This work is a descriptive or diagnostic investigation, applied, with materials and qualitative information of a socio-legal nature, with which, it is intended to know, demonstrate, assess and identify real problems and situations that have been presented to the UN and International Law Humanitarian.
Scientific questions that help research and development are also asked, reaching various final conclusions on the subject in question, as there is a relationship between the two organizations; that they are important for armed conflict; that this International Law has been violated by some countries such as the United States and Israel; that the UN is important for International Humanitarian Law.
Introduction
From the very origin of human life in society, war has existed as its own phenomenon. Considering the great suffering that armed conflict causes, especially to the most unprotected categories of people; Man has seen the need to limit the ravages caused by war, through regulations that the parties to the conflict must respect in the conduct of hostilities and that constitute a last resort of rationality.
This is how international humanitarian law (IHL) emerges, as that set of international rules, of customary or conventional origin, which aim to protect people and their property affected by internal or international armed conflicts, and limit the methods and means of combat.
It is “a pragmatic and realistic right, which has always acted as a factor of balance between two forces: the fulfillment of military objectives and the requirements of humanity. It is in the light of this historical experience that the evolution and development of this branch of International Law will take place ”.
Development
How did the UN and International Humanitarian Law arise?
To understand what the UN is, its role, and what role it plays in International Humanitarian Law, it is necessary to establish some concepts and the origins of both institutions.
According to the Dictionary of Humanitarian Action and Development Cooperation: International Humanitarian Law: A set of norms, of conventional or customary origin, applicable in armed conflicts, international or not, which is why it is also called “law of armed conflict” or “law from the war". Its purpose is to alleviate the suffering of the victims, and to protect them and the essential assets for their survival, thereby limiting the freedom of the contenders when choosing their methods and means of warfare.
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) was born in the 19th century, following the Battle of Solferino, in 1859. The Swiss businessman Henry Dunant, moved by the high number of victims, formulated in his work A memory of Solferino (1862) two proposals that would have a fertile development: a) that each country constitute a voluntary relief society and b) that the states ratify “a conventional international principle” guaranteeing legal protection for military hospitals and medical personnel. As a consequence, soon after, in 1864, the first Convention was adopted to improve the lot of the military wounded in the campaign, with which the written IHL was born.
"Armed conflict" under international humanitarian law?
The States Parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions entrusted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), through the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, “to work for the understanding and dissemination of international law humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts and to prepare its eventual development »Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, art. 5.2.g..
For this reason, the ICRC takes this opportunity to present the current legal opinion on the definition of "international armed conflict" and "non-international armed conflict", according to international humanitarian law (IHL), a branch of international law governing conflict. armed.
IHL makes a distinction between two types of armed conflict, namely:
- International armed conflicts, in which two or more States face each other, and Non-international armed conflicts, between governmental forces and non-governmental armed groups, or between those groups only.
IHL treaty law also makes a distinction between non-international armed conflicts within the meaning of Article 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and non-international armed conflicts as defined in Article 1 of Additional Protocol II.
Origin of the UN
The name "United Nations", coined by the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used on January 1, 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations approved the "Declaration of the United Nations ”, by virtue of which their respective governments promised to continue fighting together against the powers of the AXIS.
The forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations, an organization conceived under similar circumstances during the First World War and established in 1919, in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, "to promote international cooperation and achieve peace and security".
Also within the framework of the Treaty of Versailles, the International Labor Organization was created as an affiliated body to the League of Nations. The League of Nations ceased its activity by failing to prevent the Second World War.
In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, to draft the Charter of the United Nations. Delegates deliberated on the basis of proposals prepared by the representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States at Dumbarton Oaks, United States, between August and October 1944.
The Charter was signed on June 26, 1945 by the representatives of the 50 countries. Poland, which was not represented, later signed it and became one of the 51 Founding Member States.
The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, after the Charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and most other signatories. United Nations Day is celebrated every year on that date.
What relationship exists between them?
In 1949, when the Geneva Conventions were adopted, no mention was made of the question of their applicability by the United Nations. Although the States are parties to the Conventions, the obligations that a State can assume are different from the obligations that an international organization can assume.
The United Nations International Conference on Human Rights held in Tehran in 1968, which recognized the need to protect human rights in all circumstances, marked the beginning of greater use of IHL by that organization.
Since then, the United Nations has exercised the function of codification and promotion of IHL with the impulse of the 1977 Protocols and the 1980 Geneva Convention on Prohibitions or restrictions on the use of certain conventional weapons that may be considered excessively harmful or of indiscriminate effects.
In this regard, Protocol I provides that, in cases of serious violations of the Conventions or the Protocol, the Contracting Parties undertake to act, in cooperation with the United Nations and in accordance with the Charter.
The UN's oversight function with respect to IHL has been carried out through the inclusion in its peace operations of supervision mandates of this right. Likewise, although the United Nations is not a Party to the Geneva Conventions, since they are not a State, the actions in self-defense by its troops, the Blue Helmets, are limited by another general principle of international law, such as that of proportionality in the use of force.
Another sign of the UN's concern about the observance of IHL is in the approximation between the concept of international peace and security, and that of compliance with IHL. In this sense, numerous Security Council resolutions adopted in the last decade of the 19th century require the observance of IHL in order to achieve and maintain international peace and security.
In this order of things, the Security Council established the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, in order to try those responsible for serious violations of IHL.
Finally, some factors that have contributed to the growth of interest in this branch of law since the early 1990s should be highlighted:
a) the adherence of the vast majority of States in the international community to the Geneva Conventions;
b) the estimate that IHL played a positive role in the 1991 Gulf War;
c) the increase in information on conflicts, which has promoted public and general knowledge of their violation;
d) raising awareness of the problem of antipersonnel mines;
e) the establishment by the United Nations Security Council of the Courts for the former Yugoslavia (1993) and for Rwanda (1994); and
f) the approval of the Statute of the international criminal court in 1998. J. Ab.
How important are they to armed conflict?
International law is one of the most important issues for the United Nations right now. The mandate on activities in this field comes from the Charter of the United Nations, whose preamble establishes the objective of "creating conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations emanating from treaties and other sources of international right".
To determine the relationship between the UN and International Humanitarian Law, one should also refer to said letter:
Chapter I: Purposes and Principles: art 1.3, it is proposed that international cooperation should be carried out in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian nature, and in the development and encouragement of respect for human rights and freedoms fundamental to all, without distinction based on race, sex, language or religion.
Chapter VII: Actions in case of threats to peace, breaches of the peace or acts of aggression: art 43, all members of the United Nations, in order to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security, undertake to make available to the Security Council, upon request, and in accordance with a special agreement or with special agreements, the armed forces, aid and facilities, including the right of way, that are necessary for the purpose of maintaining the international peace and security.
Said agreement or agreements shall fix the number and class of the forces, their degree of preparation and their general location, as well as the nature of the facilities and the aid to be given.
Chapter IX: International Economic and Social Cooperation: art 55c, with the purpose of creating the conditions of stability and well-being necessary for peaceful and friendly relations between nations, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and that of free determination of peoples, the Organization will promote: universal respect for human rights and the fundamental freedoms of all, without making distinctions based on race, sex, language or religion, and the effectiveness of such rights and freedoms.
The UN has also created international organizations and instruments such as:
The International Law Commission) was established by virtue of General Assembly resolution 174 (II) of November 21, 1947; the Statute as an annex defines the mandate of the Commission. Its main objective was designated "to promote the progressive development of International Law and its codification" (article 1 of the Statute).
The Statute has been amended by the General Assembly several times; the updated text, included in document A / CN.4 / 4 / Rev.2 (Sales number: 82.V.8).
Convention on the imprescriptibility of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which was approved by the General Assembly in 1968 and entered into force two years later, in which States undertook to abolish the requirements of punishment and criminal action on these crimes. In 1972 the Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and storage of biological and toxic weapons and on their destruction was created, in 1993 the prohibition of bacteriological weapons, and in 1995 on blinding laser weapons.
Another was the Treaty for the total prohibition of Antipersonnel Mines, approved in Ottawa, Canada, in early December 1997 with opposition from the United States, China and Russia. The agreement includes a commitment to no longer manufacture or use these mines or allow anyone to use them in its territory, and contemplates the destruction of all mines within four years and the neutralization of minefields within ten years., term that can only be extended for technical reasons.
As long as the objective of obtaining unanimous respect for the right to peace is not achieved, the action developed to enforce the norms of humanitarian law in the event of armed conflicts constitutes the most effective way to ensure respect for human rights in those extreme circumstances.
In armed conflicts, both the UN and IHL play an important role, starting from the analysis of the role of IHL; The purpose of International Humanitarian Law has been to limit the suffering caused by armed conflicts, providing, as far as possible, protection and assistance to the victims of those conflicts.
In this way, IHL establishes rules to assist and protect people who do not take part in hostilities: the civilian population that suffers the consequences of the fighting, the wounded, the sick, and prisoners or detained people. Likewise, it seeks the solution of the problems that arise directly from armed conflicts, international or not, and limit, for humanitarian reasons, the right of the parties to the conflict to use the methods and means of their choice to make war or protect people and property affected or that may be affected by the conflict.
In the four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols we can more clearly appreciate their objectives, functions and historical development.
We can see the role of the UN in war again if we turn to its letter in Chapter I: Purposes and Principles.
Art 1: Maintain international peace and security, and to that end: take effective collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to peace, and to suppress acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace; and to achieve by peaceful means, and in accordance with the principles of justice and international law, the adjustment or settlement of international controversies or situations that may lead to breaches of the peace.
Chapter VI: Pacific Settlement of Disputes. Art 33. The parties to a controversy whose continuation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security shall seek to find a solution to it, first and foremost through negotiation, investigation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, recourse to regional bodies or agreements, or other peaceful means of your choice.
The Security Council, if it deems it necessary, will urge the parties to settle their disputes by said means. Art 36. The Security Council may, in any state in which a controversy of the nature referred to in Article 33 or a situation of a similar nature is found, recommend the appropriate adjustment procedures or methods.
Chapter VII: Action in Case of Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace or Acts of Aggression. Art. 39. The Security Council will determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression and will make recommendations or decide what measures will be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42 to maintain or restore peace and international security. Art. 42. If the Security Council considers that the measures referred to in Article 41 may be inadequate or have proven to be so, it may exercise, by means of air, naval or land forces, the action that is necessary to maintain or restore the international peace and security.
Such action may include demonstrations, blockades and other operations carried out by air, naval or ground forces of Members of the United Nations. Art 51. Nothing in this Charter shall impair the immanent right of individual or collective self-defense in the event of an armed attack against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken the necessary measures to maintain peace and international security.
The measures taken by the Members in exercise of the right of self-defense will be immediately communicated to the Security Council, and will not affect in any way the authority and responsibility of the Council under this Charter to exercise at any time the action it deems necessary with the in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Also in the UN Peace Operations we can see a link between these two institutions. The complexity of the new missions has caused a considerable increase in cases in which the blue helmets have been involved in situations of violence; consequently, the issue of the application of international humanitarian law vis-à-vis the UN forces has become especially important and deserves to be analyzed from different points of view.
We can start from the concept of Peace Operations that Felipe Henríquez Palma offers us in his winning work of the Monograph Contest on international humanitarian law, “Gustave Moynier” Prize, organized in Chile by the ICRC regional delegation for the Southern Cone. According to the aforementioned author, Peace Operations is that operational deployment developed with the consent of the parties to the conflict, in order to supervise and help to maintain ceasefires, to keep enemy forces separate and, in this way, make possible the withdrawal of troops and facilitate negotiations on a final settlement of the controversy in question.
These operations have been losing their purely military character and day by day they have been incorporating a greater number of civilians, to carry out political and administrative tasks. In the last decade, more Peace Operations have been carried out than in the previous forty years and the work of these missions has included increasingly ambitious tasks, including electoral assistance, humanitarian assistance, state administration services, democracy promotion and protection of human rights, among others.
These are the so-called second-generation OMPs, which, although they have not completely displaced the first-generation ones, have become increasingly prominent.
This is a new type of operation, the purpose of which is to build peace and restore law and order in countries devastated by war and destruction. Parallel to the OMP, there are the Peace Restoration Operations (ORP), which have a combat mission emanating from Chapter VII and are carried out by the UN, a State, group of States or regional organizations, on the based on the invitation of the State concerned or the authorization of the Security Council.
How and where has International Humanitarian Law been violated in this century?
Although IHL was born to help the parties to the war, there have been serious violations of it, so it is our duty to denounce these violations, and fight for justice to be done in favor of those who cannot express their pain, or that their words are vetoed for being exploited and not exploiters. Here are some reliable examples of the 21st century published by different Cuban mass media:
Israel Violates International Humanitarian Law.
In flagrant violation of International Humanitarian Law, the Zionist army indiscriminately bombards the civilian population and uses weapons, such as white phosphorous, banned by the United Nations almost three decades ago. Press agencies from various parts of the world report on the indiscriminate use of prohibited weapons and the serious burns suffered by Palestinian civilians due to the white phosphorous bombs dropped by Israel on Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli experts do not deny the use of this type of incendiary substance, but justify that it is used to support the advance of the Zionist army. The Geneva Convention of October 10, 1980, in its Protocol III, explicitly prohibits and restricts in all circumstances attacking civilians or property of that nature with incendiary weapons.
Attacks on civil and religious property also add to the Israeli strategy during the military operations in Gaza. Since the start of the attacks, a Mosque and three schools have been destroyed by indiscriminate shelling, while part of the economic and social infrastructure has been left in ruins.
Note that this is not the first time that Israel has used prohibited weapons. In its wars it has used cluster bombs, napalm bombs, and depleted uranium shells. The wounded have also been prevented from receiving medical assistance and medicines and help from various countries around the world.
Main violations of IHL committed by the United States Government in its wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the first place, do not observe the principle of distinction, by which civilians and civilian objects will not be the object of attacks, which will only be directed against military objectives. Every day we come across figures and images of wounded, dead, displaced people, subjected to all kinds of mistreatment and acts of violence, of cities and towns that have been attacked with the justification of capturing hypothetical terrorist leaders.
“In general, they violate the various norms contained in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The images of the captured, tortured, abused, and of the physical and psychological consequences suffered by those who have managed to leave the concentration camps are still latent. What to say about the damage caused to the cultural heritage of those countries, the destruction and looting of works of art, and even of facilities, museums and other architectural works considered world heritage sites! "It would be endless to list them all, but remember that these excesses also violate the Hague Law on the conduct of hostilities, and the millennial Martens Clause, introduced in the preamble to the IV Convention on the Laws and Customs of the War, approved in The Hague on October 18, 1907,which establishes that “while a more complete code of the laws of war is being formed, the High Contracting Parties consider it appropriate to declare that, in cases not included in the regulatory provisions adopted by them, the populations and the belligerents remain under the guarantee and the regime of the principles of the Law of Peoples recommended by the established uses among civilized nations, by the laws of humanity and by the requirements of the public convention. ”the populations and the belligerents remain under the guarantee and the regime of the principles of the Law of Peoples recommended by the established uses among the civilized nations, by the laws of humanity and by the requirements of the public convention. ”the populations and the belligerents remain under the guarantee and the regime of the principles of the Law of Peoples recommended by the established uses among the civilized nations, by the laws of humanity and by the requirements of the public convention. ”
The United States signed the Four Conventions mentioned above, but not their Additional Protocols. "In its eagerness to impose its imperial hegemony, it tries to circumvent any international legal instrument that affects its interests, which is why its main leaders and advisers try to make reinterpretations and resort to the terms of" enemy combatants "," terrorists ", etc., with the battered justification for the fight against terrorism and the sacrosanct National Security of the United States. ”
Other wars in which the power totally and flagrantly failed to comply with the rules of IHL
The imperialist war against the heroic people of Vietnam, the war of the Balkans against the former Yugoslavia, within cultured Europe, and the so-called Gulf War in Iraq. Underlying all these international armed conflicts, sometimes poorly disclosed, are the catastrophic consequences caused to the environment and the consequences suffered by thousands of people due to the use of toxic, bacteriological and depleted uranium substances, in violation of long-standing international instruments. ”
The economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba as a violator of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
The blockade violates the fundamental principles and rights contained in International Law as well as the most elementary principles of IHL The economic blockade is applied in violation not only of ID and Cuban national sovereignty, but also in brutal violation of the right to life, well-being and the development of the population without distinction of age, sex, race, religious beliefs, social status or political ideas.
The blockade has caused serious damages to the national economy and, in doing so, it has caused very sensitive and considerable damages to the Cuban population throughout several generations. This makes us consider it an act of genocide, since it intentionally subjects our people to conditions of existence that can lead to their total or partial physical destruction, a crime that was included in the Rome Statute as a matter of competence of the International Criminal Court.
The aforementioned statute also recognizes the crime of Extermination, which in one of its typologies establishes it as the intentional imposition of living conditions, the deprivation of access to food, medicine, etc., aimed at causing the destruction of part of the population. All these crimes are in violation of ID and within this, especially, of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
Why is the UN important for International Humanitarian Law?
I believe that the role of the UN for International Humanitarian Law is of vital importance.
As the maximum exponent for the protection of world peace and representative of 192 countries, it has among its ranks a group of institutions that safeguard and ensure that the principles of International Humanitarian Law are complied with and the rights acquired through so many years are not violated. of wars and armed conflicts. The UN should play a more leading role in the face of these phenomena that cause so much damage to cultural institutions, civilians, their families and the personnel involved in the conflicts.
Today more than ever, when some powers think they own the world, the UN needs to play its role and say no to these crimes, and assert its global power. The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have to punish all those who play with the future of the world. The Security Council needs to be more inclusive and democratic and more representative of the interests of world peace, serving less the United States and its powers. The General Assembly and its resolutions, even if they are not binding, have to be more energetic and attack all symptoms of favoritism and corruption.
The UN, through its countless bodies, must constantly feed on all the violations of IHL that occur and publicly denounce them before the world and thus exercise its role as guarantor of peace, world security and economic and social progress. International Humanitarian Law without the support of the UN would be like a plant without water, a city without people, or a painter without a brush.
Conclusions
By way of conclusion we can say that International Humanitarian Law arose and evolved for the good of humanity, and although it has needed major events to increase the protection of property and individuals, its role has been vital for the belligerent parties.
The relationship between the UN and IHL has been demonstrated, emphasizing the importance that both have for armed conflicts, as well as the constant violations that have been used by a group of countries and especially the United States of America. to subdue those who do not comply with their designs.
This Law of War is little known by most people, and it is of utmost importance to increase its study and dissemination in order to be able to denounce the violations that are constantly carried out of this right.
Bibliography
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