Dag Hammarskjold, the former UN secretary-general, once said that the UN “was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell,” writes Mona Ali Khalil.
In Italy, temperature checks.
By Mona Ali Khalil
Pass Blue
Although much of the world is closing temporarily due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, the United Nations Security Council must stay open — meeting physically if possible and virtually if not — in order to fulfill its Charter responsibilities not only to address the threats posed by the pandemic but also to respond to all threats to international peace and security.
As of March 24, the World Health Organization reported that more than 370,000 people have been infected with the virus — of which 80 percent are located in seven countries: China, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, the United States and Iran. It also confirmed that more than 16,000 people have died — of which 90 percent are also located in these seven countries.
For the third time since 1918, the human race is confronting a deadly pandemic capable of causing millions of deaths. In 1918, the Spanish flu resulted in 50 million deaths worldwide. In 1957-1958, the Asian flu caused around 2 million deaths globally. Unless the dire warnings of doctors and scientists about the potential loss of life from Covid-19 are heeded, 2020 will be another dark chapter in human history.
The World Health Organization and its director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have taken the lead in identifying the virus, classifying the pandemic, providing clear and actionable guidance and offering assistance and support to UN member states and the world at large.
Now it is high time that the Security Council address this threat to international peace and security — the same way it recognized the effects of climate change as a threat to international peace and security. National leaders across the world have characterized their efforts against COVID-19 as a war. Although the enemy is invisible, it is real, it is lethal and it is global.
António Guterres in 2012. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Security Council has a responsibility to coordinate a prompt and effective global response to address the threat posed by the pandemic to human health and to the world economy and the consequential threats to international peace and security.
If the Security Council continues to be missing in action, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, should invoke his authority, under Article 99 of the UN Charter, to bring the matter to the Council’s attention and to offer realistic and actionable recommendations. These could include some or all of the following elements for the Council’s consideration and action:
- To express support for the efforts of the World Health Organization and its director general;
- To encourage member states to report timely, complete and accurate updates to the WHO and to contribute to the COVID-19 response fund;
- To call on member states to implement the technical guidance issued by the WHO, including, in particular, on critical preparedness, readiness and response actions;
- To encourage UN member states to respond to the needs of all their citizens without discrimination and to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not left behind;
- To encourage member states to ensure the necessary infrastructure to protect the safety and well-being of doctors and other health workers and to provide them with the necessary medical supplies, protective gear and equipment;
- To call on member states to facilitate the production, provision and delivery of adequate medical supplies, protective gear and equipment and to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in an efficient, effective and humane manner;
- To urge member states to make every effort to ensure the stability of the global economy and to refrain from any intentional actions that create uncertainty during the COVID-19 crisis;
- To urge member states to refrain from any action that will further endanger international peace and security during the COVID-19 crisis; and/or
- To remind member states that any measures taken to respond to the crisis, whether at the local, national, regional or international level – must respect international law, including international human-rights and refugee law.
Dag Hammarskjold, the former UN secretary-general, once said that the UN “was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.” The Security Council must meet immediately — physically if possible and virtually if not — to respond to the threats arising from the COVID-19 crisis, potentially the worst global crisis since World War II.
The Council must take prompt and effective action in order to save humanity from the converging hell of the threats it poses to human life, the world economy and the international order as we know it.
Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 25 years of UN and other global experience in peacekeeping, sanctions, disarmament and counterterrorism. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Harvard University and a master’s degree in foreign service and a juris doctorate from Georgetown University. She is an affiliate of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and is a former senior legal officer in the UN Office of the Legal Counsel. In January 2018, Khalil founded MAKLAW.ORG, an international legal advisory and consulting service, assisting governments and intergovernmental organizations on securing their rights and fulfilling their legal obligations.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Please Donate to Consortium News.
Before commenting please read Robert Parry’s Comment Policy. Allegations unsupported by facts, gross or misleading factual errors and ad hominem attacks, and abusive or rude language toward other commenters or our writers will not be published. If your comment does not immediately appear, please be patient as it is manually reviewed. For security reasons, please refrain from inserting links in your comments, which should not be longer than 300 words.
Why do you (and the world) call it the “Security Council” when its permanent members are the primary cause of the world’s insecurity?
It is better it remains shut forever, and is replaced with a forum which cares about peoples’ welfare.
MIA…missing in action. The same could be said for the EU Parliament in Brussels – endless discussions about COVID-19 with no agreements. Paralized because all 27 EU member nations have to agree – instead of allowing each country to take it’s own measures.
> instead of allowing each country to take it’s own measures.
They can do this, and are doing this!
It is paralysed because cstates and their ruling parties do not want to agree to effective actions that might cost them money on top of the billions they are giving out to their own corporations.
In a just world, the UN would arrest and prosecute the entire current and recent US leadership for committing war crimes and genocide. You don’t have to trust my words. Listen to Alfred de Zayas, former UN Special Rapporteur and law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy.
see: thegrayzone.com/2020/03/20/expert-us-sanctions-on-iran-venezuela-during-pandemic-could-be-genocidal/
But we live in a world under the rule of a Mafia-like system, where the General Secretary of the UN, like António Guterres now, is just an errand boy.
The Security Council is being paralyzed by the US delegation’s insistence on putting the blame solely on China in every resolution. Consistent with Sec.of State Pompeo’s wild rantings against China and Russia at the G-7, the tightening of sanctions on Iran, N. Korea, Syria and targeting Venezuela’s Maduro as a “narco-terrorist,” at a time when US-China cooperation is key to defeating this threat to all humanity, shows just how screwed up are the priorities of this evil gang. While there is still time, the president needs to give Pompeo the long overdue “Bolton treatment.”
The US just put a price on Venezuelan president Nikolas Maduro’s head. That is international gangsterism. Trump and Pompeo need to be brought before the ICC and indicted for crimes against peace and attempted murder.
They murder on regular basis, plus assorted racketeering, like stealing tens of billions from Venezuela…
It is remarkable that the UN cannot coordinate the resources of its members against an epidemic. While urging member states to do reasonable things may not be very effective, it could evaluate and incentivize non-discrimination, suggest and coordinate production and distribution of equipment and supplies, and propose new UN powers to ensure adequate responses in the future.
The UN is economically controlled by the US, which failed due to economic corruption, and must be redesigned The new UN should be a world democracy, not a gang of military powers. It should be a better model democracy, immune to economic corruption:
1. Measures to protect elections and mass media debate from economic power;
2. Lifetime monitoring of officials, relatives and associates with confiscation rights;
3. A judicial branch empowered by members to handle international law violations’
4. Checks and balances within branches, with required balance within administrations;
Among the directions in which the UN should move, are
1. Surrender of member sovereignty in human rights and foreign policy;
2. UN control of extractable resources to fund health, welfare, and education programs;
3. International guarantees and facilities for health, welfare, and education programs.
4. Trade controls permitting international embargoes against aggressors like the US;
5. Controls on international business so that scammers cannot control economic power.
The UN is economically controlled by the US, which failed due to economic corruption, and must be redesigned. The new UN should be a world democracy, not a gang of military powers. It should be a model democracy, immune to economic corruption:
1. Measures to protect elections and mass media debate from economic power;
2. Lifetime monitoring of officials, relatives and associates with confiscation rights;
3. A judicial branch empowered by members to handle international law violations;
4. Checks and balances within branches, with required balance within administrations;
5. A College of Policy Debate debating and protecting all views in all policy areas.
Among the directions in which the UN should move, are:
1. Surrender of member sovereignty in human rights and foreign policy;
2. International guarantees and facilities for health, education, and welfare programs.
3. UN control of extractable resources to fund health, education, and welfare programs;
4. Trade controls permitting international embargoes against aggressors like the US;
5. Controls on international business so that scammers cannot control economic power.
Won’t happen. The US has thoroughly corrupted the UN just as it has corrupted other international organizations like the OPCW.
> Won’t happen.
And even if it did, the effect of such hot air would be minimal, at best.