About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1 1 (March 18, 2003)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthaaavd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21323 Updated March 18, 2003 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web The United Nations Security Council - Its Role in the Iraq Crisis: A Brief Overview Marjorie Ann Browne Specialist in International Relations Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division Summary On September 12, 2002, President Bush in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, focused on Iraq and its failure to comply with various resolutions adopted by the U.N. Security Council. He urged the Council to act in the face of such repeated violations. On November 8, 2002, the Council responded, adopting Resolution 1441 (2002) unanimously. This short report provides background information on what the U.N. Security Council is and what it does, including the occasions when it has authorized the use of force or its equivalent. As the U.N. organ having primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security, the 15-member Security Council set the major international response to the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, authorizing the use of force to gain Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait in compliance with the 11 resolutions previously passed in 1990. In 1991, after the war, the Council adopted a series of 12 resolutions that assigned an extensive set of tasks to the United Nations and imposed on Iraq an equally extensive series of obligations. As hostilities became imminent, U.N. activities inside Iraq were suspended. It is anticipated that formal Council deliberations would also become minimal, limited to informal consultations on the status of the situation in Iraq and future roles for the organization. This report will be updated as events warrant. What It Is and What It Does The United Nations Security Council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.! Its membership of 15 nations consists of 10 nonpermanent members and five permanent members - China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each of these five states has veto rights over adoption of Council resolutions on substantive issues. This means that if a resolution receives the necessary nine yes votes to be adopted, if even one of these five states votes no, the resolution will not pass. The nonpermanent member nations are elected by the U.N. General Assembly Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress 1 See U.N. Charter, Chapter V, and [http://www.un.org/Docs/scinfo.htm] for more information.