Gulf War Reparations and the UN Compensation Commission

Abstract

The authors of this book, who held leadership positions and worked directly with the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), draw on their experience with the institution and provide a comprehensive view of the UNCC and its work in the aftermath of the Gulf War. In this book, the first of two on the UNCC’s work, the authors explain that the United Nations Security Council established the ad hoc compensation commission to address reparations as a component of the ceasefire following Iraq’s 1990–91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. The authors also describe how the work of the UNCC addressed important questions of state responsibility, environmental liability, mass claims processing, international law, and dispute settlement institutions in the post-armed conflict context. The scope and the scale of the UNCC was extraordinary, since almost 2.7 million claims from 80-plus countries were submitted to the Commission (which awarded in excess of $55 billion and has paid out more than half of that total), and that this led to the development of innovative procedural, institutional and managerial approaches in handling mass, environmental, and corporate claims at a scale that is unparalleled. Additionally, the book notes that the UNCC also contributed to the evolution of international jurisprudence in these areas.