Saturday, September 28, 2013

5 random UN Security Council resolutions


Whenever someone rattles off random Security Council resolutions, I wonder, do people know all of them by heart? What are these resolutions? How many are there?

Well, to date, there are 2,116 resolutions. I'm going to look at five of them, randomly.

303: In 1971, tensions were rising between India and Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir. Problems were also bubbling in East Pakistan (which would later become Bangladesh). The Security Council couldn't agree on a solution, so the issue was referred to the General Assembly.

It's kind of mind blowing that at this point, the Republic of China (Taiwan) still had a permanent seat on the Security Council. That's an enormous amount of power for such a small and weak nation.

At that point, the non-permanent voting members were Argentina, Burundi, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Nicaragua, Poland, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Syria. All voted in favor of referring the issue to the GA, with France, Poland, USSR, and the UK abstaining.

1700: Passed 15-0 in 2006. This appears to be a routine resolution extending the UN's mandate in Iraq for another 12 months.

360: 1974. This resolution recorded the Security Council's disapproval (ooh, scary) of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Belarus, USSR, and Iraq voted against. First, I had no idea that individual Soviet republics were member states. Apparently, Belarus and Ukraine became "independent" UN members in 1945. Lucky dogs.

I know next to nothing about Cyprus. If Turkey and Greece were both NATO countries, why did the Soviets side with Turkey?

1411: This is a fairly technical and boring resolution. In 2002, the Security Council clarified judges on the Int'l Criminal Tribunals of Rwanda and Yugoslavia who had dual citizenships. *Yawn*

439: 1978. The Security Council declared the South African-imposed election in Namibia/South West Africa as null and void. Ten voted for (China, USSR, Bolivia, Gabon, India, Kuwait, Mauritania, Nigeria, Czech Republic, Venezuela) and five abstained (Canada, France, West Germany, the UK, the U.S.).

And for the record, the current non-permanent members are Azerbaijan, Argentina, Australia, Guatemala, South Korea, Morocco, Pakistan, Luxembourg, Rwanda, and Togo.

No comments: