Impasse at UN security council must not be allowed to block peace
Issued : Friday 11 August, 2006
As the discussions at the United Nations (UN) in New York continue with no end in sight, it would be a tragedy if the impasse at the UN Security Council squandered an opportunity to halt the bloodshed.
Sponsorship by Ireland of a Uniting for Peace Resolution of the General Assembly would not only provide a way of securing an immediate ceasefire but begin to address what is needed in the long term for demilitarisation and security, and bringing into existence a viable contiguous Palestinian state and an Israel with secure borders.
As the envoy of the Lebanese government to the UN urged last week, the UN should be ‘a haven for the weak and the victims of injustice, more than a podium for the strong.’ Earlier this week the World Food Program described their aid operation in southern Lebanon as a ‘patient starved of oxygen facing paralysis, verging on death’ with over 100,000 people stranded on the wrong side of the Litani river.
The Uniting for Peace mechanism allows the UN General Assembly to act where the Security Council is stalemated by vetoes. The mechanism provides that if, because of the lack of unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council, the Council cannot maintain international peace where there is a ‘threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression,’ the General Assembly ‘shall consider the matter immediately’ and recommend collective measures to UN members to ‘maintain or restore international peace and security.’
It has been invoked ten times in the history of the UN and this is an occasion - with the world’s great powers seemingly unwilling or unable to help stop the loss of life – when it should be used. The Government must initiate a Resolution 377 process should an immediate ceasefire not be recommended by the Security Council. The ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East must end.
