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{{Short description|Chapter that sets out the UN Security Council’s powers to maintain peace}}{{wikisource|Charter of the United Nations#Chapter VII – Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression}}Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council’s powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take military and nonmilitary action to “restore international peace and security”.

Rationale

The UN Charter’s prohibition of member states of the UN attacking other UN member states is central to the purpose for which the UN was founded in the wake of the destruction of World War II: to prevent war. This overriding concern is also reflected in the Nuremberg Trials’ concept of a crime against peace “starting or waging a war against the territorial integrity, political independence or sovereignty of a state, or in violation of international treaties or agreements” (crime against peace), which was held to be the crime that makes all war crimes possible.Chapter VII also gives the Military Staff Committee responsibility for strategic coordination of forces placed at the disposal of the UN Security Council. It is made up of the chiefs of staff of the five permanent members of the Council. Otherwise, that chapter is used when the UNSC is authorizing either a member state or a coalition of the willing to act nationally or through regional organizations to address this threat – if necessary with all necessary measures, including the use of outright force. The phrase ‘all necessary measures’ is to be taken literally. Any military action performed through land, air, and sea forces is specifically allowed (UN Charter Article 42). Such action could entail troop deployment, the enforcement of a no-fly-zone, even the use of aerial bombardment.Johannes Scherzinger, ’Acting under Chapter 7’: rhetorical entrapment, rhetorical hollowing, and the authorization of force in the UN security council, 1995–2017, International Relations, March 25, 2022.

Historical background

The United Nations was established after World War II and the ultimate failure of diplomacy despite the existence of the League of Nations in the years between the First and Second World War. The Security Council was thus granted broad powers through Chapter VII as a reaction to the failure of the League.Krisch, Nico, and Frowein. The Charter Of The United Nations – A Commentary. New York, NY: C.H. Beck Verlag, 2002. These broad powers allow it to enjoy greater power than any other international organization in history. It can be argued that the strong executive powers granted to it give it the role of ‘executive of the international community’Dupuy,P.-M.,’the Constitutional Dimension of the Charter of the United Nations Revisited’,Max Planck UNYB 1 (1997), pp.21–4. or even of an ‘international government’.Morgenthau, H., Politics among nations (1948), p.380.The covenant of the League of Nations provided, for the first time in history, enforcement of international responsibilities (i.e. adhering to the Covenant of the League of Nations) through economic and military sanctions. Member states were also obliged, even without prior decision by the council to take action against states that acted unlawfully in the eyes of the League’s Covenant.Schükling, W./Wehberg, H., Die Satzung des Völkerbundes (2nd edn., 1924), Art. 16, pp. 623–7; Ruzié, pp. 63–5; Cavaré RGDIP, p. 650. This meant that the peace process was largely dependent on the willingness of member states, because the Covenant of the League of Nations did not provide binding decisions; The Council of the League was only responsible for recommending military force. As well as this, Article 11 paragraph 1 of the Covenant states:This can be seen as an authorization of the use of force and other enforcement measures, however, states repeatedly insisted that this did not make decisions by the League binding.Schückling/Wehberg, supra, fn. 3, p. 469; Yepes, J.M./da Silva, P. Commentaire théorique et pratique du Pacte de la Société des Nations et des statuts de l’Union Panaméricaine, ii (1935), Art. XI, pp. 9, 41–5.This resulted in an unprecedented will by both the powers at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and the states present at the San Francisco Conference to submit to a central organ like that of the Security Council. Despite long debate over whether the General Assembly should also have power over decisions made by the Security Council, it was eventually decided by a large majority voteCommn. III, Cttee. C, Session of May 15, 1945, UNCIO XII, pp. 325–7, Doc. 355 III/3/17: the proposal of New Zealand with 22:4 votes, of Mexico with 23:7, and of Egypt with 18:12 that the Security Council should maintain its executive power because, as the major powers emphasized, a strong executive organ would be needed for the maintenance of world peace. This emphasis was advocated in particular by the Chinese representative, recalling the powerlessness of the League during the Manchuria Crisis.cf. Commn. III, Cttee. 3, Session of May 14, 1945, UNCIO XII, pp. 316–17, Doc. 320 III/3/15.

Article 41 and Article 42

Articles 41 and 42 jointly establish the right of the Security Council to arrange for the use of both non-armed (Article 41) and armed (Article 42) measures to put its decisions into effect.Article 41:Article 42:

Chapter VII Resolutions

Most Chapter VII resolutions (1) determine the existence of a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression in accordance with Article 39, and (2) make a decision explicitly under Chapter VII. However, not all resolutions are that explicit, there is disagreement about the Chapter VII status of a small number of resolutions. As a reaction to this ambiguity, a formal definition of Chapter VII resolutions has recently been proposed:Chapter VII resolutions are very rarely isolated measures. Often the first response to a crisis is a resolution demanding the crisis be ended. This is only later followed by an actual Chapter VII resolution detailing the measures required to secure compliance with the first resolution. Sometimes dozens of resolutions are passed in subsequent years to modify and extend the mandate of the first Chapter VII resolution as the situation evolves.WEB,www.pcr.uu.se/publications/UCDP_pub/Chapter%20VII%20Resolutions_050921.pdf, UN Security Council Chapter VII resolutions, 1946–2002 – An Inventory, 21 September 2005, Uppsala: Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Patrik, Johansson, 2006-08-02,www.pcr.uu.se/publications/UCDP_pub/Chapter%20VII%20Resolutions_050921.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20051216132341www.pcr.uu.se/publications/UCDP_pub/Chapter%20VII%20Resolutions_050921.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20051216132341www.pcr.uu.se/publications/UCDP_pub/Chapter%20VII%20Resolutions_050921.pdf, 2005-12-16, dead, The list of Chapter VII interventions includes:

• United Nations Security Council Resolution 82 (Korea)
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 (Afghanistan)
• United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor
• United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone
• United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda
• United Nations Angola Verification Mission II
• United Nations Operation in Somalia II
• United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
• United Nations Protection Force (former Yugoslavia)
• Oil-for-Food Programme (Iraq)
• United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 (Gulf War)
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 (Libya)
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 502 (Argentina)
• Special Tribunal for Lebanon
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 2699 (Haiti)

See also Timeline of United Nations peacekeeping missions, some of which were created under the authority of Chapter VI rather than VII.

Article 51: Self-defence

Article 51 provides for the right of countries to engage in self-defence, including collective self-defence, against an armed attackWEB, Essays, UK,www.ukessays.com/services/samples/distinction-law-essay.php?vref=1, Law Essay on Article 51 of the UN Charter, UKEssays.com, November 2018, 4 November 2019, Nottingham, UK, JOURNAL, Kunz, Josef L., October 1947, Individual and Collective Self-Defense in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations,www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/individual-and-collective-selfdefense-in-article-51-of-the-charter-of-the-united-nations/6503C6622F31575AB631D5C7E02DBF70, American Journal of International Law, en, 41, 4, 872–879, 10.2307/2193095, 2193095, 147368567, 0002-9300, and was included during the San Francisco Conference in 1945.BOOK, 10.1017/CBO9780511779527, ‘Armed Attack’ and Article 51 of the UN Charter, 2010, Ruys, Tom, 978-0-511-77952-7,

Usage by sovereign countries

{{section expansion needed|date=March 2022}}According to a study by researchers at Harvard Law School, between 1945 and 2018, UN Member States submitted 433 communications to the Security Council of measures taken in purported exercise of the right of self-defense.JOURNAL, Quantum of Silence,pilac.law.harvard.edu/quantum-of-silence, 2023-08-08, HLS PILAC, 2019, en-US, 10.54813/azzk2231, Lewis, Dustin, Modirzadeh, Naz, Blum, Gabriella, This article was the impetus for much international pact-making and has been cited by the United States as support for the Nicaragua case, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the legality of the Vietnam War, as well as by many other countries. According to that argument, “although South Vietnam is not an independent sovereign State or a member of the United Nations, it nevertheless enjoys the right of self-defense, and the United States is entitled to participate in its collective defense”.www.benferencz.org/arts/8.html" title="web.archive.org/web/20080509063049www.benferencz.org/arts/8.html">War Crimes Law And The Vietnam War, Benjamin B. Ferencz, The American University Law Review, Volume 17, Number 3, June 1968. Another aspect is if the right of self-defense still exists if the UN Security Council has taken measures to deal with the conflict.WEB, Halberstam, Malvina, 1996, 1996, The right to self defense once the security council takes actions,core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232702197.pdf, Michigan Journal of International Law, 229–230, There are contradictory opinions whether this right still exists once the Security Council has taken action. Article 51 has been described as difficult to adjudicate with any certainty in real-life.{{citation|url=http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/hjlpp25§ion=32|volume=25|publisher=Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y|pages=539|date=2001–2002|title=Fog of Law: Self-Defense, Inherence, and Incoherence in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, The|author=Glennon, Michael J.}}In a letter to the UN Security Council requesting military intervention in Yemen, Yemen’s President Hadi invoked Article 51.NEWS, Is the Saudi war on Yemen legal?,www.refworld.org/docid/552397594.html, The New Humanitarian, 3 April 2015, The United States used Article 51 to justify the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against an Iran-backed militia group.NEWS, At U.N., U.S. justifies killing Iranian commander as self-defense,www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-usa-un-idUSKBN1Z809Q, Reuters, 9 January 2020, The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has notoriously cited Article 51 in a speech to justify the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and escalation of the war in Donbas.

References

{{reflist}}{{UN Security Council}}{{UN Charter}}