CiR2P

CiR2P Option 37 | General Assembly authority

DISCUSSION:

The UN General Assembly – unlike the Security Council – has no formal legal authority under the UN Charter to authorise the use of force. However, it can give important political cover for any intervention supported by a broad international consensus.

In addition, the General Assembly can play a role in authorising military action in the exercise of its Uniting for Peace procedures (Resolution 377 A (V)) adopted in 1950 to address situations whereby ‘the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security’.

This involves a mechanism whereby ‘the General Assembly [if not in session at the time] may meet in a special emergency session’ to consider response options upon a request either by a procedural vote in the Security Council (which cannot be blocked by the permanent members) or by a majority of the UN General Assembly members.

The Uniting for Peace resolution has been implemented 13 times since 1951 (invoked by the Security Council 8 times and the General Assembly 5 times).

Uniting for Peace: a climate-atrocities example

In December 1971, the USSR vetoed draft resolutions S/10416 of 4 December and S/10423 of 5 December blocking the Security Council acting in response to the large-scale massacres occurring against the Bengali population in East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), which caused an estimated 8 to 10 million refugees to flee to India.  On 6 December, the Security Council passed Resolution 303 referring the question to the General Assembly as provided for in Resolution 377 A (V) Uniting for Peace. As the Twenty-Sixth Regular Session of the General Assembly was in session no ‘emergency special session’ was necessary and the issue was dealt with under the agenda item UN Assistance to East Pakistan Refugees. The subsequent General Assembly resolution 2790 (XXVI) endorsed UNHCR’s role as the ‘focal point’ for the UN’s East Pakistani Relief Operation. This was the first time in a humanitarian crisis that the UNHCR was chosen to act as general coordinator for all UN assistance. In 2012, the government of Bangladesh honoured the UN refugee agency for providing ‘life-saving aid to some 10 million refugees during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan’.

This example provides a precedent to use the Uniting for Peace procedures to protect refugees fleeing a human protection catastrophe. Present day Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change impacts. The country of 166 million sits on the flood plain of several major rivers and is also susceptible to seasonal cyclones, storm surge, extreme rainfall, floods, growing salinisation of the soil, and sea-level rise. The World Bank estimates that Bangladesh may generate between 3.6 million and 13.3 million ‘climate migrants’ (people internally displaced because of climate change) by 2050 – the differential based on emissions/temperature and development scenarios – which has clear implications for refugee flows into neighbouring countries. Indications suggest that should Bangladesh ‘get hit’ by a devastating climate emergency, the Security Council would likely respond. But this by no means a guarantee of action in Bangladesh or in any other country.

Western governments could consider using the Uniting for Peace resolution in response to climate-related human protection calamities should the Security Council fail to act.