A WAY AROUND THE VETO

Abstract

After the Second World war, the main concern of international law was to regulate war between states and well- developed bodies such as the United Nations exist to regulate state conduct in war. The UN Charter is a fundamental part of the regulation and it prohibits the use of force on the part of individual states, and it authorizes the Security Council to make all decisions with respect to use of military force by States. Article 24 of the Charter establishes that the Security Council has the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”. This gave the power to enforce international order in the hands of the Security Council and the provision of veto in the hands of the permanent members meant that the power to ensure international peace and security was with the five major powers in the world. The existence of a close link between international security and protection of individual rights has been recognized by the United Nations post the Cold War era and the same was reflected in the document titled “Agenda for Peace” released by the Secretary General in 1992. The document affirmed the right to intervene in a State of the United Nations under Chapter VII of the Charter to protect the human rights of the citizens of that State. This paper doesn’t argue against the legality of humanitarian interventions that are authorized by the Security Council. On the contrary, this paper discourages the unauthorized interventions by the international community and urges for deriving legitimacy before the intervention by the main organs of the United Nations and not after the intervention like in the Kosovo situation.