Important Current Events

<strong>Answer:</strong> The <strong>United Nations Security Council (UNSC)</strong> is the principal crisis-management body of the United Nations (UN), empowered to impose binding obligations on the member states to maintain peace. The council’s <strong>five permanent and ten elected members</strong> meet regularly to assess threats to international security, including civil wars, natural disasters, arms proliferation, and terrorism, using tools granted under Chapter VI, VII of the UN Charter as well as peacekeeping missions. <strong>Effectiveness of these tools in managing conflicts:</strong> <ul> <li>The Security Council has authorized <strong>59 peacekeeping operations in the years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991,</strong> many responding to failing states, civil wars or complex humanitarian emergencies and deploying to conflict zones in the absence of cease fires or parties consent.</li> <li>Under more muscular mandates, they have<strong> combined military operations</strong> including less restrictive rules of engagement that allow for civilian and refugee protection <strong>with civilian tasks</strong> such as policing, electoral assistance and legal administration.</li> <li><strong>Regional organizations</strong> have played an increasingly important role in peacekeeping and conflict resolution, in some cases <strong>prodding the Council</strong> to action and in others <strong>acting as subcontractors</strong> on its behalf. For instance, the Council authorized the use of force in Libya in 2011 after the Arab League called for a no-fly zone, which NATO then executed.</li> <li>Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Security Council passed Resolution <strong>2532,</strong> which called for a <strong>90-day humanitarian pause in armed conflicts worldwide,</strong> with an exception for conflicts against designated terrorist groups.</li> </ul> However, there remain issues, which<strong> hamper its effectiveness in managing conflicts and maintaining global peace and security</strong> owing to various reasons like: <ul> <li><strong>Difficulty in functioning:</strong> For instance, during the Syrian conflict, Russia, sometimes joined by China, used its <strong>veto power</strong> nearly twenty times to block resolutions aimed at holding the Assad regime accountable for atrocities documented by UN sources.</li> <li><strong>Frequent use of sanctions:</strong> The sanctions target discrete economic and political matters and specific individuals deemed threats to international security. As of 2021, fourteen sanctions, listing more than 600 individuals and nearly 300 entities, are in place. <strong>Targeted sanctions have raised human rights concerns</strong> of their own.</li> <li><strong>Military force:</strong> Under the UN charter, members can only use force in self-defence or when they have obtained authorization from the Council. However, members and coalitions of countries have <strong>often used military force outside of these contexts.</strong> For instance, NATO’s 78-day air war in Kosovo.</li> <li><strong>Emergence of R2P:</strong> The emergence of the responsibility to protect (R2P) in the early 2000s signifies the failure of UNSC in managing the conflicts.</li> </ul> Therefore, the UNSC must be reformed to ensure inclusiveness of emerging global powers and maintain regional balance in decision making. Various concerns such as power dynamics, block within P5, encroaching on state sovereignty etc. need to be resolved on priority.