One proposed change is to admit more permanent members. The candidates

usually mentioned are Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan. They comprise the
group of G4 nations, mutually supporting one another's bids for permanent
seats. The United Kingdom, France, Russia and the United States support G4
membership in the U.N. Security Council.

This sort of reform has traditionally been opposed by the Uniting for
Consensus group, which is composed primarily of nations who are regional
rivals and economic competitors of the G4.

b. The Noble World Foundation proposes that membership and veto power be
shifted from individual states to sovereignty-polling organisations, with the
European Union (EU) serving as a prime example.

This shift is consistent with the UNSC's established practice of selecting

non-permanent members based on regional representation. The goal of this
proposal is to improve the effectiveness and decision-making capabilities of
the UNSC. The EU's model of pooled sovereignty, which was strengthened by
a 1964 decision from the European Court of Justice affirming the superiority
of EU law over the national laws of member states, supports the idea that
regional organisations like the EU can qualify for UN membership. This
proposal implies that such a significant reform could be accomplished without
requiring amendments to the UN Charter