UN SECURITY COUNCIL'S DECISIONS TO INTERVENE

UN Security Council's Decisions to Intervene

UN Security Council's Decisions to Intervene

Introduction

The United Nations, established in 1945, endeavours “to provide peace, security, and justice.” Humanitarian intervention is among one of its ways to accomplish this end, which implies the “post hoc rationalization for uses of force otherwise difficult to reconcile with international law.” There is an agreement of UN on three principles of humanitarian intervention: use of military force, interference in the internal affairs of target state, and responds to crises where interests of states are not directly threatened. The UN refers to the Security Council so as to get the green light for the authorisation of military force. However, the decisions of United Nations Security Council on when and if to intervene, economically or militarily, in conflicts and humanitarian crises are profoundly influenced by the policy conceptualisations of its members. Individual members adopt policies based on a number of rationales including national interest (strategic and economic); the relationship with other states (as friend, rival or foe), economic, political and social pressures both domestic and international. The diplomatic representatives of states involved in SC debates are charged with presenting the policy position of their respective governments and justifying this position to the wider international community.

Recently, the UN Security Council has responded to the uprising in Syria; which started in mid-March 2011 when 'Arab Spring' protests instigated in Dera- a southern city of Syria. These protests called for political reform and for the liberation of political prisoners (Rafizadeh, 2011). In spite of government suppression and the insignificant reforms' enactment—for instance, the emergency lifting in April 2011—protests extend to other Syrian cities. The rising of armed rebellious groups, from about June 2011, indicated a new uprising phase. In 2013, the protests have still been continued, and, in Syria, the situation has more closely resembles a civil war. On 12 June 2012, the situation in Syria was described by Herve Ladsous- the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations as a 'civil war' (Charbonneau, 2012). The situation in Syria has been debated in the UNSC on at least six occasions (Harris, 2012). The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss the debate in the UNSC that led to the veto of draft resolution S/2012/77 by Russia and China. This paper will analyse five of the speeches made by the representatives of the SC members (USA, China, Russia and Syria) participating in the meeting so as to highlight how diplomacy is used to achieve desired goals.

Discussion

Background to the Issue

Over the course of two years, the crisis in Syria has transformed into large-scale demonstrations from isolated peaceful protests; the crisis has also led to the creation of the Free Syrian Army. With the escalation in intensity in protests and demonstrations, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has also escalated its retort from political activists' arrests to killings and torture on a massive scale. When in March 2011, the Syrian government started its clamp down against demonstrators, the Security Council was ...