Summary

International Relations Class 20

INDIA HAS NOT JOINED ICC (5:27 PM)

India was initially a member of the panel that negotiated the Rome Statute.
India objects to the omission of crimes such as cross-border terrorism, the use of nuclear weapons, and weapons of mass destruction(WMD) from its jurisdiction.
As a country, India is prone to insurgency, and militancy and has laws such as AFSPA that give extra-ordinary powers to its military.
By joining the ICC, India did not want to make its civilian and military personnel vulnerable to international jurisdiction.
ICC is expected to complement the national judicial system, but India believes that its domestic judicial system is competent enough to try any such individual if and when required.
On the ground of principle, India decided against joining the ICC.
The Rome Statute provides extraordinary power to the UNSC to bind non-members to the jurisdiction of the ICC.
However, the P5 countries are not necessarily bound to ICC's jurisdiction.
India believes it to be violative of the Vienna Convention of Laws of Treaties 1969.
The convention says that every sovereign nation is free to either join or not join any treaty.

Challenges faced by ICC:

The lack of an enforcement mechanism reduces the deterrence value of the ICC.
Therefore individuals convicted under ICC can overcome its judgement by taking over the government of their own country or by refusing to cooperate.
Important global powers are not members of the ICC, thereby raising questions about its effectiveness and legitimacy.
The ICC is often criticized as a tool of Western imperialism.
Barring some recent years, the ICC has generally investigated crimes by African leaders and their countries.
The African Union(AU) in 2016 endorsed a plan by Kenya for mass withdrawal of the African countries from the Rome Statute.
The ICC has shied away from taking on Western powers like the USA.
For instance, the previous attempt to start an investigation against the USA into the war crimes committed by the USA in Afghanistan did not materialize.
Because the then public prosecutor of the ICC was sanctioned by the Trump government.
Presently, the public prosecutor wanted to restart the investigation after the Taliban's takeover.
Because of a lack of resources, his office has chosen to investigate the war crimes by the Taliban alone.
In 20 years of existence, the IC has convicted only 10 individuals and has acquitted 4.
This raises questions on whether the time, effort and financial resources invested by the member states are worthwhile.

VARIOUS MECHANISMS UNDER THE UNO TO OBSERVE PEACE (6:00 PM)

Collective security.
Uniting for peace resolution/ Acheson Plan/ UNGA resolution 377 (5)
Peacekeeping operations.

Collective Security:

The theme is "One for all, all for one".
It calls for military action v/s the aggressor or perpetrator of the war.
The expectation is that in case of aggression by one country against the other, all the members will come together to punish the aggressor.
This is a utopian idea in the sense that it is unlikely that countries will forget their own differences for such a common action.
The right to operationalize collective security is given to the UNSC.
However, since the very beginning, the UNSC has been stuck in a state of a deadlock.
It has remained divided between P2 (China & Russia) & P3 (the USA, The UK & France).
Collective security could be operationalized during the first Gulf War in 1991.
In the early 1990's, the USSR had just disintegrated and its successor Russia was too weak to veto a resolution put forth by the USA.

Acheson Plan:

It suggests an alternative to operationalize collective security in case of a deadlock in the UNSC.
Under it, collective security can be operationalized if the UNGA passes a resolution supported by 2/3rd of its member countries.
However, since it would override the veto power of the P5 countries, the USSR did not support this proposal.
The USSR had joined the UN only when it was given the veto power.

UN Peace Keeping Operations:

It was the brainchild of the second UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.
Under it, the peacekeeping forces ( blue helmets) are deployed in the warring zones to bring an end to the ongoing hostilities.

Peace Keeping Operations	Collective Security
Civil action	Military action
Aim is ceasefire	The aim is to punish the aggressor
Consent of the warring parties is required	No such consent is required. Under it, the UNSC identifies the perpetrator of war

The PKOs have been very successful and in fact, they ensure the relevance of the UN.

CHALLENGES FACED BY THE UN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS (6:30 PM)

Changing nature of the conflicts:
The nature of the global conflicts has changed after the Cold War.
During the Cold War, inter-state wars were the primary global conflicts.
With the end of cold-war, intra-state wars have become more prevalent.
Unlike inter-state wars where the primary actors were nation states, in the case of intra-state wars, non-state actors are involved.
Therefore, these operations are becoming increasingly dangerous.
Developed v/s developing divide:
Developed countries are the primary financers of the PKOs, however, developing countries are the primary troop contributors.
The decision on the deployment of the UN peacekeeping missions is undertaken by UNSC.
Countries like India and Bangladesh have raised the demand for effective consultation with the troop-contributing countries.
The growing complexity of the operations:
The operations have changed from peace-keeping to peace-building.
From the range of the functions including maintaining ceasefire.
Local infrastructure building, running medical missions, providing community support and community resilience building, confidence building amongst the groups of people, etc.
Lack of resources:
UN PKOs face resource constraints like personnel, logistics, funding, etc.
Coordination:
Peacekeeping missions involve multiple actors including the UNO, regional organizations, and other stakeholders.
Coordinating amongst them can be a significant challenge.
Robust Peacekeeping:
It was suggested by the developed nations.
Under it, if the need arises, the peacekeeping forces can participate in undertaking offensive actions.
However, such a suggestion was rejected by the developing countries who feared that their troops would be used by developed nations for fighting their wars.
Note:

Students are expected to prepare for Indian involvement with the UN Peacekeeping Force from the internet and update current developments, as the portion is very important.

MECHANISM TO ENSURE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (7:00 PM)

Responsibility to Protect (R2P/ R to P).

It is an international norm that seeks to ensure that the international community never again fails to prevent human rights violations and halt atrocities such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Human rights are understood as those rights that every human enjoys by virtue of being a human.
The R2 P mechanism was used in the 2005 World Summit of all member countries of the UNO.

It comprises three pillars:

I. It is the responsibility of the nation-state to protect the human rights of its population.
II. International community to assist the nation-state.
III. In case the state manifestly fails to protect its own population, the responsibility is of the international community to protect human rights.
All the three pillars are of equal importance.
R2P has been used only once during the Libyan Conflict in 2011.
However, given its gross misuse by developed countries, it has never been used again.

Reforms of the UNO:

I. Charter Reforms:

The language of the UN Charter must be reformed.
It refers to the Axis Powers in World War II (Germany, Japan, Italy) as enemy states.
Any such reference is against the global character of the UNO.
These countries are now among the largest financers of the UNO.
Article 2(7) prohibits the UN from interfering in the internal matters of the member countries.
However, since the end of the Cold War, the dominant nature of global conflict has been intra-state wars.
This makes UN intervention essential for cases like Myanmar, Mali, etc.

II. Financial Reforms:

The general finance budget for the UNO for 2022-2023 totals $3.4 billion.
The per-capita availability of UN finance is less than 50 cents which is grossly inadequate.
The UN is also expected to perform a number of including developmental ones.
Countries tend to delay and default on payments.
One primary defaulter is the USA.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FINANCIAL REFORMS (7:30 PM)

The UN is dependent on assessed contributions such as membership fees, as well as voluntary contributions by the member countries for its development funds and programs like UNDP, UNEP, UN-Habitat, etc.
The membership fees cannot be increased substantially as it would discourage the global character of the UN by discouraging smaller countries from seeking UN membership.
In such a case, it is required that the UN is provided with some independent source of funding like imposing a Tobin Tax.

It was first proposed by James Tobin
It will especially target speculative currency exchange transactions.
It will penalize short-term currency speculation and fast movement of capital across different economies.

This will be a tax imposed on international financial transactions.
Other suggestions:
Timely payment of the membership fees.
Efficient utilization of the existing funds.

III. Institutional Reforms:

(A) Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC):

Given its wide role in ensuring Sustainable Development for the world, it has become unwieldy as a body.
It also comprises several programs and funds, often with overlapping mandates.
ECOSOC has become too bulky as a body.
A suggestion can be the streamlining of the various functions under ECOSOC.

(B) Trusteeship Council:

The mandate of the Trusteeship Council was completed in 1994 when the 11^th trust territory Palau gained independence.
It can either be abolished or given a new mandate, maybe governance of Global Commons (Outer Space, Antarctica, etc.)

(C) UN Secretariat:

Over-representation of the West in its bureaucracy is an issue that has been flagged multiple times.
There is also the issue of Red-tapism.
A suggested solution is equal representation of the East, or the developing countries, and efforts to check red-tapism and bureaucratic labyrinth.

(D) UNSC:

UNSC is referred to as the Nucleus or the most important office of the UNO. Therefore wide-ranging reforms have been suggested.
Membership reforms:
Its membership is anachronistic in the sense that UNSC membership reflects the post-WW2 world and not the present time where many new powers have risen.
UNSC has a skewed geographical representation:
Europe is overrepresented by the UK, France, and Russia.
The biggest continent Asia is underrepresented by China alone.
Africa and Latin America, where most of the UN Missions are dedicated are not represented at all in the permanent membership of the UNSC.
It is grossly unrepresentative of the UN membership.
In 1945, when the UN was founded, it comprised 51 member countries, at that time UNSC comprised 5 permanent members and 6 non-permanent members.
In 1967 the UN comprised 117 member countries, and the UNSC was then expanded to comprise 10 Non-permanent members, while the 5 permanent members remained the same.
UN today comprises 193 countries; however, UNSC membership has remained the same without any expansion of permanent or non-permanent members.
Compared to 1945, the UN’s membership has expanded nearly four times, however, the permanent members of the UNSC remained the same.

The topics for the next class are the countries and groups aspiring for UNSC membership