UN Security Council backs Australian Resolution against ISIL

Tuesday 19 August 2014 @ 1.13 p.m. | Legal Research

THE United Nations Security Council has adopted an Australian-led resolution condemning all acts of terrorism committed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as well as the Al-Nusrah Front.

The resolution, adopted last weekend (16-17 August 2014) in New York, requires United Nations member states to take steps to prevent terrorist financing and recruitment in addition to holding individual members of ISIL and ANF accountable for their terrorist acts. 

It also demands that all foreign terrorist fighters associated with ISIL and other terrorist groups withdraw immediately and it contemplates further targeted sanctions against those recruiting for or participating in their activities 

The UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful body of the United Nations. The Security Council can:

  • authorize deployment of troops from United Nations member countries;
  • mandate cease-fire during conflict; and
  • can impose economic penalties on countries.

The United Nations Security Council is composed of representatives from fifteen member countries. Five of the Security Council members are permanent members: the United States, United Kingdom, China, Russia, and France.

Each of the five permanent members of the Security Council has veto power over any matter voted upon by the Security Council. This means that all five permanent members of the Security Council must agree to endorse any measure for it to pass. Nonetheless, the Security Council has passed more than 1700 resolutions since its founding in 1946.

The remaining ten non-permanent members of the total membership of fifteen countries are chosen based on various regions of the world. Almost every United Nations member country is a member of a regional grouping. The United States and Kiribati are the two countries which are not members of any group. Australia, Canada, Israel, and New Zealand are all part of the Western European and Others Group.

The ten non-permanent members serve two year terms and half are replaced each year in annual elections. Each region votes for its own representatives and the United Nations General Assembly approves the selections. 

Background to Australia's Security Council Position 

Australia was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on 18 October 2012, in a General Assembly vote which attracted the support of 140 out of 193 countries in the first round.

Australia commenced a two year term on the Security Council on 1 January 2013 and serves alongside:

  • The Permanent Five (the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China and France)
  • Non-permanent members Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo who are serving their second year on the Council; and
  • Argentina, Rwanda, Luxembourg and South Korea who were elected to two year terms alongside Australia.

Australia has been a member of the UN Security Council on four occasions: 1946–47, 1956–57, 1973–74 and 1985–86.  Australia played an important role in drafting the articles of the UN Charter that deal with the Security Council, arguing against allowing permanent members a veto power. Australia held the first Presidency of the Security Council in 1946 and provided the first military personnel as peacekeepers under UN auspices a year later, to Indonesia. 

From 1985-86, Australia pressed for reform of the working methods of the Security Council to better reflect the modern world and ensure accessibility to small and middle-sized countries. Since then, Australia has further developed its expertise in preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping, peace building and disarmament and continues to advocate for greater transparency of, and accessibility to, its deliberation. 

Current UN Security Council Priorities and Reaction to Australian Resolution

Although recent media attention on the gridlock in the Security Council in the cases of Syria and Israel/Palestine paint a bleak picture of the divisions caused in the Security Council by the power of veto, the council has achieved noteworthy consensus in some of the following ways:

  • Timely and decision action (including the use of force) to protect populations from atrocities and chronic instability (in the Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic);
  • Intervention brigades to restore order and protect civilians (in the Democratic Republic of Congo);
  • Referring individuals and situations suspected of committing war crimes and/or crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court (in cases such as Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and Sudan’s Darfur region);
  • Implementing peace agreements (in Lebanon, Liberia and Burundi) and assisting fragile states (Haiti);
  • Monitoring truces (in the Middle East, Kashmir and Cyprus); and
  • Nuclear and chemical disarmament (in Syria, North Korea and Iran) and counter-terrorism.

And now with the Australian led resolution passed by the UN Security Council, the achievements include working with international partners to address the humanitarian consequences of the violence caused by ISIL and ANF. 

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop commented:

"Those acts include the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, mass executions and extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, the killing and maiming of children, the violent persecution of ethnic and religious minorities and the forced displacement of millions of civilians...The unanimous adoption of the resolution makes clear that the international community will not tolerate the brutal, savage acts of ISIL and ANF."

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