United Nations General Assembly Resolution Research Articles

Addressing Crisis in Myanmar: The Role of NGOs in Promoting International Human Rights Standards

The Rohingya people have been victims of alleged severe human rights violations committed by the Myanmar government. In response to this situation, the United Nations (UN) has adopted some measures, including a United Nations General Assembly Resolution (UNGAR) A/RES/74/246 of 2019 that, inter alia, determines Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as one of the key players in implementing its mandate. In practice, the NGOs' lack of international legal standing resulted in challenges in their operation. This paper examines the legal standing of NGOs' operations under international law. Specifically, it investigates NGOs' contributions to implementing UNGAR 74/246 in dealing with human rights violations in Myanmar. This article is based on legal research that combines library study and field research. The result indicated that Article 71 of the UN Charter needs to clarify the legal standing of NGOs’ operation in the international sphere, mainly to implement international human rights norms. In the context of the crisis in Myanmar, the NGOs have played a role as mandated by the UNGAR, including investigating gross human rights violations, providing gender-based protection and assistance, and assisting Myanmar in providing humanitarian assistance to all internally displaced persons within Rakhine. This paper recommends that all stakeholders cooperate to support the effectiveness of NGOs' contributions and peace-building efforts in Rakhine to achieve justice for all people in Myanmar.

ПРОТИВОСТОЯНИЕ ИЗРАИЛЯ, ИРАНА И СИРИИ В КОНТЕКСТЕ РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ И ГЛОБАЛЬНЫХ ПРОБЛЕМ (1980–2010-Е ГГ.)

The purpose of the article is to study the confrontation between Israel, Iran and Syria in the 1980s and 2010s. It was revealed that it escalated within the specified chronological framework. The reason for the next escalation of the conflict was the civil war in Lebanon. The study provides an analysis of the warring parties and reveals the key points of the fighting in Lebanon. The article reveals Israel's intervention in the Lebanese Civil War and Tel Aviv's struggle in it against the Palestine Liberation Organization. The article emphasizes that since 2005 After the victory of the Iranian conservatives and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the presidential elections, Iran's desire to act as a regional leader in the Middle and Middle East has intensified. As a result, the authors conclude that reducing the severity of contradictions between Israel, Iran and Syria is directly dependent on the imple-mentation of the United Nations General Assembly resolution on the establishment of Jewish and Arab states in Palestine, and not only Israel.

Reasons for Asian neutralism regarding the russian-Ukrainian war

Abstract. The article analyses the reasons for the neutrality of ASEAN, Central Asia, India, and China regarding the russian-Ukrainian war. It explains the historically neutral foreign policy course of the ASEAN countries in view of the 1971 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the creation of a zone of peace, freedom, and neutrality in Southeast Asia. The study examines the position of Asian countries during the votes on the following UN General Assembly resolutions: 2 March 2022, the resolution ES‑11/1 condemning the russian invasion of Ukraine and demanding the complete withdrawal of russian troops and the cancellation of the decision to recognise the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics; 12 October 2022, the resolution condemning illegal ‘referenda’ in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions; 14 November 2022, the draft resolution entitled ‘Furtherance of remedy and reparation for aggression against Ukraine’. The authors put forward a set of recommendations for the specialists from the MFA of Ukraine on strengthening the coordination with the ASEAN member states, Central Asian countries, India, and China and expanding the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (the Ramstein coalition) to include those countries for the sake of defeating the russian invader. The article stresses that the russian-Ukrainian war is the largest war in Europe since World War II that goes beyond the scope of a bilateral conflict. The war has a fundamental impact on the security, military, political, economic, and other components of the globalsystem of international relations; it devastates the European security system and the entire global political and security order. Keywords: ASEAN, Central Asia, diplomacy, peace, neutrality, the United Nations (UN), Southeast Asia (SEA), russian-Ukrainian war, Ukraine, position.

Race, Palestine, and International Law

In 1922, the League of Nations inscribed the goal of establishing a settler colony in Palestine for the Jewish people—in denial of the national self-determination of the Indigenous Arab population—in public international law. The Palestine Mandate juridically erased the national status of the Palestinian people by: (1) framing the Arabs as incapable of self-rule; (2) heightening the significance of establishing a Jewish national home; and (3) distinguishing Palestine from the other Class A mandates for possessing religious significance that exceeded the interests of any single national group. A century later, the still-unresolved “question” of Palestine remains central to struggles for anti-racism and anti-colonialism in international law. This essay revisits two flashpoints in the tangled history of Palestine and international law, where questions of race and racism have been central: first, ongoing debates over the regime and crime of apartheid; and second, the now-repudiated UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, recognizing Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. Both stories demonstrate the importance of understanding race and colonialism as conjoined concepts, neither of which can be properly understood in isolation from the other.

A Study on Nomenclature Debate on the ‘Use of Force,’ ‘Armed Attack’ and ‘Aggression’ as the Right to Self Defence

International Law on Armed Conflict lays down specific guidelines on the conduct of the States, the parties who are signatories and conform to the international comity. The paper highlights the implications of the preamble of the United Nations Charter, which was introduced by the comity of international players in the Second world war to mitigate any possibility of another war. The state signatories to the charter not only aspired to restore peace but also to bring about standard norms of the conduct of civilized states through this Charter. The present paper discusses the juxtaposition of specific terminologies, which are considered one of the most important provisions of the UN Charter. The paper attempts to study Article 2(4), which prohibits the use of force by the member states. However, the juxtaposition of Article 51 along with Chapter VIII of the Chapter is also discussed, giving regard to the peculiarity of the expression ‘armed attack and ‘aggression’ in light of states’ right to self-defence. The paper throws light upon the negotiating history of these Articles along with other important documents like UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 and the Statute of Rome of the International Criminal Court, which has defined and illustratively underlined the meaning and context of the term ‘aggression.’ The jurisprudential evolution is also brought astute by the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice. The paper deliberates upon the interpretational journey of the text and the context of the provisions of the Charter and other documents and attempts to read between the lines of these terminologies to understand the present-day relevance and meaning of these provisions akin to the ongoing international armed conflicts in the world.

Models of legal support for implementing the official remembrance policy in Russia and other European countries: Comparative analysis

This article looks at the issues of legal support for implementing the official remembrance policy in Russia and other European countries. The evolution of remembrance policy is shown through the transition from the predominant role of religion to the incorporation of “memorial laws”. Factors that have led to the current revision of history have been identified. Common guidelines have been elucidated for all European countries regarding the historical past: they have been developed within the bounds of the United Nations and reflected in UN General Assembly resolutions, educational programs, international commemorative days, etc. It was concluded that European countries over the past three centuries have had a more or less similar way of emphasizing the main event, around which conceptual framework for the stances on history were constructed: at the end of the 18th century this was the French Revolution and in the 20th century — World War II. It has been demonstrated that the presence of numerous evaluations of such historically significant “points”, the use of the past to attain current political goals, the particularities of national laws, and the formation of new international union shave all led to the development of various models of legal support for implementing the official remembrance policy in Europe, which is reflected in the use of both different terminology and legal means. The categorization of protective, patriotic, post-traumatic, restorative and conciliatory models is proposed, which could be further split into subcategories. It has been highlighted how crucial legal instruments are to both stopping and averting the “memory wars” that many European nations are now engaged in.

The Right to a Healthy Environment and Law's Hidden Subjects

In this essay I reflect upon whether and how the recent international recognition of the right to a healthy environment might––or might not––provide greater support for efforts to define and protect the rights of what one could term “law's hidden subjects,” namely future generations and nature. Although there are several examples of rights-based regimes that aim to protect future generations and nature, few would disagree that these hidden subjects require better legal protection, and that thoroughgoing reform of existing human rights law is overdue. I argue that the international recognition of a human right to a healthy environment might contribute less to such reforms than what one would have intuitively expected. One reason for this is because the formulation of the right does not provide anything new in terms of more comprehensive recognition and protection of rights of nature and future generations. Although it is an important symbolic event that signifies broad consensus on the importance of rights-based environmental protection, many domestic and regional legal regimes already protect future generations, while some even offer innovative rights of nature provisions. At best, UN General Assembly Resolution 76/300 merely reinforces the status quo ante.

СУЧАСНА МІЖНАРОДНА ГУМАНІТАРНА СИСТЕМА: ДИНАМІЧНІ ЗМІНИ В УМОВАХ ПОГЛИБЛЕННЯ ГУМАНІТАРНИХ КРИЗ

The main factors contributing to the spread of humanitarian crises in the modern global economy are highlighted, including conflicts, climate change, and socio-economic instability. It is argued that conflicts are rapidly spreading and intensifying worldwide between various countries, resulting from the escalation of contradictions and the intensification of rivalry among major powers. The most dramatic manifestation of geopolitical confrontation has been the war on the European continent. It is identified that climate change, as a factor of humanitarian crises, manifests in the reinforcement of anthropogenic influence and the increase in environmental crimes, and in the proliferation of extreme weather events and natural disasters leading to numerous human casualties and material losses, as well as in the failure of climate change mitigation policies by governments and major companies. Significant influence on the deepening of humanitarian crises is provided by socio-economic instability, resulting from inequality, internal conflicts, low levels of socio-economic development in countries, etc. These factors create an extremely complex contemporary humanitarian landscape. The spread of humanitarian crises ensures a continuous increase in the demand for humanitarian assistance. The contemporary international humanitarian system is a network of entities providing responses to humanitarian crises in accordance with the principles laid down in UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182. The scale of modern humanitarian assistance is analysed based on indicators of the number of countries and the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance. It is found that the main part of the financing of international humanitarian assistance is provided from the budgets of donor countries, with the United States remaining a leader among them. It is determined that russia's war against Ukraine has caused a severe humanitarian crisis, resulting in the largest migration flows of refugees and internally displaced persons. The existing system of international humanitarian assistance has encountered certain problems in its provision, as international humanitarian organizations working in Ukraine during the early stages of the war demonstrated insufficient preparedness and ineffective planning, and as a result, were unable to provide rapid infusion of resources to strengthen and expand existing local response mechanisms. Key words: international assistance, international humanitarian system, humanitarian assistance, crisis, humanitarian crisis.

Устойчивое развитие и зеленый рост в стратегиях регионов: заявляемые намерения и финансовое обеспечение

The subjects of the study are strategic plans for the socio-economic development of the regions of the North-Western Federal District (NWFD). The purpose of the work is to assess the ambitiousness of regional strategies to achieve the goals and objectives of the Sustainable Development Agenda in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution adopted on September 25, 2015 (regarding the environmental component). The article discusses strategic plans for the socio-economic development of the regions of the Northwestern Federal District, in terms of the environmental component of sustainable development. A comparative analysis of the positions of the regions in the available rankings is carried out, highlighting the role of the ecological component. The goals and objectives formulated in regional socio-economic development strategies are analyzed and compared with the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The degree of compliance of regional goals and objectives with the Sustainable Development Goals has been revealed. The assessment of the financing of environmental programs from regional budgets is given. The conclusion is made about the low level of ambition of regional strategies in comparison with the Agenda in the field of sustainable development in terms of the environmental component. Environmental objectives in the formulation of regions only partially correspond to the essence of the SDGs. Substantially most of the environmental objectives of the SDGs are not reflected and disclosed in regional strategies, which, however, does not prevent the SDGs from being singled out separately in regional strategies, which are largely consonant with the current problems of regional development that require priority funding.

GEOSTRATEGIC ASPECTS OF GLOBAL SECURITY (USING THE EXAMPLE OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION)

This article examines the issue of violation of the principle of territorial integrity (integrity) or political independence of states from 1946 to 2022. The approach is based on the study and understanding of domestic and foreign literary sources, statistics, legal acts. Russia gained the status of an independent entity in the international arena immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Almost immediately, it began to show signs of aggression. To promote its geopolitical ambitions, it uses gaps in international law, information and psychological measures, corruption, mercenaries, collaborators, blackmail, the law of force, and tries to rewrite history. The course of military conflicts involving Russia in the Republic of Moldova, Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine shows that the scale of violations of international treaties, human rights and the rules of warfare has increased in line with the strengthening of its military capabilities. During the hostilities on the territory of independent Ukraine, Russia showed a complete list of signs of aggression, as defined by UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) of December 14, 1974. This shows that before the armed attack on Ukraine, the aggressor was convinced that it could not be brought to justice and punished. It also hoped that his next victim would not be able to receive international political, economic, military and social assistance. Some actions of Russia in the international arena have signs of state terrorism. During the last ten years, a fascist regime has formed in Russia. The abuse of the veto did not lead to the expulsion of the aggressor country from the UN Security Council. To stop Russia’s aggression and prevent similar developments in the future, the issues of improving international law, bringing to justice the political and military leadership of the republic of Belarus and the Russian federation, improving the UN Charter, the powers of the UN General Assembly, depriving Russia of the right to participate in peacekeeping operations.

What Are UN General Assembly Resolutions for? Four Views on Parliamentary Diplomacy

Abstract The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has passed over eighteen thousand resolutions since its foundation. It is a very heterogeneous collection, containing at once landmark documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and scores of less important and even controversial pieces. Hence, scholarship for the past 75 years has been divided on the actual relevance of UNGA resolutions and on member states’ motivations in engaging with their drafting. We propose a novel theoretical typology to organize prevailing views on the role of UNGA resolutions. Relying on the dimensions of effect and consensus, that is, whether or not resolutions are deemed to have a real-world impact and to what extent they represent world opinion, we sort the literature into four ideal types: resolutions can be regarded as the fruit of deliberation, dispute, diversion, or drama. We discuss the rationale of each view and indicate proposals within the UNGA that exemplify these perspectives. Our typology contributes to scholarship by both tidying previous debates and highlighting unnoticed commonalities between the UNGA and topics from the political representation literature.

The UN General Assembly as a Security Actor: Appraising the Investigative Mechanism for Syria

This article analyses the role of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as a security actor. With the creation of the ‘International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011’ (IIIM), through UNGA Resolution 71/ 2481 in 2016, the General Assembly creatively used its powers to strengthen international criminal justice. Although investigative or fact-finding missions itself are nothing new to the UN system, Resolution 71/ 248 is qualitatively different to any other mission before it. The IIIM was established without Syrian consent, which is a historic first for the General Assembly. It is also the first time that such a body is tasked with investigations that fulfil prosecution standards, that serves as an evidence repository as well as a connecting hub between different justice actors. The UN General Assembly filled a void where the UN Security Council found itself in a stalemate over Syria. The IIIM has since served as a blueprint for a new generation of investigative mechanisms that emerged in the UN system. Looking beyond the appraisal of the IIIM, the article argues that the UN General Assembly practice in maintaining peace and security has significantly evolved over time. The early UN General Assembly practice through Uniting for Peace allowed it to assert its proactive role in parallel to the Security Council, yet it failed in its claim of authority to recommend forceful, collective measures. The practice subsequently evolved towards the diverse use of non-forceful measures, of which the IIIM provides a recent example. Creative boundary pushing in the UNGA through non-forcible measures will hopefully contribute to peace and security beyond war.

Regulating Global Climate Change: From Common Concern to Planetary Concern

Since the recognition by the UN General Assembly resolution 43/53 (6 December 1988) that “climate change is a common concern of mankind” as well as adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, climate change has emerged as one of the most pressing global environmental challenges. The IPCC AR6 (April 2022) curated scientific evidence has explicitly observed that “Net anthropogenic GHG emissions have increased since 2010 across all major sectors globally.” The cumulative effect of GHG emissions appears to exacerbate the abnormal weather events, melting the polar ice caps and cause other cataclysmic climatic changes. The effects of climate change transcend territorial boundaries and continents. It has provided a normative basis for the concerted international law-making process underneath the existing UNFCCC led global regulatory regime. It designated climate change as a common concern of humankind. The resultant soft normativity has been shaped into the hard law through the trajectory of three international legal instruments that took the forms such as common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (1992 UNFCCC) to international legal commitments only for Annex I countries (1997 Kyoto Protocol) and the nationally determined commitments by the parties (2015 Paris Agreement). This study has sought to place under scanner the graded evolution of the climate change regime through the in-built law-making process premised upon a common concern of humankind. In the aftermath of the UN Secretary-General’s warning about climate emergency as part of “triple planetary crisis”, it is high time the international law scholars, the UN General Assembly and the UNFCCC regulatory process shift into the higher trajectory of climate change as a planetary concern.

Encoding the law of State responsibility with courage and resolve: James Crawford and the 2001 Articles on State Responsibility

The breadth of James Crawford’s work as an academic and practitioner of international law is astonishing: from boundary delimitation to foundational sources questions to the complexities of annulment in investment arbitration, little seemed beyond his grasp or interest. From the 1990s onwards, State responsibility became a focus of his work, guiding the International Law Commission (ILC) through a swift second reading of the Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (Articles). The eventual text, adopted in 2001 and annexed to United Nations General Assembly resolution 56/83, while reflecting a collective ILC effort, bears his imprint. This contribution takes three observations by Crawford as prompts for a discussion of both his role in their crafting and of the Articles’ place in contemporary international law. First, the Articles have ‘encoded the way we think about [State] responsibility’. Second, this encoding exercise marked ‘a step in the direction of profitable generalization’. Finally, the fact that this exercise resulted in a formally non-binding text has permitted ‘the Articles as part of the fabric of general international law to be consolidated and refined’ in the day-to-day interpretation and application of international law. The article concludes with brief remarks on their future status.

Analyzing Russia’s Interests in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh Ceasefire Agreemen

The Nagorno-Karabakh war has been one of the most important conflicts in the South Caucasus. The two nations involved, Azerbaijan and Armenia, have been in conflict more times than in cooperation ever since their independence from the Soviet Union. The territory disputed, Nagorno-Karabakh, has been internationally recognized as Azerbaijan’s since the United Nations General Assembly Resolution in 2008. However, this did not stop the conflict, as seen with the newest escalation happening in September of 2020. In the majority of the conflict, Russia has been a constant presence, being a mediator as well as a military supplier to both countries. Russia also has been involved in peacekeeping efforts, sending peacekeeping forces to Nagorno-Karabakh. In November 2020, a ceasefire agreement was reached involving Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia. This paper aims to examine Russia’s interest in its involvement in the conflict, the weaknesses of the ceasefire agreement, and Russia’s gains from the agreement and the overall situation. This paper found that Russia’s interests lay in its economic relationship with Armenia and Azerbaijan and in exercising influence in the region with the deployment of its peacekeeping contingent.

Invasi Rusia ke Ukraina Jilid II: Agresi atau Self-Defense?

This study analyzed the legal status of the invasion and the legitimacy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine based on international law. This study used a normative juridical method with a conceptual approach. The legal status of invasion in international law was stated to have violated the principle of state sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention, which threatens world peace and security as stipulated in Article 2 paragraph (1), paragraph (3), paragraph (4), and paragraph (7) of the Charter of the United Nations. The legitimacy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine based on United Nations General Assembly Resolution Number 3314 (XXIX) December 14, 1974, and Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute Amendment was more appropriately considered as part of aggression rather than self-defense. United Nations General Assembly Resolution Number 3314 (XXIX) December 14, 1974, stated that an attack could be considered aggression if it fulfilled the elements of character, gravity, and scale, which resulted in an actual violation of the United Nations Charter. Article 8 bis Amendments to the Rome Statute confirmed that aggression includes the planning, preparation, and execution by a state to direct political or military action against another state.

The Interplay between the CAOF Agreement and BBNJ Agreement: A Chinese Perspective

After years of negotiation, in 2018, five Arctic coastal states and five other members, including China, reached the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOF Agreement). Meanwhile, at the sessions of the BBNJ negotiation, which were mandated by the UN General Assembly Resolution 72/249, expectations for a legally binding BBNJ Agreement in the future also increased. This paper outlines the convergence and potential conflict between the CAOF Agreement and the envisioned BBNJ Agreement. Moreover, owing to its important role in international ocean governance, China’s treaty obligations to the CAOF Agreement and its position on the four major issues of the BBNJ Agreement need to be carefully observed. More importantly, this paper provides an analysis of China’s views regarding the interplay between the two agreements to offer a reference for BBNJ governance.

Anti-weaponization of Outer Space for Maintaining Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities

Space weaponization should be prevented because of its detrimental effects on the long-term sustainability of outer space activities (LTSOSA). International law that currently governs weaponization in outer space should be implemented, and international rules that pertain to the LTSOSA should impose direct and indirect soft-law constraints on space weaponization. Nevertheless, the direct and indirect roles of international law in inhibiting space weaponization are limited, and a legal lacuna still exists in the governance of conventional weapons in the Earth's orbit. Independent and more focused discussions on specific issues related to space security are recommended given that the disagreement on related issues has prevented real progress from being made during multilateral discussions addressing the space technologies that could be used in a hostile manner. The integration of some norms of responsible space activity into the new LTSOSA Guidelines discussed under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is also recommended, along with an ongoing strong political constraint on the deployment and testing of dedicated space weapons in outer space through the adoption of the United Nations General Assembly resolutions and international condemnation. The latter is a good alternative under the current circumstances to preserve the LTSOSA by working against the weaponization of outer space.

To ensure universal eye health coverage to accelerate progress towards the achievement of sustainable development goals

The United Nations signed "Vision for Everyone-Accelerating Action to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (A/RES/75/310)" at the 75th UN sessions, committing to great efforts to improve eye health globally and address the increasing impact of vision loss on sustainable development. It is the first agreement designed to tackle preventable sight loss to be adopted at the United Nations and to enshrine eye health as an integral part of universal health coverage. The resolution summarized the lessons learned from previous global eye health practices, set a target of eye care for all by 2030-with countries set to ensure full access to eye care services for their populations, and, to support global efforts, to make eye care part of their nation's journey to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This global initiative will also have a significant impact on eye health in China, and we should implement this United Nations General Assembly Resolution to promote the continued development of eye health in China.

Access to microfinance as a resilience policy to address sustainable development goals: A content analysis

This research paper aims to address the problem of financial inclusion and resilience in the current sustainable development framework. The development agenda designs access to finance a human right and a prior strategy to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Microfinance can play a decisive role in smoothing the risk of adverse events It acts as resilience policy, tackling vulnerability and poverty, empowering people and vulnerable categories and improving and enlarging their capabilities. This work explores the existing connections between the development agenda and microfinance as a strategy to foster financial access. To this end, summative content analysis is performed on the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/69/315 – fulfilling a research gap. This inquiry handles 6 selected SDGs, ascribable to 3 dimensions, detecting 5 sub-dimensions and 16 domains. Analysing Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals, the study also finds increased importance attributed to the topic, key issues and policy strengths and limitations. Importantly, the analysis shows that the environmental dimension is still neglected in the analysed corpus, not appearing in any of the examined SDGs. The findings suggest investing in these channels, drafting governance patterns and modelling resilience and development policy to vehiculate improved ecological and institutional results and concerns.