International Judicial Monitor
Published by the International Judicial Academy, Washington, D.C., with assistance from the
American Society of International Law
Fall 2012 Issue
 

SPECIAL rEPORT

 

Ambassador Corell Sends Letter to United Nations Security Council Requesting the SC to Act in Syria and Other Areas of Conflict in Accordance with Its Obligations Under the UN Charter

Ambassador Hans Corell

Ambassador Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations for Legal Affairs and UN Legal Counsel, has written, in his personal capacity, to the Permanent Representatives of the members of the United Nations Security Council [United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia] and to the Permanent Representatives of the five States elected as members of the Council [Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, the Republic of Korea, and Rwanda] requesting that they attend to serious issues involving the rule of law and international conflict, rather than focus on the issue of “security council reform.”

In particular Ambassador Corell asks, in his November 22, 2012 letter, that the Security Council pay more attention to the continuing strife in Syria involving “grave international crimes”, rather than the issue of membership in the Security Council, and the expansion of the number of nations entitled to permanent seats on the Council.

Corell poses the question: “Could the tragedy in Syria have been avoided if the permanent members of the Security Council had taken the steps” suggested in his letter to the United Nations in 2008. In that letter he proposed a declaration to be adopted by Member States of the United Nations requiring the Security Council to recognize and “scrupulously adhere to the obligations under international law …laid down by the Charter of the United Nations.”[see text of proposed draft declaration elsewhere in this edition of the International Judicial Monitor.]

 

  

In particular he urged in the draft declaration that the Member States “take forceful action to intervene in situations when international peace and security are threatened by governments that seriously violate human rights or fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity....”

The November 2012 letter stated that:

The way in which the members of the Security Council…conduct themselves will be the determining factor in this global effort to establish the rule of law. The permanent members must lead the way by fully respecting their obligations and bow to the law and in particular to the Charter of the United Nations.

On the issue of expansion of the number of permanent members of the Security Council, Corell said that the issue was “problematic.” The reasons for this are that “there is a clear risk that an enlarged Council will make the UN charter system of collective security inoperable” and that “an extension of membership of the Council cannot be more important than that the present members fully respect the Charter that they are set to supervise.”

The text of the resolution drafted by Corell in 2008 for consideration by UN members appears elsewhere in this edition of the International Judicial Monitor.

 

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